Filming the concrete pipe producer and the basket weaver

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.

Filming the toddy tapper

 Today Sebastian will film a toddy tapper, a round concrete tank maker and a basket maker. We learn that the toddy tapper who had agreed to be filmed is sick today and unable to climb. Fortunately, Ko Kyaw Myint Sein, to whom we gave glasses last evening and who gave me a lift on his motorbike, will show us how he taps toddy today.

There are hundreds of the more than 30-foot tall toddy palms in Nyaung Pin Zauk. As the owners have to climb each tree twice a day to slice into a bud at the top of the tree, bring down the pots filled with sweet juice and replace them with new empty pots having good vision is vitally important.

I notice that the top few feet of the tree has a permanent ladder attached. We watch as Ko Kyaw Myint Sein carries and then props another much longer ladder against the trunk of the tree. Then he climbs barefoot up the ladder on the trunk. Hanging from his belt on ropes are empty pots blackened by the fire. In his belt at the back is tucked a large knife with which he will cut a hole to let the sweet liquid flow. He hangs one pot below each cut, and then comes down the tree with the two pots that have caught the liquid in the night. Toddy tappers climb each tree twice a day.  

Menwhile, Ko Kyaw Myint Sein’s wife and daughter alternate between carrying the pots to the base of each tree, then rushing back to make sure the fire is drawing well for another part of the process. This entails boiling until the liquid has evaporated and thick, creamy brown jaggery remains.  

Ko Kyaw Myint Sein received glasses yesterday. However, I was very happy to see him up the tree without them today, because of course it takes time to get used to wearing glasses and I would never forgive myself if he fell because his eyes were not adjusted to the glasses. He will get used to them around the village before he starts climbing in them.

Back at the house, Daw Mahan Thein pours the liquid into steel woks: four of them, and stirs and stirs for 20 minutes. During this time, someone else is feeding the fire, others are going back to each tree to collect more full pots: everyone has several jobs.

Other villagers arrive, whether to help or watch us is unclear.  Daw Mahan Thein takes the wok from the fire but continues to stir and stir. The brown sticky juice continues to evaporate then at last she lifts out a large brown sticky sweet ball. Quickly, before the material dries, the women dip their hands in cool water, break off small chunks of the ball and roll them into round lumps. They continue for another 20 minutes breaking off teaspoon-sized soft lumps, roll them on the tray until they are the round little ball we so much enjoy at the end of a Myanmar meal.

Filming the woven split bamboo weaver

When we had finished watching and Sebastian had filmed Daw Mee Myine, we visited Daw Me Thein who is 68. We were invited to drink Chinese tea, which, on such a hot day was very welcome. The word got around the village that we were filming which was exciting and giving out glasses at the same time made it even more exciting. U Town Win (55) and Daw Oun Shine (68) had broad smiles on their faces when they left wearing their new glasses.

The next person Sebastian needed to film was Daw Me Thein who is a split bamboo wall weaver. Young people go into the forest for her and cut slim green bamboo about 12 foot in length. She slices the bamboo into short slim slivers then weaves them on to much longer slim slivers.  These long split bamboo woven panels will eventually be used in the walls of someones house or hut. Each six-foot rectangle of the woven bamboo sells for Kyat 150 (A thousand Kyat is roughly US$1). When she sells the woven panel she gives Kyat 50 to the young people who cut each one. Her husband does not live in the village we were visiting because he has had a stroke, which is common here, even with young people. Daw Me Thein lives here with her widowed sister who helps her with her work.

Suddenly there were squeals of delight. Saya Htay had handed Daw Thin Seint (50) some anigyi (close up) glasses and suddenly she could read again after ten years. Up until then, for years her eyes, which watered all the time clouded her vision. The glasses seem to overcome the watering. 

Later there was a funny incident when Saya Htay handed an old lady glasses and gave her something to read. The old lady told us she had no education and could not read: even the Gifts of Sight couldn’t fix that!

It is not possible to post pictures here - well not in my lifetime anyway - so the pictures will be on Facebook or through Dropbox. 

Filming in Nyaung Pin Zauk

 We left Bagan running the gauntlet of dozens of boys with water hoses trained in our direction. Sebastian drew in his camera and closed the window – pronto! Sadly we could not give away presents of fruit, cake, toothbrushes and paste (from the hotel!) to the children of the villages through which we passed, for fear that we’d get a bucket or two full of water in the car. The Water Festival lasts for five days so we must take precautions until the sixth.

