I walked out of my apartment today to go & buy something at the pharmacy & a lady selling Myanmar homemade snacks, whom I had talked to before, was coming down our little lane. When she saw me, she broke into a smile and said, ‘Auntie, you’re still here. I haven’t seen you for so long so I thought that you had left.’ When I asked her how she was, she said, ‘Oh, I’m not very well. I’m losing my voice so I can’t call out what I’m selling very well.’ She looked very thin. I asked her if she had sold much that day. She then took down the big pot on her head & showed me the banana-leaf wrapped snacks in the pot. There were probably around 40 left. I asked her how much they were & she said, ‘The usual. 200 kyats each (about 15c.). I said that I would like to buy some, but she said, ‘No. I’m going to give you some.’ I didn’t feel good about that, but I could tell that she would not feel good if I paid for it, so I said, ‘Why don’t you come into my apartment for a little while so we can visit.’ She agreed to that, but she was still insisting on just giving me some of her snacks, so I said, ‘Why don’t we trade our snacks? I’ll eat yours & you can eat mine & we can have a cup of green tea together.’ So, that’s what we did. I had forgotten that last year I had asked her how many children she had (5) and that I had given her clothes for her children, until she reminded me.

Then she started telling me all about her family & what had happened to them when the cyclone hit. She said that their little house in Dawbom (across the river} the roof blew off & the walls of their house fell down, so they were in the rain all night. She wasn’t able to sell for the next week, so they didn’t have anything to eat except for 4 condensed milk cans of rice, that was distributed one day. Her husband, who is a construction worker – daily laborer – has no work during rainy season. After about a week she was able to start selling again, but they didn’t have any money for repairing their house until she was able to save up enough, over 3 weeks, to buy a tarpaulin, for 12,000 kyats (about $10) that her husband then made into a roof for their house. Whenever it rained, they would all run to a tea shop & sit until the rain stopped, or, if it rained at night, they would all try to sit under any place that gave some shelter. Up to now they haven’t been able to fix the walls, so the rain comes in the sides & they get wet.

Her children range in age from 4 to 15. She is 35 years old. She’s been able to put the 4 oldest in school, but, the last 2 years her 15 year old dropped out of school because he felt embarrassed that he couldn’t the donations of money that the teacher asked the children to bring. She’s thought of letting him work in a tea shop, but really, in her heart, doesn’t want to do that as she said, ‘Children this age should still be playing.’ He stays at home & looks after the 4 year old & also takes his 3 siblings to & from school.

She was able to save up enough money to buy the 3 children 1 uniform each, so, when they come home, he takes their uniforms to his aunt to wash & then dries them (by the fire if it’s raining). She said it was good when school started – June 1st – because then the children could be in a safe, dry place all day. She herself has only 1 blouse & 1 loungji. At night she washes her loungji & dries it by the fire. However, she showed me how the bottom of it got burned because she fell asleep the other night while she was drying it. She has to go out selling every day, as otherwise they don’t have anything to eat. She never steals & has taught her children not to. She also never borrows, as she’s afraid to because they ask 40% interest. If they don’t have something, they do without.

One time her youngest was crying to her that he was hungry, so she said, ‘Just a minute.’ & she went & had her hair cut off & sold it so he would have something to eat. Her hair is very dull, which shows she’s malnourished. She wanted to stay home today, because she was losing her voice, but the thought of her children being hungry made her go out to sell. She buys the snacks from a woman who makes it and then tries to sell everything she has, but some days, especially when it’s raining, like it has been for the last 4 days, she doesn’t make much profit. When she was selling today, it started to rain, so, she sat down on the stairs of the hospital. She was feeling really bad, but just then someone came & bought 1,000 kyats worth. Then, she walked around the corner & started down my little lane and she saw me!

I tried to think of what I could give her that she might accept. Because she accepted clothes the last time, I got a jacket of mine & a t-shirt that I gave her. I didn’t have any children’s clothes at the house. I also got all of the pencils I have & a pad of paper for her children to use at school. I told her that, for the sake of the children, I wanted to give her the money, 20,000 kyats (about $16) to buy tarpaulin for the sides of her house. At first she said she wouldn’t take it, but, when I told her that she should take it now, and then when they are doing better financially, she can repay me. She brightened up then and accepted the money. I could tell that she was depressed & really wanted to talk. As she was telling me all of this, the tears would come to her eyes & she said, ‘I don’t know what I’ve done so that I have such a hard life, but I just want a better life for my children.’ I told her what a good job she was doing by making sure her children went to school, even though she can’t read herself, and by raising them so well.

We talked for about 45 minutes. Then we went out together – she to go home & me to go to the pharmacy. She held my hand as we walked down the lane & told me to be careful that I didn’t slip & fall. She also told me to please go to her home with her next Sunday as she really wanted me to visit. I didn’t tell her that foreigners aren’t allowed to go across the river without permission – just told her that I would be away, but that maybe, when rainy season is over I could come.

This isn’t a very dramatic story or anything, but it shows the lovely hospitable nature of many people here, even in the midst of SO much poverty and, on top of that, the extra problems that have come to them because of the cyclone – not just in the Delta area, but here in the peri-urban townships of Yangon. Of course there are also many who steal & lie and some of the children who are really rude and difficult, but I appreciate SO much these people, especially the women, who are trying their best in the midst of such hardships – makes my problems very, very insignificant.

P.S. I just read something: ‘Light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.’