Yangon Yinyang Volume 1 Number 3

I’m 13 ½ hours ahead of you so if it’s news to you, it is history to me.

Dateline: Yangon, Myanmar 8 August 2008 (08/08/08) or (8/8/8)

Now it’s official. I’m in Yangon and working.

The 65 minute flight from Bangkok was routine as were the formalities of entering the country. My luggage was on the same plane so I am getting settled. An ADRA car with the Associate Country Director and the Cyclone Nargis Response Director met me at the airport.

I’m in a hotel room but will move to an apartment in the hotel soon. The hotel is the equivalent of a Motel 6 but close to luxury compared to some of the options. The hotel is near the center of the city and about 3 miles from the ADRA Myanmar office.

From my window I can see the top of the Shwedagon Paya (Buddhist temple) above the trees. It is covered in gold leaf and at night it is beautiful. It is number one on my must-see list. It is probably the most famous symbol of Myanmar.

This is the rainy season. For those from southern California, water actually falls from the sky.

I’m going to be busy here. ADRA has projects in several parts of the country the Cyclone Response is large. We went from about 100 employees to over 400. Some of the response work is closing because the immediate needs have been met for some people but the long term reconstruction demands are staggering. Hopefully the donors will make the transition from disaster relief to development. The office has been without a Country Director since the Cyclone so most of the growth in people and projects has been done on an ad hoc basis. The results have been excellent but we need to get the system coordinated and caught up with reality.

Everyone in the office speaks at least some English, most are conversant. There are several expats here. Some are for a month or two, some longer. Several have come and gone since the cyclone in May and the plans, reports, etc. reflect several different ways of doing things. Part of my job is to organize and standardize the procedures.

Myanmar is 13 ½ hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time, 10 ½ hours ahead of the east coast. For the rest of you it is UTC + 6 ½ hours.

Someone just went to get my lunch, apparently around 2 pm is the normal lunch time.

I’ll post some photos to my blog as soon as I can get everything organized.

Stop by if you are in the neighborhood.