What Happened in Burma

Day One
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
We arrived in the morning. As we approached the Rangoon airport runway thatch roofs, palm trees, and patches of water filled the windows. The runway was in much worse condition than the airport itself. Air conditioning and reminders of Burmese tradition sprinkled the greeting room. There was a threat of losing all our medical supplies when half our bags were marked with silver "X"'s - indication that they must be searched. One of the veteran international dentists suggested that the only reason we got our bags through was because the security had a heart for their people, and saw what we were doing. They could have confiscated and sold everything on the black market. As we drove to the 5-star, Park Royal Hotel, we snapped pictures out of the 80’s style bus of bicycles with a passengers sitting side-saddle style on the back rack; water stained, repair begging, high rises with green foliage living in any crevice in the pavement; and anything else that seemed foreign to the eye.
On the way I learned how to say “Hello” and “Thank you” in Burmese. The one who taught me was the beautiful Nancy, our hosts wife, who looks my age but is 10 years my senior. Most Burmese look very young, and most were surprised at my age too.
We arrived at the hotel, and everyone found the comedy in the 5-star accommodations, with views of said high-rises across the street. Rangoon is the City of Paradox. One has to look hard to see the political underlying. There are no signs above the construction workers that state “We were forced to build this tourist attraction for no compensation.” When you bring up the government to a local, all you would notice is a look to his right and left in justified paranoia – and you might miss that too. But when you are in a speeding bus, where words are lost with the wind to anyone not in the vehicle, or in a private room, you could learn of the oppressive life the Burmese people live. I say Burmese people not in terms of the ethnic group, but in nationality and citizenship. I asked multiple times, “Does everyone dislike the present government?”
“Yes, everyone.”
“Even some of the soldiers?”
“Yes, but they are afraid of the suffering if they said no.”
But that conversation didn’t happen on day one, let me not get ahead of myself.

Day Two
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Our complimentary breakfasts became the main meal of the day. A plethora of cuisine, amount, and taste was served. It was ridiculous actually. But, it served well to nourish us for a long day of pulling teeth, dressing wounds, and cleaning dental instruments – can you guess which job I had?
We visited the orphanage that our host, David ran. It was in a closed gate community, a place where only the rich – and therefore only the government friendly – could live. In David and his orphanages case, foreign sponsoring made possible the accommodation. We were supposed to spend our nights at the orphanage which doubled as a guest house, but as it turned out, we did not.
Before we saw the guest house, David told our team leader that it was far too dirty, far too poor to suit us. It turned out to be nothing of the sort. It was much better than any of us thought our living arrangements would be. It was a new house, fully functional and beautiful. But we would not be able to be among the Burmese people. As the guest house was in a military friendly area, we would have been kept from leaving the house. We chose to sleep in the hotel until we could find a village to live in. But village life would be hard to achieve.
After the orphanage we went to the Shwedagon Pagoda, and the Lying Down Buddha to get our site seeing out of the way.
At the Shwedagon Pagoda I got scammed. It was okay though. We walked in through the South entrance. The name South entrance does not justify the 7-tier hall leading up to the golden pagoda. It is hard to describe, so I will promise pictures when I can. Anyways, as we entered, cameras drawn, ready for battle, I strayed to the left. A young monk was playing and I asked him for a picture.
Click. Another, older monk approaches. Mingalaba’s (Hello’s) exchange with bows, and small talk begins. He asks me what day I was born and I reply “Friday.”
He brings me to the North entrance, where I guess those of Friday births go. Every day is an animal - I get guinea pig. Under direction, I pour 9 cups of water on a Buddha, 7 on my guinea pig, and 5 on the bigger Buddha. Then we walk to an area that looks at the 2500 year old Pagoda and the monk offers a prayer. He shows me around, tells me how many gems the pagoda has on top and that at the very top sits a 76 carat diamond. Then he says that he has to meet someone, and it is customary to make an offering to the monks.
“5000?”
“10000?”
“Take my money.”
At the Lying Down Buddha, pictures of the monument are hard because it is inside a room that does not allow you to step back far enough to get a full body shot. One of my teammates is smart enough to go to the feet and get a shot looking up to the head – turned out well.
I went around to the back, where behind the Buddha, are monk apartments. I wave to one through a window and he asks where I come from.
“California,” brings a smile and a nod.
I noticed that there was a man in military garb following our group. I couldn’t believe that he noticed us as we were being very secretive westerners, with cameras and tennis shoes and baseball caps. I began to try to talk to him, but conversations are short when one knows only two phrases, so I looked up “Beautiful” in my Burmese Phrase Book and pointed to the orange sun that fell behind the monks dwellings.
“La de”

