Mexico

Ruth and I spent a week in Cancun and went to my niece's wedding. We went on a couple of historical tours of Mayan ruins also. Then we went to Bernard and Alicia's place in Lazaro Cardenas which is in the Michoacan state on the Pacific coast. We stayed last night at their beach house which has a wonderful view of the ocean. I will try to upload pictures later.

India and Myanmar

Here is a picture of the alphabet script (with English pronunciation) that is used in Myanmar.




We took a trip up the side of some mountainous hills outside of Kalay (the "myo" ending of the city just means "town") and from this height we could see the whole city plus the surrounding valley.
Many of the classrooms that we visited had quite rudimentary equipment: benches to sit or write on, a teacher's desk, bamboo walls, and a worn out blackboard that was often merely framed boards painted black. This classroom had a cement floor.




When we were in Chennai we took a trip out to the Bay of Bengal. This beach is the second longest in the world (Brazil has the longest). Unfortunately the water that I touched didn't stay at this level and it washed up and came half way to my knees!





In Myanmar the license plates are permanent and stay with the vehicle for the life of the vehicle. When they get worn out people repaint the lettering themselves. On this plate the first two symbols indicate the district (the first symbol is the number "7" followed by a letter of their alphabet. The slash divides the district from the license number which is "8450."







At the Taung Za Lat Hotel in Kalay we met a British couple who offered to teach English classes for free. They were finally able to enter under a business class visa because someone was able to contact a Senator in the Myanmar government. However, the government claimed that the program was their idea and put up official government advertising posters to trumpet the free English classes. As you can see they didn't check for accuracy since their names were Mr. Clive Scott and Mrs. Ann Scott.

Everywhere we went the people wanted to honour us with a gift of some kind so often it was with a shawl or something to put around one's neck. (This one happened before Wilf's arrival.)





In both India and Myanmar, I did not see one stroller or baby carriage. Babies and toddlers and even young children under three were carried by moms, grandmothers or girls. Men seemed to be exempt from this chore.




In India the contrast between century old traditions like transporting goods by oxcart and basket weaving, and the building of a sky-train is striking.




In Kolkata I discovered a street sign that said "MCLEOD STREET" but I have no idea who it was named after. The eastern style toilets were interesting. Leaving Yangon we saw a couple of stewardesses who were from Turkey who were accompanied by an Australian pilot. While we were in Kolkata we visited the tomb of Mother Theresa and we also visited the orphanage that she made famous which was about a block away. The next pictures is a lineup of pilgrims returning from Mecca. And the last picture is part of the welcoming party in the Saskatoon airport.

Back in Yangon from Kalaymyo, Myanmar

We had an amazing whirlwind trip to Kalaymyo. We had teaching sessions two or three or sometimes four times a day. I finally ran out of lessons and one day when I was asked if I would like to say a few words, I had to tell them that I had nothing prepared! They treated us royally and one day they even killed a pig and had a love feast where they must have fed a hundred people. And of course they wouldn't let us go without giving us gifts. I got to ride on a motorcycle lots (as a passenger) and it was a lot more comfortable than riding in the "taxis." Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures in about a week and tell you more about all the events. Love to all.

Kolkata

We leave tomorrow for Myanmar and the plane is supposed to fly at 10AM (10:30 PM Saskatchewan time). We attended a church service in downtown Kolkata and there were 15 of us altogether. Swami and Violet provided a great meal for all of us and we took a taxi back to our hotel. We ate supper at the hotel an will pack up and get ready for our flight tomorrow. Everyone on the team is feeling well and is in good spirits. The last picture is of the Class 5 students that I taught a math lesson to (plus I talked a bit about Canada also.) There were about 100 students in the classroom as they had put two classes together. The class was at Brighter Academy in Imphal in the school the Shyam owns. His son Joshua helps run the school and his grandson Luchinglen attends this school. I had a wonderful three days stay with the family and they treated me as if I were a part of the family. Two mornings went for a walk with Shyam and was able to see a part of the city.

Shyam Salam's school

We had a terrific welcome when we arrived at Syham's place. His school has 1500 students and they have two shifts. the School starts at 6:30 am and goes until 10:30. Then the Class 6 through 12 starts at 11:00 and is finished at 3:00. Yesterday I taught a Class 5 math lesson to 100 students and then a Class 10 math lesson to 30 students. The Class 10 was more fun to do since I was able to do a demonstration of the proof for the Area of a Circle. Later on I was able to go to a small rural congregation and do a lesson on the book of Jonah.

