its not all about the buddha

here in SE Asia, especially Burma, there are many Buddists. But, as it turns out, the Christians are doing the most for those impacted by the cyclone that hit just over one year ago. As some of you may know I donated a day of work at my office in lieu of donations to the orphans of the cyclone that were being cared for by the monastery where I often stay while teaching. Details are often confused and shortly after arriving in Burma I found out that the Monastery never got an orphanage up and running. Then I found myself distressed with the burden of having raised this money and needing to make sure that it ended up in the originally intended place. I inquired often while up North in Burma about where orphanages could be found. It was not until the last day in Burma when I thought to call my friends sister who lives in Rangoon and who is a Catholic that I found an orphanage. My friend lives in Santa Fe and he fled Burma in 1973 when the government killed many of his university friends when had the first wave of protests against the government. he has never been back to his country and has not seen his family since then. I managed to find his sister who is a pathologist in Rangoon and I gave her some photos and correspondence from him. She is a 72 year old woman who still works full time because when you retire in Burma you only make $20/month. Not enough to even by tea and snacks on as I am told. I showed up at Katie's (her christian name) work and waited for her to arrive. The minute she got to work and I explained how I had this donation to drop off she told me about her church, St. Mary's and the work they had done with the cyclone victims and we were off.

We went to St. Mary's and met with the head nun. I can not remember but I think you call this woman a mother....er something/ Anyway it was a trip as this woman came out in actual nun clothes....long gray robe, black habit...the works. A classic look. She was actually from a village that was one of the few that were somewhat spared. She recanted the story of the day that it happened. When the storm rolled in the parents told their children to run to the catholic church as it was the highest and most sound structure in the village and the water was rising fast. The children all ran to the church for safety thinking their parents would all be along shortly once the livestock and things were taken care of. The nun said the only thing that saved then was that when the water level rose they kept climbing higher in the church and finally ended up in the bell tower and on the roof. The parents never made it to the church. They were alll swept to sea by a great wave. The Archbishop commented that in all of his years (over 60) of being with the church officially, had he ever experienced such a tragedy and that once in a lifetime was more than enough. The orphanage houses 54 young girls from age 3 to 18. The boys orphanage has bout the same number. They offered to take me to the orphange but I had just gotten off a 15 hour bus ride and was not eager to take another two hour ride anywhere. I also did not think I could withstand seeing the faces of those children who now had nothing. So I declined the nun said she would send me photos and correspondence from the kids. I decided that was going to be good enough.

Incidently, today as I was at my tailor (he is also from Burma....many people in Thailand are from Burma...the purse I am carrying is a traditional burmese purse that can only be found there and I am immediately asked by people in Thailand where I got it and we are then off talking about Burma)...anyway, my tailor is from Burma and he is one of the lucky rich men who has his paperwork in order and has the money to grease the pockets of some government official in Burma so he can go back and forth. he was there for his sisters wedding and he was stuck for five days because the airport was closed. he said that there are rumors that when the government assessed the scene and found people alive but badly injured they beat them to death instead of offering them aide as their country had no infastructure for this... I completely believe his story. The Nun talked about how after the storm ended and they were able to go outside their were dead people and cows and water buffalo all dead together floating in the water. They lost a priest. A young priest. The blessed the bodies and burried 64 people on the first day following the storm. I consider myself lucky to have never experienced this kind of trauma in my life. These people live under the constant strain of never knowing what tomorrow brings and if they wil even have enough food to feed their families or if someone will come and take away a family member or everything they have because they have made some comment about their government or did not file some useless piece of paperwork with some government office.

Burma is a beautiful place. The people are so innocent in some ways about how the world works. And somehow they manage to maintain this beauty under all of the tyranny.

its time for bed folks...
willandcody