We arrived at Nyaung Pin Zauk. The first photos illustrate an oil extraction venture that one of the recipients of Gifts of Sight had to turn to when her eyes were too bad for her to weave.

Everyone was in their best clothes in honour of Sebastian who started filming even before Win San parked the car. The plan was that Sebastian would go off to film with Win San as his assistant to do the microphone and of course the translation.  Meanwhile, Saya Htay and I would give away glasses to all who needed them. The last time we were here, in January, we could give only to the north end of the village. Now we have time (and glasses) to give away to the south end.

Sebastian is making a film, which will last for half an hour. Within that time he wanted five stories from five different people in Nyaung Pin Zauk to whom we have previously given glasses, to see if they have helped them.

We identified a weaver, a bamboo cutter, a toddy tapper, a concrete pot maker and a basket maker. Sebastian wanted answers to five or six questions for example:

How and how long ago did they know their eyesight was failing. Did they have to stop doing their job. If yes, how long ago was this. After you received the Gifts of Sight glasses. Did the glasses help you? Could you start your old job again?

All the glasses we gave away today were from Rotary Langkawi. They were glasses ordered and paid for by tourists who then did not pick them up. Very generously on hearing about our Gifts of Sight project the optician in Langkawi gave them to Rotary, Rotary gave them to me and we gave them to the south end of Nyaung Pin Zauk. Because the glasses were all new and bi-focal or multi focal Saya Htay warned the recipients to be careful at first until they got used to being able to see in different ways.

Our first ‘client’ was Daw Mee Mye who was 40 years of age and a weaver. She noticed her eyes were getting cloudy more than ten years ago. She needed more and more help and her very young grandson did the bobbin winding and tied the knots every time she came to the end of a bobbin. Her weaving slowed right down and was not of the same standard as before, but the growing family needed money so she started a peanut oil business. She has a small diesel generator and two machines one to crush the peanuts the other to squeeze out the oil. It takes an hour to reduce peanuts to peanut oil and she can sell the oil at Kyat 2,500 (US$2) for one litre. But her real love was weaving she told us and when we had finished admiring the peanut oil venture we walked back to her loom.

Her husband came to see us on his way to work. He is a farmer of peanuts, beans and sesame, because this is what grows best in the hot dry land around here. He showed us his paso and eingyi (sarong and shirt) both woven by his wife, as well as the very dilapidated cap he was wearing which had seen much service! A small boy arrived carrying many skeins of cotton: purple, blue and black, he got together with his grandmother to fill bobbin after bobbin. Daw Mee Mye’s daughter has to concentrate on the peanut oil, so it is very helpful to have the grandson wanting and able to help.

We are staying at the Golden Palace in Pakokku with is comfortable and has electricity but the speed of the internet is glacial and I would have to stay here a week to post pictures on my blog. I will, therefore, send some photos of the people wearing Rotary Langkawi's glasses by Dropbox to David Bradley. Others I will post on Facebook which is slightly faster.

Gifts of Sight

Today is the start of the Water Festival to swoosh in the New Year in Myanmar. We will probably get drenched as we get into the car and must then drive with all windows tightly closed!

We are going to Bagan, about a five hour drive, so that Sebastian can film a sunset and then sunrise the next morning.

We will arrive in Nyaung Pin Zauk by the afternoon and then our work really begins.

Sebastian wants to make a film of about five people who used to do a job, then their eyes became bad so they could no longer do it. Then along came Gifts of Sight (the name of the project), the people could see again and could go back to their original job.

That is the Plan. I wonder whether there will be a Plan B or even a Plan C. One lady would have been perfect as she started working as a weaver, had to give up because she couldn’t see, then we gave her glasses. But she didn’t go back to weaving! She found another job. Of course we are very glad for her but not for our film!

Below are some of the people who have received glasses. 

The lady in the first photo does not own any shoes. I will rectify that, because it is the hot season which makes very painful walking. Her house is behind her and there is nothing in it. She is called a worker because she owns no land in the village. To feed herself she has to take any job that other villagers might give her. I am taking a sack of rice with us.