Yangon Yinyang Volume 1 Number 4

Yangon Yinyang Volume 1 Number 4

I’m half a day ahead of you so if it’s news to you, it is history to me.

Dateline: Yangon, Myanmar 23 August 2008

Two weeks on the job and I don’t think ADRA has suffered unduly for it.

I am enjoying it here. I live in a nice 2 room apartment in the Summit Parkview Hotel. It isn’t like my place in ADRA Peru but it is all I need until the guests start rolling in. If you go to Google Earth and enter Summit Parkview Hotel, Yangon, Myanmar, you will be looking down on my room. I’m on the top floor, right hand end, facing the park. My apartment was two hotel rooms converted to an apartment. The bedroom is a normal hotel room. In the second room, they removed the bathroom sink and installed a kitchen sink. The tub was removed and cabinets installed with a microwave, hot plate, and rice cooker. The refrigerator is in the living room which also has a table and two small couches plus a desk and TV. The door between the rooms is just a little shorter than my head and a little narrower than my shoulders. I guess they didn’t want to work any harder than necessary when they cut the opening. I’ll wait just a minute while you gasp at the sacrifice I am willing to make to work here.

I eat breakfast in the hotel dining room. It is a large buffet with a mix of Asian and western foods. Usually I get some take-out from a street stand and eat lunch at the office. A meal of rice, vegetables and tofu is about $1.50. Sometimes we go to a restaurant and the price skyrockets to $2.50. There are nice Thai, Indian, Western, etc. restaurants where the price is $10-12 dollars for about the same meal as we get at home. I can buy imported food in the supermarkets. They are about the same price as home but expensive for the average person. The variety isn’t as great as Albertsons but it is good. I haven’t found Grapenuts or root beer or bagels but they have Schweppes Bitter Lemon so I’m getting by. Most of the foods come from Thailand, China, and Russia. Skippy Peanut butter is from America. Shopping is something of an adventure because I can’t read the labels and the photos don’t always represent the product. It reminds me of the time my sister Gayle sent us several cans of food with the labels removed. We couldn’t afford to waste the food so we agreed to eat whatever we opened. This is about the same experience without the malicious intent.

I get picked up by the ADRA driver in the morning but I usually walk back to the hotel in the afternoon. If I walk in the morning, I’m soaked by the time I reach the office. It is little over a mile and I like the walk. This is the rainy season so it rains off and on throughout the day. Yesterday I stayed at the office about 20 minutes waiting for the rain to slow down so I wouldn’t need to put my snorkel on. Everything is green, including most of the buildings covered with moss/mold. The temperature is about 80 F during the day.

I am assured that it is safe to walk, even at night. I’m told that even small crimes are dealt with strongly so there isn’t much crime. Almost everyone smiles when I pass them. Maybe it’s because my pronunciation of "Ming ga lae bae’" (hello) really sounds to them like "do I have spinach in my teeth"? Now matter, I have a good time. When I walk, I can use the Shwedagon
Pagoda for a reference point. It is usually visible through the buildings and trees. I carry my GPS, just in case.

Remember, email goes both ways in this modern age.

More photos on my blog. http://yangonyinyang.blogspot.com/

Stop by if you are in the neighborhood. Doug

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.

Yangon Yinyang Volume 1 Number 2

Thursday 7 August 2008, Bangkok Thailand

This will be short since I’m only in Bangkok for a couple of days. I stopped here to get my visa for Myanmar and to get a briefing from the ADRA Asia Regional Office (my original destination). It took about an hour to get the visa instead of the usual 2-4 days.

The last time I was in Thailand was in December 1991 when we were coming home from China. The first time I was here was in 1968. Bangkok is a large, modern city. The most obvious change is the Bangkok Sky Train (BST). This elevated metro system is fast and efficient. A taxi to the ADRA office took 20 minutes and cost almost $3. The BST took five minutes plus a two minute ride on the back of a motorcycle (taxi) that provided my thrill ride of the day. The BST & mototaxi cost $1.

Traffic drives on the left, when it is convenient. If all lanes are congested and you think you can pass using the oncoming lanes before you get hit, go for it. Motorcycles use all open space. Drivers wear helmets but passengers aren’t required. I guess if you are so stupid you will ride a mototaxi the government doesn’t consider you worth protecting. After two rides, I think I agree.

As in the rest of the world, pedestrians have the right a way. If you are crossing the street and you see a car coming, run– right a way.

I encountered a modern problem. The hotel replaced the incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent. Now they don’t generate heat so I can’t dry my underwear by hanging it on the lamp shade. Wait till I see Al Gore.

I fly to Yangon this afternoon and don’t know how long until I get back on-line.

