This
morning and this afternoon we have been giving away glasses donated by people
who shop at The Hive in KL. The Hive would have to be the most recycling aware and
green shop in KL. Thank you Claire Sancelot for donating 69 pairs of glasses to
the Gifts of Sight project. They are very much appreciated by the recipients
(and us).
Driving
to the manufacturer of round concrete pots, I was on the back of someone’s
motorbike and copped a bucketful of water! Luckily, I had zipped up my computer
bag, otherwise I might not be so happy right now.
We
arrived at the home of U Maung Thein. About four years ago when he was 50, he
noticed his eyes were failing He could not see well enough to do much work. In
January this year, the Gifts of Sight project gave him back his eyesight and
his job.
U
Maung Thein makes two types of concrete receptacles two feet tall and eight
feet in circumference. One has a concrete base and is used for holding water
outside each house. The other has no base. Why is that I asked? They told me
they are for a toilet.
How
silly of me I should have known that! Depending on the number of people in the
household two or even three may be buried deep into the ground one on top of
the other. Then the little toilet hut would be build around what is now a very
large pipe and the ‘normal’ toilet equipment would be installed over the top.
U
Maung Thein’s wife works alongside him from start to finish on the pots. We
watch as water, large stones, small stones and gravel are all poured into the
wet cement, which is held in place by a very substantial mould. By tomorrow the
receptacle\cylinder will be dry and, as it was an order, its new owner will
come to collect it. In one day the pair can make two such receptacles. The one
for the drinking water, which has a base, they sell it for Kyat 30,000. They
sell the one for the toilet for Kyat 10,000 for the toilet. If they can sell
two of the drinking water pots in one day, that will provide for the whole
family. Thanks to the success of the Clean Drinking Water Project they now have
many orders for water storage containers to stand around each house.
I
suddenly recognized my old friend Daw Aye Thid. When I noticed her in January,
she had no shoes and inside her house, which is made of dried palm fronds there
was nothing. I learned that she was a widow and had to be a worker because she
had no land. Workers have to take any job they can just to feed themselves. To
help out I bought her a sack of rice and gave her money for some shoes. I
couldn’t bear the thought of someone walking barefoot on ground that is now
horribly hot and dotted with scorching stones.
Daw
Lie, who is nearly 90 years old was happy that we had come back so she could
have the chance of finding glasses that would help her – we did. Daw Hla Twe
came to visit us again. We had given her glasses on our last trip but after a
while they gave her headaches. Could she try some more? Of course she could. I
believe she took some that were not as strong as her previous ones.
We
had to leave the concrete cylinder maker as youngsters in one part of the
village were having a drunken party with very loud music, the throb of which
would wreck Sebastian’s voice recording. So we returned to Saya Htay’s mother’s
house for lunch. Thankfully the youngsters needed lunch too – and to our relief
they shut up! Immediately we were headed back to the concrete maker and
Sebastian completed his shoot.
The
last artisan on our list was the basket maker to whom we had given glasses in
January to find out if and how the Gifts of Sight had helped him. We were so
pleased to find out that he could now do all the basketwork he could do when he
was a young man. In addition to this good report we found he was teaching his
grandson to make baskets. His grandson was probably in his twenties but he had
the same limitations as a polio victim. He could not go to school, walk well,
or talk but he had a very good memory for all his grandfather’s teaching. We
were so happy that while we were there he finished the basket on which he had
been working. For us it was the perfect end to our time in Nyaung Pin Zauk.
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