Hello Again,
I felt like last night was kind of a disaster as I was writing to you. The power was out and it was hot and dark and I was trying to write on my phone. Tonight the power is on, the lights are on, and I am sitting at the computer. I thought I might fill you in a little more of what is happening over here.
We made our first trip to the grocery store. Tun drove us to a place called City Market. It is the most westernized market in the city. It took us about 30 minutes to get there because of traffic. The traffic here is HORRIBLE. No one stays in their lane. It is just chaotic. It was difficult shopping because I recognized very few things. Most of the food, I didn't even know what it was. The things I was familiar with were very expensive because they have to import them. The only cold cereal they had was corn flakes. They didn’t even have oatmeal. I definitely need to learn a new way of eating and cooking.
We are sooo grateful our trip up north got canceled because I am not sure how we would have done it. We were so exhausted and shocked that it would have been a bit of a problem for us. We will be going down South next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for a project. Our travel has already hbeen approved. We have to get it approved every time we travel.
We spent most of the day yesterday training with the Sippels. There is a lot to learn. Hopefully it will come as we jump in and do it. We are so grateful the Sippels are still here. They have been very helpful.
Our apartment is quite nice. I think we are in a pretty nice part of town. Yangon is huge, comprising several different townships. I have seen nicer areas and also a lot of poverty. The apartment is quite large…4 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms. The power continues to keep going out and when I looked outside and saw the power pole I know why. It is the biggest mess or wires you have ever seen. I am surprised the whole town doesn’t burn down.
I was surprised to see that pollution is a problem here. It is a lot worse than even our worst days in SL. My eyes are burning and stinging. They say when rainy season comes the pollution is washed away.
We had quite the interesting experiences today. We had to go to the bank to transfer all LDSC funds over in our name and we had to get our business cards printed. Tun knows everything…he took us downtown Yangon to a photo shop and then a printing place. There are no words to describe the bank-just picture church tables with computers on them. The tellers are sitting at the computers and we sat up to the table. This afternoon we went to visit some of the members. We also visited with our Branch President. He is such a sweet man.
The surprise of the day was when Tun took us to a brand new mall that was just constructed. I hate to admit it, but it felt so good! It felt somewhat like home. It was beautiful with very nice shops. Kentucky Fried Chicken was there. It was delicious. Dad and I decided we would go there on our PDay just to hang out. We went from one extreme to the other. Tun said that the average Myanmar could not even afford to walk in the doors of the mall however.
I love the people here already. They are so beautiful and modest. The women wear beautiful colored skirts and tops and most of the men were skirts also (longis) I even love the light colored tree bark they put on their faces. I think it makes them look so pretty.
Tomorrow morning we are going to do a project with the ward. We are going to clean up a park. I am not sure how that is going to turn out with 100 degree weather picking up garbage. We have to be at the church at 8:00 a.m. and then we will all take taxis to the park. It will be our first chance to meet most of the members. We hear they are very excited to meet us and we are excited to meet them as well.
Please don’t forget how much you are loved.
Mom
No comments:
Post a Comment