Inez discovers Myanmar

Yes, I do realize it’s been insanely long since I last wrote something on my blog. But with this post, I will right the wrong. I’m nearly 2 months in Tachileik, a border town between Myanmar and Thailand, and teaching (and mostly preparing lesson plans) is keeping me busy.

I’m teaching 3 lessons a day (except weekends). Before noon, I teach a children’s class, the little monsters between 3 and 6 years old. In the afternoon 2 levels of adults, mostly colleagues from my school or the international sister school.

The kids in my school are quite possibly the cutest little children on earth. Seriously. Even in their young age, they often have a pretty good grasp of the English language, enough so as to convey their message. Every day a few of them are sticking to my legs, which makes moving around a true fitness experience. Even though I find them amazing, teaching them is quite an adventure. The attention span at that age is of course not the biggest, and a lot of instructions or activities are way out of their league. My roster is made so I make rotations through all classes, so as to expose everyone to the “foreigner”. This makes knowing the level their at, what they know and don’t know, a challenge. But once in a while I come across games that work extremely well, the so-called “miracle games”. Some examples are 1 2 3 piano, duck duck goose, Chinese football and hide and seek.

After spending a month with amazing people, it’s not easy to leave Yangon and start over in the city where I will be teaching, Tachileik. I didn’t expect at all to meet such a fine group of friends.

It’s been an incredibly busy week full of new experiences. The goal of the first week of training is to get our bearings and adapt to a new environment.

After a few lessons of Burmese one thing is very clear: it’s an absurdly difficult language. It might even be harder to learn than Chinese, because I don't see any distinction between words, and the sounds are so alien. I’m not even going to mention the script, which is just scribbles and loops to me.

After some tours in the neighborhood of the apartment, the office of the organization and downtown, I’m starting to know my surroundings and know my way around a little. It especially has been useful for getting to know some restaurants and cafes where the food is good.

Finding new food and adapting to it has always been a struggle to me, but I have found some local dishes that I actually like. There is this dish called “tea leaf salad”, and like the name suggests it really is a salad made of tea leaves and peanuts. I know, it does not sound great but surprisingly it is.

One of the main attractions in Yangon is Schwedagon Pagoda. What I thought was just one big golden tower, turned out to be a vast complex of big and small towers, buildings, temples and buddhas. It’s impossible to fit into a picture, but earlier this week I posted some pictures to at least get a general idea of it. The locals are not at all bothered by tourists while coming here to pray.

An activity I was absolutely not looking forward to way “Litwei”, the traditional Burmese kickboxing. We were supposed to have an initiation course. I really don't get why people would willingly do such intensive sports in such a hot climate. Luckily I survived it in one piece (while loosing an insane amount of sweat in the process, of course). I found out I’m terrible at it. Who knew?

To end the week the whole group went bowling. It was a very surreal experience, because it’s not really a known activity in Myanmar. We had the entire bowling complex to ourselves. There were no bowling shoes, so it was bowling barefoot over there. Don’t worry, no toes were lost.

During the weekend I received two roommates, Mindy and Brandi. Both are from the US and they are so super sweet. Apparently they will be the only ones I will be sharing the apartment with during the first month, which is fine by me.

We did some small excursions in the neighborhood. On one of these excursions we stumbled upon a little lane, soon be nicknamed “Banana Alley”. Imagine this: a tiny little street, right next to the water, filled to the brim with bananas. FYI: these do not come in the shape that we are used to, but more like little fat stumps.

During our explorations we also found some shops and markets to replenish our food stock (read: mainly snacks and fruit). This will have to do until we know our way around a little more and most importantly until we know where the good restaurants are. I’m already fan of this pea chips with basil flavor. Oh yes, it’s a thing.

The smells keep being a very present element as soon as you stick your nose outside. Ranging from pleasant aromas such as all kinds of fruits, incense and food to less agreeable smells like sweat, trash and wet dogs. It strengthens the impact of the overdose of sounds and visual impulses. One thing is for sure, it wil never, ever get boring walking around here. One or two outings a day was plenty for me during this first weekend.

After an extremely long flight to Bangkok (11 hours in a plane with a screaming child, always a joy) and a short one-hour flight to Yangon, I have finally arrived!

Yangon is the biggest city in Myanmar, and until about 10 years ago it was the capital. This is where I will live for the first month of my adventure. I’m to receive some kind of internship where I learn how to actually teach, and some cultural background to understand what’s going on around me.

The first thing I noticed about this city, when I came from the airport to my apartment, is the absolute chaos of the traffic. I’m seriously doubting that there is even a single traffic rule. Cars, bikes, motorcycles, people; all just doing their own thing at full speed. Itty will be a challenge to join it without being smashed to a pancake on the road. Fun fact: they drive on the right side of the road, but the steering wheel is also on the right. When I asked for the reason they told me it’s because they mainly import their cars from Japan.

It’s clear that Myanmar has been opened to the world only a short while ago, but their trying to catch up. Shiny new buildings stand side to side with ancient huts. Traditional restaurants acquired brand new, western looking neighbors. Worn out little houses’ interior dominated by a giant flatscreen. All of this can be found here.

My apartment is very good compared to Burmese norms, and even perfectly fine compared to Western standards. I’m to share it with 4 others who come from all over the world to teach English. I’m the first one to arrive. Apparently we are the first group to move into this apartment because the program is very new.

At the end of September the time has finally come! I’m going to teach English in beautiful, yet very unknown Myanmar for half a year. The purpose of this blog will be to keep you updated on the adventures I’m sure I will be having there.

Why do I go? Because I can!

The preparations have been quite numerous. Updating my passport, arrange a visa, getting a job and a place to stay in Myanmar (of course), receiving vaccinations for every possible tropical disease,... It’s been great fun of never-ending arrangements.

One of the least pleasant things I have come across is the knowledge that I have to pay taxes in Myanmar (5%), as well as to my lovely Belgian government (50%). You read it right: I’m getting double taxed. Let us all have a moment of silence for all the money I’m not getting.

Myanmar has been in the news lately because of the social unrest and extreme weather. Of course you hear nothing at all about this country, until the moment I decide to go there. The social unrest luckily will not affect me that much because it’s contained to certain zones that I will not even get near (I’m not even allowed near these zones as a foreigner, even if I wanted to go there). The weather should also have improved since rain season will be pretty much over by the time I get there.