If you want to be on the email list, let me know.

Yangon Yinyang Volume 1 Number 1

New Adventure, New Nation

Well, we have some news at the Havens’ house. I have told Escondido Adventist Academy that 15 years is enough and it is time for me to move on. I have agreed to go to Myanmar (Burma) to serve as the Interim Country Director for ADRA Myanmar. The office is in Yangon (Rangoon). Several years ago the government changed the name of the country and many of the cities but not everyone got the memo.

ADRA has been working in Myanmar for several years. Following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in May, ADRA conducted emergency relief assistance but now the focus is on reconstruction and development.

The expectation is that they will name a permanent Country Director within 6 months. This is similar to the interim position I took in Peru 4 years ago and it took them a year to name the permanent director so I don’t know how long I will actually be there.

Since this is a short term assignment, Martha will continue with the Pacific Union Office of Education. She will come to visit but we aren’t closing up here and moving there.

I don’t have a departure date yet but I will keep you posted.

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You may remember (unless those sessions with the shrink have improved your brain) that while living in China I sent out the Beijing Buzz. In Peru it morphed into the Lima Loco and now it evolves to Yangon Yinyang. Scholars and historians agree, this isn’t where they look for useful information but it’s my way of entertaining myself and letting family and friends know why I haven’t written lately.

Now is the time to make plans to come and visit. My niece Carrie is a tour guide for Collette Vacations which has tours to Thailand and Myanmar is next door so she will be arranging my visitor schedule. We are looking forward to this and will let you know the address and when you should arrive.

I’m willing to put anyone’s email on the list but you have to opt in after this warning. If you don’t ask, I won’t include you on the final list. If you share this with someone who wants to be included, tell them to send me a note.

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Cyclone Nargis Survivors in Myanmar Continue to Receive ADRA Assistance
Silver Spring, Maryland— Twelve weeks after Cyclone Nargis struck southern Myanmar, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) continues to meet the needs of survivors, providing emergency food aid, shelter materials, sanitation, water, health care, and other assistance to thousands of survivors displaced since the deadly storm that struck the night of May 2 and killed approximately 85,000 people, with more than 53,000 still missing, according to the latest assessment.
In June alone, ADRA provided food aid to more than 49,000 people, including nearly 400 metric tons of rice, legumes, oil, and salt. On June 4, ADRA expanded its relationship with the World Food Programme (WFP) and agreed to distribute an additional 4,526 metric tons of food rations over six months in the Labutta and Myaungmya Townships. ADRA is the largest partner of WFP in Myanmar and distributes as much as 40 percent of WFP commodities nationally.
In the Labutta Township, ADRA is partnering with various donors including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the British Government to increase access to clean water among vulnerable cyclone-affected people by cleaning the local water reservoirs or “ponds,” and providing water purification units, jerry cans, household kits, shelter materials, tool kits, and other goods prior to the end of the rainy season. Its efforts focus on Pyinsalu Sub Township, one of the hardest hit areas in the Irrawaddy Delta where approximately 65,000 people survived. At present, ADRA is helping clean-up water reservoirs in 106 villages throughout Pyinsalu, and plans are underway to desalinate approximately 50 additional reservoirs.
ADRA has also increased its sanitation activities through a second grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), which will further combat the spread of waterborne diseases in the township and reduce illness through improved sanitation. The project will construct a total of 1,550 latrines and more than 350 waste disposal pits and cement washing areas. ADRA has developed and is distributing child-focused coloring books, information labels, and other educational materials to reinforce good hygiene practices in conjunction with its distribution of hygiene kits and water jerry cans to more than 7,500 families. In addition, ADRA has distributed plastic sheeting, household kits, cooking sets, mosquito nets, clothing, baby hygiene kits, and additional aid.
Cyclone Nargis highlighted Myanmar’s vulnerability to high-impact, low-frequency natural hazards, as well as the need for the country to undertake a range of actions for reducing, mitigating and managing disaster risks in the future to avoid similar catastrophes. The Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report released by the Government of the Union of Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations (UN) on July 21, 2008, confirmed that the cyclone caused widespread destruction to homes and critical infrastructure, including roads, jetties, water and sanitation systems, fuel supplies and electricity. A large number of water supplies were contaminated and food stocks damaged or destroyed. The winds tore down trees and power lines, while the accompanying storm surge submerged countless villages.
To send your contribution to ADRA’s emergency response effort, please contact ADRA at 1.800.424.ADRA (2372) or give to the Myanmar Cyclone Fund at www.adra.org ADRA is present in 125 countries, providing community development and emergency management without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race, or ethnicity.
Additional information about ADRA can be found at www.adra.org