Bring it, Bago!

100 fifth graders, 8 teachers, a few tour guides, 3 buses and hopeful souls bounded into Bago, Myanmar this last Thursday, anticipating the best trip of their 10 years of life. It was the first overnight trip for the kids and they were beyond estatic to be able to leave their homes, have a sleepover with their friends and discover what lay beyond the borders of Yangon. For many, this was the very first night away from their mother's side, ever. With our clipboards in hand and excitement oozing out of us, we set off for the adventure of the year :)

First stop, the British War Cemetery. Here, we learned about the 2,000 plus soldiers that sacrificed their lives for their country and loved ones. One of our teachers even had the chance to meet a couple who were seeking out an ancestor who had died over a hundred years prior. How powerful it must have been to be in Myanmar, looking for a family member's headstone.

Then we headed out to a monestary, where we donated a bunch of school supplies and were able to play with the kids who went to school there! It was fun to see the interaction between our kids and them, as our kids were able to take on leadership roles and teach our new friends some fun games!

(this is the monk thanking the kids for the donations)

Snake, snake, severus Snape... Dumbladore! was the song that kept playing through my head (yes, I may have altered the words) as we went to the Snake Pagoda. If you see the picture below, you will notice that a 100 year old Burmese python is within arms reach, UNCAGED- mind you, of my children. He is believed to be a monk that has been reincarnated and now people donate money and pray to him. Never mind that I have spent the last three weeks talking about the danger of Burmese pythons in the Everglades...

After seeing the snake, we hopped on trishaws and headed to another pagoda! I practically cried through this experience, as I am a bit afraid of trishaws. Why? A little over 18 months ago I got into a trishaw accident in Bago- PTS, you might say. None the less, one of my students reassured me and said, "It's ok Miss Lynsey, the slow and steady always win the race." Oh, such wise children I have :)

Check out the reclining Buddha! Look how HUGE it is! 

After seeing too many Buddhas and Pagodas, we went to our hotel. Yes, this is what is looked like: 

Now, imagine your children telling you it is haunted and that they won't be able to sleep at night... and I have to convince them otherwise. Let's just say that I managed to get them to sleep and convince myself that the ghost of Christmas past would not choose January 31st as an eve of haunt. I only found out the next day that a guy had died in this building a few years prior....

 The next morning, we went to this pagoda that was just serene. Maybe it was the fog and calm atmosphere, but hot dang, I was in such a state of peace. Here is a shot of the bird flying through the mist...

I wanted to end the blogpost with a shot of my kids on the "Great Wall of China," where we went to a Chinese Garden and ran around for a while! As you can see, everything is a bit chaotic :) But hey, story of my life, no? 

I can honestly say that I had an incredible time hanging out with these kids and having the chance to grow closer to them. I feel beyond blessed to have the chance to work with such a creative bunch and hope that it only allows us to grow closer together! 

Full Moon festival at Inle Lake!

This year for the Full Moon festival, I snagged two lovely ladies- Candacee and Jenni- and hopped on a quick flight to Inle Lake. It is located on the eastern part of Myanmar, in the Shan State! It was a perfect trip- with fun adventures of which you can read about below!

Day One: Landed and immediately hopped in a taxi that took us to a local vineyard... beautiful scenery with weak wine (to be quite frank). It was incredible to see the blue skies and stretch of vineyard- I felt like I was in a bit of a fairy tale, to be quite honest. The best part? What you would think of as Kraft singles cheese cut in strips and placed on our salad. Oh Myanmar :)

 

After a few glasses of wine, we headed to Taunggyi, where we were able to witness the last day of the Full Moon festival. Holy toledo, was it something else. We drove through the town and thought that perhaps the driver missed where we were supposed to stop and then, BAM! We looked out into a crowd of thousands of people and paper-animal lanterns in the sky. It was something else, let me tell you. Some of the sights include: Pa Oh people with beach towels wrapped around their heads, youth gangs dancing with joy because their lantern did not have a hole burnt through it before making it the clear sky and children with Angry Bird beanies- EVERYWHERE. It was a blast! Here are just a few of the pink cows we saw float toward the heavens...

Day Two: We ventured out to the lake. 

Oh my goodness, was it incredible. We saw people living on the water in houses made out of bamboo stilts, growing tomatoes on top of the surface, rowing boats with their right leg, children hauling water out of their canoe, women weaving scarves with thread from the material of lotus flowers and so much more. Here is a picture of the fishermen we saw- who catch fish to sell in the markets or to simply take home for dinner. 

We also saw the ancient pagodas in Inthein, where we climbed old brinks and gaped at the crumbly, old temples. 

We did make a new friend, this little puppy!!! found us and decided to jump a few of our pictures. 

