Delivery to Chan'tha'gon Orphanage

Boys take delivery
















Brother Augustine says thank you















Some of the delivery with Fr Jerome far right.

We found Fr Jerome and we went to the orphanage and took the articles we had brought. The road had now changed into a very deep mud path and we carefully walked in front of the car because of the weight. When we finally got there some of the boys came out and jumped about with glee, while others looked on wondering what was going on. Br Augustine came out and when he saw what we had brought he could not take the smile of his face. He was so grateful. I told him that we had brought all these supplies because of the donations from our parish and he asked me to tell you, ‘Thank you very much, it will make such a difference to the lives of the boys’. I told him that our estimated price was a lot more than it actually cost and if there was anything else he wanted.

We talked about it and while we were there was a down pour of rain that actually stopped the children getting from the house to the dining room because of the mud. There and then we decided that the area between the kitchen and dinning quarters and the main body of the house should be concreted. I told him to go ahead with it and I gave sister the money and asked her to oversee it as she seems to have more money sense than Br Augustine. We all agreed on this and that first and foremost sister should get more blankets and mosquito nets so that every boy could have their own rather than sharing with two others.

We said our goodbyes and I said I will be back in a couple of years to see how things are going. However what we did not realise was that the car was marooned in all this water and when Peter started it up it just sunk deeper into the mud. There was a great commotion as there always is in these situations in the East. All the boys and some men in the village came and literally lifted it out and then pushed us for a few hundred feet so that we could get started. No sooner had we started on the main road than the rain did really start to come down. And worse of all we were on that road again another punishing hour of bumps near misses and noise. To add to this the spray and the splashing from the many potholes and flooding on the road. O happy days.

Eventually we got home tired and wet. I went to see a lady called Thekla who lived around the courner from the convent. I met her last time I was there because she was supposed to be an ex pupil of my friend. She wasn’t in and Winnifred her sister said that she was in Chan’tha’gon at the pilgrimage, and wouldn’t be back until Saturday. The house she lived in had seen better days and they could not afford to de anything with it as their pensions were not enough to cover their basic needs. Winnifred told me as inflation had risen their pensions from the government had remained static so they had to supplement their income by teaching and even that wasn’t enough as teachers are very poorly paid. I think sometimes we do not know how well off we are. In the West we moan about our government but they are saints compared to the Myanmar Military Government.

Finally got back to the convent had tea with the sisters and we talked for a long time. Then I went to bed fairly early as I was leaving early in the morning so we were going to have Mass at six oclock.

The Road to Chan'tha'gon

Our Lady's Shrine
















Local school and Sr Geraldine















Pilgrim's Rest

From Am’ara-pu’ra we went to deliver the electric wires, sockets and lights to wire to the boy’s orphanage at Chan’tha’gan. We went through the back roads to get there, even more pot-holes and uneven surfaces. Along the way we came across the university which was a long distance out of town. It was quite empty as it was a holiday but sister said that there were many students there. She did tell me something that we in the west would find quite odd and that is; as a student you are not allowed to pick what subject you would like to do, you are told what subject you are taking and what university you are going to. There is no such thing as choice, that is unless you belong to the ruling elite. I did meet a hotelier who trained as a doctor but who never wanted to be one. So after his studies he became a doctor but soon gave it up as he had no interest in being a doctor. It is the same with the tourist guides they cannot choose they are told what nationality they will be a guide in. This is called control at its worse.

When sister Geraldine and myself were in May’myo sister Marie Anne and Peter the driver went to the industrial area to buy all the things that were needed so that the orphanage could have electric so that during the long nights (it gets dark fairly early in Myanmar)they will be able to study and read and see what they are doing. They also brought more blankets and mosquitoes nets. We were now going to take these to them. The rain started and it came down in torrents. By the time we got there the shrine was packed with about 5000 pilgrims. They were staying for two nights going home after the eight am Mass. They all stayed there as their equivalent of marquees had been put up. They were bamboo sheds really every one brought their mats and blankets with them and got their allotted space according to how many was in their party. In other words just enough space to lie down and go to sleep for every person. The centre provided food for everyone. I know now just how the apostles felt when Jesus asked them to provide food for the 5000. All the food was donated and the cooks did it all free of charge. I cursory looked at the washing and toilet facilities but there was no way I was going to go in.

Am'ara'-pu'ra Orphanage.

Little baby Emily

















The oldest member of the orphanage 73















The Girls with the sisters receiving their Christmas presents

Today is my last full day in Mandalay. I will be sorry to leave in one way because though there is a lot of poverty here, the people in general are a happy race. They always have a smile and a welcome for you. I suppose it is an unusual trip that I am doing for instead of doing all the tourist bits I am going round seeing the places that are usually not on a tourist list. Therefore I think that I get a little more feel for the place and for the people.

Its up at six again starting with Mass followed by breakfast. This morning we have not far to go as we are going to Am’ara’-pu’ra and Peter our driver is back. The girls orphanage at Am’ara’-pu’ra was started a long time back. There is a lady who is seventy three there and she entered as an orphan when she was a baby. Unlike our orphanages they don’t chuck them out until they are ready and sometimes but not very often, a few are never ready. There were three old girls here and they looked extremely happy. The girls all came out to meet us and they ranged from the ages of Emily who was nine months to the oldest school age girl who was nineteen. They were very shy but got really excited when for a photo shoot they all received the presents that they would be getting at Christmas, though the sisters would not let them open them and took them back to wait for Christmas. To see the joy and the excitement was wonderful.

I was taken round the orphanage and it was well run very similar to the one at Zawgyi. On our trip round we came across baby Emily. She was only nine months but I thought at first she was only three months because she was so small. Poor baby Emily’s mother had died only two weeks after she had been born. Her father had tried to bring her up but was too poor to do so. He had no job and no money or accommodation. He was found sleeping in some shack with this tiny baby. He was told of the sisters and he asked them to take her in. Emily was three months at the time and weighed only three pounds. The sisters have slowly raised her weight and she is recovering gradually. All the young children adore her and take turns in playing with her. While I was with her she would not take her eyes off me.

After lunch we went for a walk over a wooden bridge which is Am’ara’-pu’ra tourist attraction. The bridge connects to the village over the river Wadie and is over a mile long. As it was a holiday that day the bridge was busy with people as it is the place to parade up and down. Pollution and traffic free and to top it a slight breeze.

Am’ara’-pu’ra is also the centre for novice Buddhist monks. The place was packed with young monks of all ages, male and female. The male monks wearing a deep coloured saffron robe and the females wearing appropriately pink robes. Some of them are so young it seems criminal that their childhood is being taken away. We had the same in the west not so many moons ago when we sent ten and eleven year old children to the junior seminaries. To see the very young monks going around begging for food and money is not inspiring. It was interesting to see how many of the teenage and older monks end up in the bars drinking and chewing the beetle nut. A very funny habit that suppose to give you a buzz and which will eventually rot the teeth. I would say there were over two thousand monks there. After this we went into a silk shop. The sisters thought I would like to buy things as all westerners seem to want to shop till they drop. They were greatly surprised to see that I had no interest whatsoever. But they insisted that I have two shirts and a bag to put them in and bought them for me. I couldn't leave Myanmar with nothing.