Famous!

Recently we bought a copy of the Myanmar Times, the local newspaper. I was looking for Earth Week articles to discuss with the class, but when we opened to the socialite page, lo and behold, there we were! We had gone to a residence party at the Grand Mee Ya Hta, which is where we live, and while there, someone had taken our picture for the Myanmar Times. Now whenever I've read this newspaper, I've often looked at the page, and wondered who all those "movers and shakers" were. Now it's clear they're just average people who happened to get their picture taken. We joke that it's fairly amusing that the one time we venture to a party (in our own building no less!), we manage to get our picture in the paper. Yangon is a small town. Can you spot us? Todd is even in it again this week, as his one of his student's parents own the Myanmar Times, and they had a field trip there this week. The paper is printing a number of student articles, and good ol' Mr. Todd is in the paper again.

Earth Week went well. My students and I turned off the air con for one day. This was a big sacrifice, since it is extremely hot at the moment. But Yangon has significant power issues, with many people without power many hours a day (aircons suck up loads of power), and as well, many air conditioners still use CFCs. We also built solar ovens, cooking snacks in them. We had many inspiring conversations, and it was quite an energizing week. Todd and his students also turned off the air. This was a big thing for these kids, as they generally come from rather pampered backgrounds and any bit of discomfort often distresses them. So to challenge them even for one day to sacrifice some of that comfort for a higher goal was beneficial, as we all stretched our limits a little that day. It even came in handy, because the following week the generator broke down, and this time we had no power (or water!) for the whole day, meaning, again no air conditioning. Many teachers and students had a really hard day, but in my class we all handled it quite well, no doubt due to our practice the week before.

That's all for now. Take care all!

love, Meghan