Day Three
Monday, October 6, 2008
Our first day of clinic is a good one. I find out a bad way to keep track of our patients and tried to learn “Wait outside” as the heat, humidity, and packed room combo is a rough one. It worked for a few minutes at a time, but people were very interested in what was happening.
I learned that the kids loved to see their pictures – and that the instant viewing of such that a digital camera provides is a nice bridge in culture. I learned this just in time to miss it when my LCD leaked over ¾ of my screen.
Sloan let me pull 2 teeth from one lady’s mouth and another from an older man. I also got to give my patient (the older man) the numbing shot. I thought how I would be thrown in jail for such an act in the States.

Day Four
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Day two of clinic was great. Location: Jungle. We set up dental outside and with the shade it was downright luxurious (for the one not pulling teeth). It was a slow day so we made fun by setting up a child fluoride station. The kids are so cute with nothing but fluoride tray tabs sticking out of their puffed up mouths and eyes wide, concentrating, trying not to swallow the fluoride.
The slow pace also let us take a bike ride around the village. The breaks don’t work very well – especially when I was using one hand to take pictures, but it worked out. A local farmer ran out to bring us to his house. At first we thought he was telling us to give back the stolen bikes, but he wanted to show us his crop, serve us fruit from it, and give us water to drink (even though the water we stayed away from). The people are so generous with and proud of what they have. It was a blessing to see.
David owns a rice patty near this village. He uses the crop to feed the orphanage.

Day Five
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
This day I felt under the weather – all the excitement from being in Burma had taken its toll on me and for some reason my ankles swelled up to shrek-size. I took it slow that day. The kids in this town had made kites out of plastic bags and sticks, which flew 400feet high or more.

Day Six
Thursday, October 9, 2008
I had bought a Burmese style lungi on Saturday and had been practicing tying it after clinic, wearing it to dinner. On Thursday I wore it to clinic. It was funny, one of our drivers asked me to show me how I tied it (in hand motions, he didn’t speak English) and he and another man watched with judgment and affirmation as I finished. It is similar to tying a tie here in the States.
A lot of Burmese wear Tanikha, a tan colored lotion that cools the skin, and prevents sun damage and wrinkles. Nancy, our hosts wife, put tanikha on me. I knew by her laugh that something was awry. It was not the same laugh that my “Mingalaba” brought, or my lungi. Something was not right. People started to laugh. I took a picture of myself and found Mickey Mouse in tanikha on my forehead. Also, I guess there are certain ways that men wear it and that women wear it and I was a cross-tahikha-er. Made for some good laughs though.

Day Seven
Friday, October 10, 2008
Our last day of clinic was incredible. The village was across the river so we had to take boats there. When we got to the docks David had a look on his face that said, “Now you will really see how it is here.”
Police came with us. The village was right on the banks of the Rangoon River. Closely knit houses with thatch roofs were stilted above the muddy mix of excrement, dirt, and trash. We got right to work.
I had a lot of trouble keeping up with the dentists because it takes 20 minutes to sterilize instruments, and we only had 10 syringes to go between 5 dentists. After a while I found a way to minimize the wait time by sterilizing each syringe individually rather than along with each batch of instruments. It was great to be busy because the past few days we had wrapped up early. Evidence of Cyclone Nargis was still evident in this community. Lack of general health care was more so. One man’s skin took more than a few seconds to regain shape after being touched. Three people were carried in on hammocks. Herniated umbilical chords and intestines appeared. This is Burma. After lunch I took a short walk with Sloan and Brian. I must have dropped behind because after a while it was just me and a parade of locals. One man stopped me, pointing to his grandson’s stomach. He had a herniated umbilical chord (which I guess is not a big problem) and I told him to follow me. The child was shy but eventually came when his mother carried him. The grandfather then pointed to his own tooth and I beckoned him along too. It was a beautiful thing. The grandfather showed so much appreciation to me, thanking me repeatedly, even when he had bloody gauze stuck in his mouth and a numb mouth. I’ve been brushing my teeth extra long now.
A little girl came into the hospital with a herniated intestine (I think) and the team brought her back over the river and paid for her to go to the hospital and stay there for a few days
The first man brought in by hammock was given an IV and the devout attention of both our medical workers. I was told he died that day.
Another death occurred but I am not sure who it was.
At the end of the day we had to turn away a full cue. It was a good shake reminding us that we did not bring salvation from the effects of Nargis.

