The Road to Pyin-Oo-Lwin (May'myo)
Buddhist girl novice (8yrs)begging for her food.
Typical scene on a road leading out of the city
5th October, another early Morning Mass at seven, followed by breakfast. Peter who has been driving us everywhere has got another job today. He is officially a tourist guide but when he has no work he helps the sisters when they need a driver for their car as none of the sisters drive. Therefore a taxi is coming to pick us up at eight. He duly arrives and we climb into a proper car of sorts. All taxi drivers have to display a picture of themselves on the dashboard, which is a good idea in principle. The only trouble is that in the majority of cases it bears no resemblance to the person driving the taxi. I always ask, ‘Is that you?’
It had been raining all night and as soon as we got out of the convent ground we soon realised this was going to be a difficult day to travel. Most of the roads were deep in water and everyone was struggling to get through. Because we were going to May Mou the taxi was picking up other passengers. The first we picked up was a well dressed man in a café, then we went on this long hike through many flooded roads to pick up the next one. There is no thought of abandoning the excursion eventually we get to the house of the next pick up and a family of three pile in. There is not enough room so the husband has to sit in the boot of the so called estate car. With three enormous bags of soap powder for the convent and all the bags and cases of the other passengers. I thought this is going to make it even harder to get through the flooded back streets.
We did stop once more but this was for petrol. In Myanmar you are only allowed thirty litres of petrol a month which costs 75p a litre. If you need more then you have to buy it on the black market which costs you three times as much. When you buy it on the black market you cannot buy it at an official garage you have to buy it off one of the street side vendors. These vendors have large barrels of petrol with a tap attached and pour the petrol into a jug, which is then poured into the car. They have had a few accidents with smoking but thank goodness no one was smoking at it was not near a café with an open fire!
Eventually we got on the road to May Mou and to my delight I found that there was another road out of Mandalay. This road I was told by sister Geraldine was built by the British after the war and it was made well and stood the test of time. As May Mou was a hill station we did not have to worry about flooding as it was all up hill. The driver drove as though he had another three round trips to make. The trip itself was quite scenic as it usually is as you go up into the hills. But it was surprising how many soldiers we saw on the way. I mentioned this to sister and she said that the army had many bases around that area. They were even building a new city half way between Mandalay and May Mou for the army generals and officials. This would have the best of everything and this is why all the roads around Mandalay are atrocious because all the money was being diverted to this project.
During the journey Sr Geraldine was talking to the young mother who was travelling with us and it transpired that she was a Catholic who was going to see her blind great Grandmother who was not well. As soon as she learnt that I was a Catholic priest she asked sister would I mind stopping at her grandmothers place and give her a blessing and say some prayers with her. I said I would only be too delighted to. After a two hour drive we got to May Mou which was a quaint place everywhere you could see signs of the old colonial days and none more so than the first house we stopped at. Here the young family got out and she explained to the driver what we were going to do. He gave us ten minutes.
It had been raining all night and as soon as we got out of the convent ground we soon realised this was going to be a difficult day to travel. Most of the roads were deep in water and everyone was struggling to get through. Because we were going to May Mou the taxi was picking up other passengers. The first we picked up was a well dressed man in a café, then we went on this long hike through many flooded roads to pick up the next one. There is no thought of abandoning the excursion eventually we get to the house of the next pick up and a family of three pile in. There is not enough room so the husband has to sit in the boot of the so called estate car. With three enormous bags of soap powder for the convent and all the bags and cases of the other passengers. I thought this is going to make it even harder to get through the flooded back streets.
We did stop once more but this was for petrol. In Myanmar you are only allowed thirty litres of petrol a month which costs 75p a litre. If you need more then you have to buy it on the black market which costs you three times as much. When you buy it on the black market you cannot buy it at an official garage you have to buy it off one of the street side vendors. These vendors have large barrels of petrol with a tap attached and pour the petrol into a jug, which is then poured into the car. They have had a few accidents with smoking but thank goodness no one was smoking at it was not near a café with an open fire!
Eventually we got on the road to May Mou and to my delight I found that there was another road out of Mandalay. This road I was told by sister Geraldine was built by the British after the war and it was made well and stood the test of time. As May Mou was a hill station we did not have to worry about flooding as it was all up hill. The driver drove as though he had another three round trips to make. The trip itself was quite scenic as it usually is as you go up into the hills. But it was surprising how many soldiers we saw on the way. I mentioned this to sister and she said that the army had many bases around that area. They were even building a new city half way between Mandalay and May Mou for the army generals and officials. This would have the best of everything and this is why all the roads around Mandalay are atrocious because all the money was being diverted to this project.
During the journey Sr Geraldine was talking to the young mother who was travelling with us and it transpired that she was a Catholic who was going to see her blind great Grandmother who was not well. As soon as she learnt that I was a Catholic priest she asked sister would I mind stopping at her grandmothers place and give her a blessing and say some prayers with her. I said I would only be too delighted to. After a two hour drive we got to May Mou which was a quaint place everywhere you could see signs of the old colonial days and none more so than the first house we stopped at. Here the young family got out and she explained to the driver what we were going to do. He gave us ten minutes.
I went into the house and was introduced to the adopted daughter of the grandmother and she led me into the old lady’s room. Her name was Mary Scanlon. I told her who I was and what I was doing here. She said she was so blessed to hear a priest in her presence and was very thankful that God had sent me to her. We said some prayers together and I blessed her and then I had to leave. It was a fleeting visit but a lovely experience of a deep faith that had sustained someone throughout their life.
posted by Fr Kevin @ 11:03 am
2 Comments:
Just stumbled accross your blog by clicking "next blog".... I have had a quick read and its caught my eye, will follow your blog reguarly!
Best wishes
I have tried to reply to the email messages that you have sent but they are always bounced by the email server - which address should I use for contacting you?
Regards
John
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