                                  Day Three: We woke up at too-early and went on a 10 mile trek!
As you can see, we had the cool "snow" which you would know to be fog, follow us around all day. It was gorgeous- we saw everything from a little garden snake, wild poinsettias, village kids playing with hand-made clay marbles and every crop you could imagine! We even ate coffee, which I had no idea was red when ripe and surprisingly refreshing. 

At the end of our long hike, we walked along this bridge to a  canoe that loaded us up and  brought us back to our  homely abode. I thought that this picture may give you an idea of what people on the water may wear or do at the end of a long day at work. 

 Day Four: The day of biking, pancakes and wine! We biked through town and made it a point to stop and have the better wine of our trip, after seeing how they make the wine and ship it out around the country. I think what was so cool about this company, Red Mountain Winery, was that the owner was a local guy who hired a french expert to come in and show him how to make amazing wine. If you ask me, it was one of the best I have had in Myanmar! After biking and eating pancakes all day, we got on our long bus ride home and rolled into Yangon 12 hours later. If you were to come and visit Myanmar, know that I would take you to Inle in a heartbeat- as I can easily say it is one of the most magical places I have ever been....

Can't forget to incorporate a jumping picture! See: me, Candacee and Jenni!

Obama in Yangon

President Obama came to visit Myanmar on November 19th, 2012! 

What a day it was for the Burmese... there had been weeks of preparation:

This is some street art around the corner from my flat.. and believe it or not, this is not the only welcome sign we had for Obama!

On Monday, I tutored my little french students and they greeted me with a "Teacher, Teacher! Obama is here!" After I asked them who Obama was, they responded with, "YOUR president!" 

I had no idea they had the made the connection that I was American and that he was my president...

He gave an inspiring speech at the university, of which you can listen to here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy-3659BsDA

Thanksgiving in 5L

One aspect of Grade 5's curriculum is to talk about migration. Naturally, I cannot help but bring up the fact that pilgrims migrated over to North America and ultimately established the holiday that Americans all over the world celebrate today- Thanksgiving.  After hearing about the fact that it is a time for people to gather, give thanks and eat food, my kids immediately begged me if we could have a Thanksgiving in our little classroom community. Why not?

So after teaching my students how to set the table, politely pass the bread and use a fork and knife, they were able to enjoy a feast. Only this feast included fried chicken, not turkey :)

Kathein Visit

What is Kathein, you may ask? It is the time of the year where Burmese people collect robes, fans, umbrellas and other necessities for the monks. 

This week the Student Council and I dressed up and went to the local monastery  where we delivered donations from our students and shared a meal with the monks. It was an amazing opportunity for the kids to  get together with all of ISM's student council (ES, MS and HS) and see where the donations they had been collecting for the monks were going. 

Here are some classroom reps heading out!

We paraded about 10 minutes through the neighborhood, following an obnoxious truck with music blaring (typical of any parading in Myanmar) and all of our donations!

One of the Kathein trees with donations attached to it

This monk spoke for 40 minutes straight, pausing every once in a while to spit in a jar :)

Elementary Stu Co!

Showing up at PLU!

One of my most favorite people in the world, Allison Stephens, was speaking at PLU's Chapel service a few weeks ago and wanted to talk about her experience in southeast Asia. She visited Myanmar this last summer, along with Thailand, and rediscovered her zest and excitement for service. It was fun to have had the chance to talk to her about her experience and to see the spark that was lit, causing Allison to want to continue to travel abroad and serve in the world. As Allison was telling me about this opportunity for her to share at chapel, she asked me if I was interested in participating. All I would need to do is make a video based off the passions that developed from my experiences and post it on youtube, where Allison would then tie into her incredible message about her vocation.

I had a blast being able to share with PLU and want to thank Allison for involving me in her talk about her passions.  Here is the video that I made:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEfgfXEEBYM&feature=g-upl


Cheers, my dear friends!


xo Lyns

Buddy-ing up

The sun was out, the was temperature rising and we were rushing down the 100 stairs to catch the bus. 5L pulled a typical "late Tveit" and arrived to our destination: The local library.


What were we doing? Meeting up with other Myanmar kids from the local government school, who happened to play and eat breakfast in the same neighborhood as our school was located. No big. We brought with us a pile of English books and our excited smiles, ready to see what the next hour had in store for us.

Not only did we discover the usefulness of using our hands, knowledge of Burmese and slow down how fast we read, but my students realized how similar they were to the kids that they read to. Similarities? Lets start with the fact that most are Burmese. Therefore, they speak the same language. Color of skin, favorite actresses and even love of durian are just a few of the many things the kids had a common, It was if the differences were swept away for the hour and all the kids were able to be kids. After reading for a bit, my students joined their new friends on the playground and played games,which was so cool to see!