Day 8
Saturday, October 11, 2008
We woke up early and left Tamara at the hotel, she will be in Burma until the 28th. The rest of the team flew to Bangkok, where they flew to Crabby and I flew to Delhi.

Delhi

huh

Three Days Out

In three days I'll be boarding a plane, gearing up for a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong where I'll wait for 3 hours to board a 3 hour flight to Bangkok where I'll go to a hotel to sleep for 4 hours and then get on a plane to Yangon, Myanmar. I can't wait to be in Bangkok at midnight, trying to explain to a Thai taxi driver where I want to go, while he looks at my sleep-deprived, naive face and messes with the meter.
The last few days at work I have been on air. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm getting work done, it's just one of those things where I am easily distracted and a feeling of disinvolvement clouds my mind. It's kind of nice actually, it kind of puts my job in perspective. I tend to be obsessively meticulous and involve too many emotions in the shelves of Trader Joe. And with this attitude, I've met some pretty rad people. I found out one lady went to South Africa when I was stocking the Pepperdew Salsa. I guess that's a common one over there. I met on of my co-workers great aunts, who was in Myanmar in 1990, knows some people from Myanmar who now live in Ventura, and who's husband races cars down at the fair-grounds and has actually clipped other racers and gone tumbling and turning with his 65-year old or so body inside.
Also, an employee of Patagonia, upon noticing my footwear (Patagonia Finn) told me there is some sort of mishap at the store and she can get me another pair! Talk about perfect timing!
I just got my medical scrubs today, compliments of my good friend John, and they fit perfect, and make me look cool too. I might go into the medical field just for the outfit, seriously these things are legit. I love how basic a set of scrubs is.


India:
The second leg in India has turned out to be a 7 1/2 week solo trek, which will take me wherever the whims care. I do have a slight plan - land in Delhi, go to Agra, then Varanasi, then up to the Himachal Pradesh region where the Dalai Lama resides. I have been scouring the pages of the Lonely Planet Guide to India and I found a hotel that is literally feet outside the East gate of the Taj Mahal for 700 rupees a night. Now that's going to be legit.

I will try to keep this blog updated while away, and if you send your email address to me ( jeremiahbtaylor@gmail.com ) I'll put you on my mailing list. In fact, please do, I'd love to let you know what is happening, and hear from you - it will make me feel loved.

Post Myanmar Idea

Well, since I am going to be in the area, I have decided to go to India for about 7 weeks directly following my trip to Myanmar! I have armed myself with the Lonely Planet India guide, and with knowledge flowing from people who have been, I am expecting a good trip. I can't wait to go to Varanasi and see the Ganges!

Acceptance

On August 22nd, 2008 I was accepted to go with International Medical Relief to Myanmar in October. It is a medical team but I am going to help in any way I can, as I have no medical training - makes me want to take that Emergency Medical Technician course offered at Ventura College. But they don't boil it down into a September only class.
I have gotten my passport, the shots that are free, my anti-diarrhea and malaria meds, and my North Face backpack (34ltr Heckler!) and Nalgene water bottle - so I'm halfway there...
The trip is going to cost $3600, but at least it is tax deductible! If anyone wants to help me out on the monetary part of this trip, it would really be appreciated - and I'll relay the tax break to you if you send a check written out to International Medical Relief, maybe with a "for Jeremiah's trip" in the note section. But I'm not sure when they want the money by, so stay tuned!