The summer season in Myanmar begin from the end of February to the end of May. Summer is usually a hot and dry season. The temperature this summer ranges from 100F (37'C) in the morning to 113F (42'C) in the afternoon.
The mountainous region in the north such as Kachin State, Chin state and Shan state experience unusually hot weather unlike previous year. The dry weather is causing some of these areas to experience water shortages especially for supply of drinking water.
The hot and dry weather is causing some well to dry up. Even some big towns are affected by water shortages during this season. Some tributaries of the Irrawaddy is drying up and some have evaporated to a pool of muddy water. In some places, people have no choice but drink from this river even though the water is brown and muddy. The local uses a salty stone to cure these dirty water. Apparently, this water is safer to drink after the local place this salty stone in the water.
Wells in the Irrawaddy region is 60 to 300 ft deep. Water pumped from these well is still muddy in some areas.
Local people used these muddy well water for bath, cooking and even drinking. While we were with them, we used the bottled water that we carried along. Local people has no choice but to used the water supply that is available to them from the river and the well.
As my son Samuel was playing with the water pump, local kids including little Buddhist monk joined him to pump the water in the village.
Through our kind friend, iBota Foundation, we donated water filters to the people of these villages in Irrawaddy.
iBota Water filter is easy to use and it can be carried everywhere. It was our joy to be able to give them these water filters so they can use cleaner water supply.
Playing football just outside the housing village is a memorable moment for kids. Their lives have been changed with the completion new housing and new school.Most towns or villages in this region are surrounded by rivers.
There are few trees in Irrawaddy region as most land has been used to cultivate rice and other crops. However, there are coconut trees. surrounding villages. After each harvest, the farms dried up, the soil cracked and there is hardly any place to find a shade except some coconut trees near river banks. In the picture below, you can see in the background completed school building, a church building and houses donated by "i Love Myanmar".
Yangon weather is hot and humid during the day, but when we traveled beyond Yangon especially during early hours in the morning, we experienced thick fog and road condition with visibility of less than ten feets. Eventually, we had to stop driving due to the thick fog and wait for more sunlight. We literally cannot see road as there are insufficient road markers, lines and light to guide our path. We decided to take a group picture during our stop; MTRV-4 crews, I Love Myanmar team and my family.
As we traveled further away from Yangon, as the sun continue to rise that is after 9 am, the weather became hot very quickly. During the hot weather, we began to appreciate the cool weather in the morning. We continued our journey through dusty, hot, humid, bumpy roads as well as dried harvested rice paddy.
In Irrawaddy delta region, there were barely any trees only few coconut trees here and there but not enough to provide an environment for cool breeze. An umbrella and a hat became very important tool to keep us from the scotching sun and heat.
We observed during this journey, roads
is being opened everywhere. As we traveled, we encountered bulldozers
opening road thus we cannot continue our journey by car and had to walk
through the portion of the road under construction while our vehicles
find another path to detour.
Most Towns in Irrawaddy are now accessible by car due to the summer season. Most mud roads are dried and even rice paddy are dried up. The places that we visited is not easily accessible by car in the past. We have traveled to these villages by boats after the Cyclone Nargis hit this area.
During the rainy season from June to September, the roads in this area are not useful. Traveling by boat is a better option. However, it is true that during the raining season between June and September, road condition is too muddy for conventional vehicle to travel on.
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After we get into the villages, we have to take a farm truck (trologi) to take us to other villages. A farm truck can travel through rough rice paddy at a speed of 5-15 miles per hour. We rode on these farm trucks frequently during our time in the Irrawaddy delta.
This is a kind of a farm truck we take in the farm land. We donated this kind of farm truck so we have vehicle, we get to ride when we get there, otherwise, we have to walk miles and miles endless farmland which look like Safari.
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We also used a toyota light truck to travel to our destination. This tough light ...
This life account is dedicated to thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar on May 2-3, 2008 who being alive still faces the grief from their loss. We met a man who has boat on the day we intended to travel from Bokale to Daunt Gyi. He was willing to take us on his boat while we had been unsuccessful to find anyone to take us across the river to Daunt Gyi. Prior to the Cyclone, about 100-150 boats travel this route daily. At this time, no one was willing to travel on that path on the Arrawaddy. There seem to be a silent fear in the air for people to use the river. Besides, there were rumors that another Cyclone is coming.
We finally found a man with a boat that was willing to take us to Daunt Gyi village. When we met him, he asked us to pay him diesel fee and we gladly obliged. There seem to be fear on the face of our guide from the village. As most of our team members had grew up in the city, none of us understood why there was such a fear about going on a boat in a river.
Facing fear on the river of Death
About 20 minutes into our boat journey from the river bank at Bokale, it started to rain heavily. Strong wind and waves came at our boat. Our boat started to swing left and right strongly. The boatman focused attentively to navigate our boat then I started starring at certain direction as if he spotted something. I got up from my seat and looked towards the direction where he looked. I saw corpses floating everywhere on the river. My hair stood up. Now I taste what everyone is fearful about.
My friends saw me taking out my camera as if I have spotted something important. When they saw what I saw, they started screaming hysterically. Our boat was still beaten by strong wind, rain and waves while we navigate through the zone of floating corpses. The screaming among was still going on. I don’t know what exactly I was feeling anymore, it is like fear, worry and anxiety all mixed up into one reality. I can feel my body heating up. Then we began to pray to the Lord like never before for at least 20 minutes.
After a while, the rain stop and the river calmed down. I began to talk to the boatman about his experience. He has a stoic look. He only gave me brief answer to my question. He never ...
Myanmar
