Tonight after our pre-port for India we had the chance to go out and do star gazing. I saw the best view of the night sky I have ever had. I could see the seven sisters, Jupiter and millions of other beautiful twinkling stars as we sailed across the ocean. Right now were on the coast of Sri Lanka and we will be in port at about 8am tomorrow morning and should be able to get off around 10 or 11 am. After this I will post my “pre-India thoughts”.
Feb 28th
We woke up and met up with our group before breakfast, we used some Wi-Fi and then ate. In the morning you couldn’t see the valley because there was cloud everywhere. It was pretty amazing to look down and be above puffy clouds. Breakfast was more like a lunch which had pasta and soup. I had a slice of toast because I can’t eat that early. We all checked out of our rooms and then got ready for a small hike down the mountain to meet up with a truck to bring us down all the way. The whole way down the truck behind us with locals “wooed” as he turned and waved at us. It was cute at first but after the 10th turn it got silly. On the way down we could see cloud sloping off the side of the mountain, it was so beautiful and the pictures we took don’t do it justice. They were really friendly and wished us a great time in Myanmar when we got off the truck at the bottom. We got back on our bus to go to our next stop which was the reclining Buddha statue. It/s the biggest one on the world. The Buddha is shown in 3-5 different poses and this is the least popular but still has a lot of meaning in their culture. The leaning Buddha shows that even as the Buddha was dying he was at peace and happy. The statue is about the size of a football field and takes up a huge building. It is covered in gold and on the back of the Buddha is paintings which tell a story. It is over 1,000 years old and is preserved well by the locals.
After the Buddha we visited a local village which makes pottery. The people welcomed us into their workshop and allowed us to watch them as they made a pot. It took them less than 2 minutes to make a pot the size of a large flower pot. They lay the pots in the sun to dry before putting them in a kilm. It was fun to try and use the wheel they use to make it and we also bought some small sculptures made by the children for a dollar. It was beautiful how many of those things they could make and sell in a day. They make the most pottery in the region. We left with our potter and drove to a local restaurant for lunch. They served us a three course lunch, soup, entrée and dessert (fresh fruit). Then we got back on the bus and headed back to the ship. we had dinner on the ship and watched a movie before bed.
March 1st!
I was up at around 7am and boarded my bus to the orphanage at around 8am. The orphanage was a short drive because it is at a local Buddhist monetary. The orphanage also provides schooling for these kids which would elsewise have no schooling. Schools in Burma cost a lot of money and so usually by age 12 kids drop out. some don’t even make it past their first year of school because of the costs. We were greeted on arrival by some of the kids who directed us to the head mink who provides for the kids. We sat and people asked him questions about the schooling and the kids. There are 50 orphans and 100 school children from the village whose families cannot afford school who come here for an education. We were broken off into groups and the children were split up to play with us. We started off with our names and then we started with some learning games as an icebreaker. One of the girls in our group was no older than 5 and had tears in her eyes. She started crying with fear in her eyes and I couldn’t help but tear up as two other older boys came and walked her out of the room. These boys were no older than 7 or 8 but they were her family. It was sad to think of how hard it might be for a small child like her to feel so confused. I thought of my young cousins and how they are around the same age. What if they had to live like this. I can’t even imagine the maturity the young boys must have to have to grow up like this and act like parents at a young age.
Me and Chelsea played race games with our group of 9 boys. We taught them how to run backwards, how wheelbarrow race (holding the person in front of yours feet) and more. we had a lot of fun and after SAS gave us soccer balls so the kids played soccer (which they loved) and we watched. Lunch came and we helped serve them the food, the children were lined in watched. Lunch came and we helped serve them the food, the children were lined by gender and age for the food. The smallest boys first to their table. They waited until everyone sat and then said a prayer (in a chant) for us and ate. They didn’t leave any food on their plate and had to wash it after outside. We left at noon to get on the ship on time (Myanmar gov,. had us out of the port before 2 because of tides).
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