The summer I was 19, I hopped on an airplane and flew to the other side of the world. For ten weeks I had the amazing opportunity to teach English in Yangon, Myanmar. When I say this was the most amazing ten weeks of my life, that doesn’t even begin to go far enough in describing how wonderful and life changing the experience was for me. My students became my friends and my fellow teachers became family.
This morning, I sat down on the couch, under the fan, to cool down from my workout. To keep my mind occupied I flipped on the television and headed straight for the Cooking Channel. I didn’t expect what I saw to bring me to tears.
The show was Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong. And for this episode he was traveling around Inle Lake, near Taunggyi in Myanmar.
Towards the end of my summer in Myanmar, one of my students invited a few of us teachers to visit his family in Taunggyi. After eighteen hours on a bus, we arrived and hit the ground running. We dropped our stuff of at his family’s hotel before heading out to breakfast (the best wanton soup in the world). Our next stop was Inle Lake. We spent a full day on the lake and watching this show had me riveted to the screen as the flood of memories overwhelmed my mind.
There before me were the fishermen I remembered so clearly, rowing with one foot and the unique nets that sat on their boats:
Fishman on Inle Lake in Myanmar
Luke cooked in a stilt home, so similar to that of my friend’s family:
A stilt village similar to that of my friend’s family.
Floating along the lake wearing our new hats:
My hat was freshly made and still green.
Visiting the pagoda famous for jumping cats:
One of my fellow teachers was “christened” by one of the cats. Needless to say, we had a good laugh about that.
I still dream of going back. When my dad passed away a few years ago, that dream had to be put on hold for a while. It doesn’t stop me from browsing the ESL job boards from time to time and frequently there are positions advertised for schools in Myanmar. Someday, I hope.
Until then, I’ll hang on to my memories and shows like this one will remind me.
I hope you do get to return. Lovely memories and photos — thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Leigh.
For me, the first image of Myanmar will always involve a grey background with black letters against it, a newspaper page. My first exposure to it, my only exposure, really was in a course on international politics in the fall of 1988. We were told to subscribe to the NYT (the first time I had done that), which was only available in paper and delivered to a lock box on campus every morning. I was responsible for reporting to the class on Burma. It was an intense first month, as the uprising took place in mid-September, and then gradually the news slimmed to a trickle and then to nothing at all. It wasn’t until they finally let Aung San Suu Kyi out of house arrest a few years ago that I started thinking that there must also be colors associated with the country. Thanks for illustrating it with these pictures and alerting me that there is also beauty there.
I am reminded that for many Americans, the first exposure to Myanmar was newspaper articles. In 1961, I was fortunate to have a teacher who made educational films on her sabbaticals, and I watched in amazement as a country then called Burma came to life on the screen. The exotic scenes blazed with colour.
I forget some times that for most Americans all they know of Myanmar is the negative political coverage that makes it into our media. For me it is a bright, vibrant place, full of life and friends and a culture that I grew to love. Even when I watch the news, like during the Saffron Revolution a few years ago, I was watching with different eyes. I saw the streets I walked down everyday and I worried for the people I’d known. I cared about what was happening on a grander scale, but it was more personal to me.
Maybe I should write about how wonderful Beirut is too. I’m sure people could stand to hear stories of that place in a better light.
Absolutely gorgeous, Jas! Thanks for sharing your memories with us.
Oh, please do write about Beirut! We, the rest of the world, deserve to know what a beautiful place it is as opposed to the negative coverage we get.
Thank you for sharing this video! Quite fascinating. I’ll have to check out some of the others. I love trying food from other cultures but I think I’d have to draw the line at those black eggs!
Teuchter, I think I’ll go through and watch the whole series! I love to learn about new places, even those I’ve never been. The only problem is my bucket list gets longer and longer.
I’ll pass on the black eggs too.
What an amazing experience! I really believe in the benefits of packing up, taking a leap of faith and travelling to the other end of the world to get a taste of life as we’ve never seen it before. For me it was New York, and I’m so happy I have memories of 14 months of crazy living!
BTW, when I was in China I tried those old eggs. My sister said it was a lotus flower (?). It soooo wasn’t
Crazy sister! Hope you got her back!
Agzym, so many of my most cherished memories are from my times on the other side of the world. I think it has to do with experiencing things you never even imagined. I’m sure you have amazing memories from your time in New York! You were a brave one to try those eggs. I never had the courage.
When I look back I wonder what the heck I was thinking LOL! I placed myself in so many dangerous situations, it really is a miracle nothing bad happened. I actually live in the Bronx, Gun Hill Road station for a month. The local Chinese takeaway was an empty room with a little window with bars on it where you’d pick up your food
I was the RL Agzy from the block, riding the 5 train, so don’t be frontin’ JLO!
I’m so happy I went on my NY adventure. It opened up a whole new world for me!
What wonderful memories! I envy my friends their culture shock experiences, visiting china, Japan or hiking the Himalayas in Nepal. One went to Japan to teach ESL and never returned. I was wondering how was the teaching in itself were you trained for it?
Thanks Fanny. You know, its strange but when I went to Myanmar I didn’t have strong culture shock. It was the coming home that was really hard for me. I couldn’t go into the regular grocery stores or places like Walmart without being overwhelmed and boy did Americans seem loud for a while. I can see why your friend never came back. If it had been a possibility at the time, I would have remained. As for training. At the time the only training we received was a weekend course immediately upon arrival. But, we were mainly there for students to have native English speakers to practice with. They had other teachers as well, who taught grammar and vocabulary.