5th day in Burma

Wow, my dream came true when I visited the orphanages 2 days ago! There are about 150 orphans at each of the monastery compound I visited and to see the number in person it was simply overwhelming. The evening had given me such bliss I can only put the evening down on paper as there was just so much to write about. I managed to write over 10pages the day after into the journal that Trinh and Oanh had kindly given me for this trip- thanks babes! =) I will therefore only keep it short in this blog.

Prior to visiting the orphans we went and bought 360 bags of pudding cakes (each bag containing 2 pudding cakes) and it was packed away into 6 large bags where Naing, his friend and myself carried 2 bags each to the car where Naing's wife Ohm and daughter Bebe were waiting for us. Afterwards we went to buy bananas and I must say, I never knew there is such a thing as a banana store and so I just had to take a picture! We bought 20 bundles, each containing 10 bananas. We bought extra food because there are monks also. Anyway, first monastery we went to and there were a lot of monks (about 100) whereas the second only has 1 monk. We talked about what I can do (there isn't much-it is abit hard as no one can speak English, even the monks) before distributing the food to the orphans. Naing told me that the kid's daily meals are "miserable" and whatever we give, they are very thankful. At the second monastery I thought the kids were preaching whilst waiting in line for their food but they were actually thanking me and well-wishing me =) The kids were so thankful each and everyone bowed to me when I gave them their portion. It was the kids lucky day as they were all earlier invited to a local's house who cooked them all dinner! We waited around 15mins for them to come back and when they did, we distributed the food to them- my food became their "dessert" =) I felt extremely happy about myself and could only smile and bow with them. It definitely reminded me of my mum when she kindly distributed a few kilos of ricegrains to each and every household in my grandfather's community several years back in Vietnam. What a feeling.

On Monday evening I will be going with Ohm to a Blind's Home. Her brother is blind and he teaches there and Ohm is kind enough to take me there to see what they do. It will be very interesting.

I am interested in helping out at the second monastery I came across as there are a few females here as compared to none at the other monastery. One of the buildings here was actually built through a $70,000USD donation given by a Vietnamese monk who lives in Canada! If I can do it, there are 150 orphans to teach and so little time... I've been racking my brains for the last two days as to what I can teach and I'm still racking to get it all right, for all the ages. A lot of plans are in the air and if all goes accordingly, I may extend my stay here. We will have to see. In the meantime, I will work on my Burmese language.

I now know that anything can be accomplished.. if you set your mind to it. You just have to be brave!!! - I'm still trying to get there.. slowly.


1. Taking pudding cakes out of crates and into large bags
2. Banana Store in front of the owners house


3. Orphans waiting patiently for the food distribution. Some are praying.


4. With the help of Ohm, Naing and his friend I distribute a pack of 2 pudding cakes + banana to each and every orphan at the monastery.



5. To make sure everyone gets to eat their share, we made them eat on the spot =)
6. Food donation to the monks (they will save it for breakfast since they cannot eat after midday)