Ne Lin Aung at
OK9 Teashop in Pathein where we eat our breakfast has been into thanaka in a big way this morning. He is
a teashop waiter and is 13 years old. He attended primary school for two years
but (as with many children) he had to leave when his parents couldn’t afford
the fees and couldn’t afford to keep him. He had to leave the village and send
money back once a month. Only monastery education is free in Myanmar and though
the curriculum is the same, only children who live near the monastery can
attend. Ne Lin Aung has worked at OK9 for only one month and he tells Win San
that when he drops something or does other things wrong they beat him. Also,
because he is new, the other boys are picking on him. He was so needing
affection I wanted to take him home: that being impossible we slipped some
presents into his shirt pocket. Hopefully his work life will improve as he gets
more experience, though whether he will ever rise above being a waiter is
another question.
Today we are
visiting fishing villages near Na Pu Taw about an hour from Pathein. Here the
Ayeyarwady River is about three miles wide. We’d heard that the village was
poor partly because it is remote from the markets of
Pathein and partly because it is beneath the water when the Ayeyarwady
overflows - and it is doing this right now. In a teashop in Na Pu Taw Win San
negotiates with boat drivers ad eventually we get one who doesn’t envisage our
making his fortune – and off we go. The sky is a promising navy blue –
promising a huge rainstorm I suspect.
After half an
hour we arrive at Kuk Sen Shen Wa village. We sit on the floor of a tiny hut
above the water, Saya Htay sets up shop and goes into business. She hands out
one pair of glasses after another trying to remember who has tried which. This
is not always easy as sometimes a pair or two get handed from one person to
another. She is endlessly patient and encouraging and no she doesn’t mind a bit
if someone insists on trying on at least seven pairs. Win San meanwhile is
hearing the history of the many pairs of eyes and translating some to me as I
sit taking down names and ages of all and sundry who receive the glasses.
Some on FB may
be thinking omg will she ever stop posting pics of people wearing Used-Glasses.
Soon. I just felt that people who had been kind enough to donate their glasses
might be interested to see who had received them.
The first to try
some awegyi glasses is sixty-four
year old Daw Theingyi. Her husband had a stroke some years ago and is
paralysed. She supports them by cooking and then selling fried onions to the
other villagers. Daw Nu (52) and Daw Saw Yi (60) also choose awegyi and Daw Tan Dan Htay (44) who is
a tailor chooses anigyi, which will
be good for her close work. The first man
arrives: U Thein Thein (65). He like all the men and most of the women of Kuk
Sen Shen Wa village is a fisherman. When throwing nets he needs to see exactly
where the fish are. Daw Kin Ma (52) and Daw Kin Nin Twy 43 choose suitable
glasses. The head of the village is U Kin Juyi (55). He saw a doctor five years
ago who wanted to operate on his eyes. He could not afford this so has hardly
been able to read since then. Now he can.
It seemed that a
greater proportion of people in Kuk Sen Shen Wa village has bad eyesight compared to other villages we have visited. We
wondered why and various theories were suggested. Perhaps poor diet, or the
constant sharp contrast between the colour of the water and the sun hitting the
water, perhaps spending much of their time up to their waist in water with the
sun beating down on their heads. More fishermen walk in. U Sa Tu Ya (39) U Saw
Min (45), U The Gyi (57) had one eye sunken and discoloured. About 25 years ago
he was ill with a very high fever and a white spot appeared in his eye. He was
happy with his glasses. Other folk who
received Used-Glasses were U Yaw Win (61) who was a fisherman as well as Daw
San Da Win (41) who grows padi as does Daw Yin Yin (48) who was wearing lots of
thanaka against sunburn.
As we left, the
smiles on the villagers’ faces said it all.
We gave away 17
pairs of glasses at Kuk Sen Shen Wa and over the past the past two weeks we
have travelled over 700 miles and given away approximately more than 110 pairs of reading or long-distance
Used-Glasses. We have also given away many pair of sunglasses that the people of
KL kindly donated. On our last day we still had 40 pairs of Used-Glasses and envisaged giving them
away to three villages. But nature intervened. As we left Kuk Sen Shen Wa the
first of many thunder-clouds clapped and we ran for the boat. As boat driver Ko
Gyi Soe Win was soaked to the skin (we were mostly under cover) we gave him a
pair of sunglasses as well as his fare!
A boat driver in
the teashop at Na Pu Taw threw more possible light on why this fishing village
had almost uniformly poor eyesight, even though only one had had an illness
that prompted it. Perhaps poor diet was a contributing factor. There were no crops or animals other than goats and the
latter are used only for milk. Their only way of eating and earning is by
fishing, so weather plays a part. This village has literally hand to mouth
existence. If they catch nothing, they don’t eat and of course they don’t earn
either. Many of the villagers had not even been to Na Pu Taw, which is very close.
Why? Because they have no money.
He explained how
they lived in fear in the rainy season. They are not far from the area where
hundreds of people drowned and homes were swept away by Cyclone Nargis.
The
headman had told us he warned the people through a loudspeaker whenever he
heard high winds approaching. But what can we do, he said, we live on an island
in the Ayeyarwady River, we have nowhere else to go.
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