We fly to Kolcutta today and tomorrow will visit Mother Theresa's Orphanage. On Monday we will fly to Rangoon in the south of Myanmar. We are over half-way on our trip so the last half will probably fly by even faster than the first half.

Shyam Salam's place

Monday we arrived back at Imphal and went to check into the Classic Hotel and discovered that they only had two rooms for us even though Ray had booked three. I volunteered to stay at Shyam's and they have treated me as if I were a part of the family. Joshua, his wife Ranita and Luchinglen and Hannah their children live with Shyam and Peggy. The two children are 6 and 4 years of age so I get to play with them and/or read to them in the evening. Thursday I am to give a lesson at 3:00 but in the morning I will go early for a walk with Shyam and when school starts I am to give a math lesson to a level 10 class! Ray is going to be going to a different place to visit on Thursday.

Imphal

After landing at the Imphal airport we took a taxi to Churachandpur and we stayed at the Hotel Venus which was more like a guest house. We had four rooms and because it was so cool at night, I used both of the thick blankets that were in my room. We took a trip out to Sagang which is a small village where we were involved with a blessing ceremony and reception for Hrutching and his wife. On the way we stopped to observe the harvesting of rice which was happening right beside the highway. At the reception the groom had hired a cook especially for the food for the Canadian visitors and it was HOT. They had cooked up food for all of the people who came to the reception and they ate just outside. They also gave us a gift of a traditional shawl for the men and a traditional shawl and a skirt (phanek) for the ladies. After leaving the village we went back to Churachandpur to the Venus Hotel and the next day we left by taxi for Imphal. When we arrived we discovered that they only had two rooms for us so I volunteered to accept Shyam's offer to stay at his place. I also got to ride on a Shashi's motor scooter (he is one of the teachers at Brighter Academy). Shyam took the rest in his car along with my suitcase. When we got there, they had prepared a presentation of a program of dance/exercise that they had been practicing for three months and had already competed and won a local competition. (If they win in the district, they will go on to a national competition.

More visits in Guwahati

This last full day in Guwahati was on Sunday and this was the third place that our team visited. The couple who lived in this place were well off since he had some kind of executive position in the Bank of India. One could see the office tower that he worked in from his place. We had a worship service here and the group picture is of their members.


The next picture is of a family whose son was a friend of Andrew McMillan's. His mom and dad and two sisters are standing in front of him. Next is a picture of a teacher named Medha Bharadwaj. She is in her kitchen making chapattis. She helped me do some shopping on Monday and helped bargain for me since she knew the value of things. On Monday morning we stopped at another friend of Andrew McMillan's Rahul and he had a sister whose name was Mona Lisa.
So now I can say that I shook the hand of Mona Lisa! I went with our driver Kuldeep to meet up with Medha while the rest had a lunch made for them. After shopping Kuldeep drove me to a place called Pantaloon where I met the rest of the team. After going back to the hotel for a bit of a break we went out once more Monday evening to Samuel and Chandrima Salam live. Mary Salam, her son Spirit, and her husband Richard (who is from England) were also visiting. I gave a Hotwheels car to Spirit and he soon overcame any shyness that he had.They served us a wonderful meal of rice, chapattis, cucumbers, dahl, lintels, pineapple slices, boiled eggs and water. We finally got back to the hotel at 8:30. I took a couple of pictures showing the view from about 8 stories up of the street. People throw their garbage by the curb on the street so it leaves an unsightly mess (and a smelly one too). Some places in the city are kept a little cleaner than others. At our hotel a street cleaner came by and scraped up the soggy garbage with a couple of squares of wood. He piled it in a hand cart. I suspect that the hotel pays for the service.

My observation is that there is quite a contrast in life style of the families that we visited in Guwahati. The bamboo building did have a smoothly finished concrete floor but the only thing separating their unit from the next was bamboo matting with a drape hanging over the wall. The ceiling had a bamboo matting as well to cover the tin roof material and the fan was held in place by wire wrapped around a bamboo support. They did have a TV and all the adults had cell phones that were newer than mine. At banker's home they had a wide screen TV, two cars in the garage and marble floors, an elevator, air conditioning.