myanmar musings

In walking around the city, it seems like even more shops are closed than when i came almost 3 years ago, and that there are more little stalls on the streets. Has the economy worsened? One morning in a group, one man says that the global economic difficulties don’t have much impact on Burma, because they’ve been in difficulties for 40 years! – ouch! But in an interesting way, he is very right. That interesting point, is when i think about why God allows this to happen. One possible reason that comes to mind, is that if everybody was plugged into the same economic system and thinking, it would be easier for Satan to get his one-world government going. But with some countries totally “out of the loop”, it is harder. Also, some very good qualities such as helpfulness and modesty are still practiced here, which are rapidly disappearing from richer-freer countries. It is so nice to walk around and not be greeted with belly buttons or vertical smiles.

The food for lunch every day is amazing. I’m pretty much used to rice with one cooked vegetable and one or two raw vegetables, but here it is like a full-course non-stop array of cooked veggies coming – eggplant with tomato sauce in oil, okra, some kind of curry, bean sprouts, little fried gluten pieces, etc. etc. I’m sure i’m going to gain at least one kilo from this 🙂

Across the hall from me in the Sunflower hotel are 5 Muslim men. One of them makes an effort to talk with me one evening near the showers. He asks if i’m Muslim too, probably because of my beard, but i assure him i’m Christian. He doesn’t seem to understand, so i gesture, and he talks more about country, allah, heaven, etc. There is a big mosque across the street, and every evening i see lots of little kids taking instruction there, so i imagine they are here to do something with that, as they are always out during that time frame. I decide to try and get him some part of the Bible, and am able to print from the internet a copy of the first part of the gospel of John. How to give it to him? If i just hand it to him in front of his elders, he will probably be reprimanded and disgraced…. Fortunately on the very morning they are planning to go, a chance is given, and i hand over the paper while telling him i can help carry his huge luggage down to the street. He takes the paper, looks at it around 30 seconds, then hands it back in an unfriendly manner, then ignores my offers of help as he goes down the narrow steps.

Two things really struck me with these men — One is their dedication. They would arise at 4am, and do their prayers – with rigorous “aerobic exercise” like motions, then end after the 5am mussein call which disturbs the whole neighborhood. The other, is how my natural eye is inclined to look to their outward display of dedication, and attribute that somehow to something good – a great display of their devotion to God. I had to remind myself, that if they have had a chance to know about Jesus and rejected him (which nearly all Muslim leaders have done) then their great devotion is not just totally pointless, it is actually giving glory to Satan. Lord, please open their eyes and hearts so they will worship you – Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

When i came last time, i usually ate the evening meal at an Indian restaurant nearby. Somehow it is not appealing this time, and i usually buy some steamed or broiled corn or sweet potatoes, and together with some bread or peanuts, somosa or something, make up supper. The sweet potatoes (depending on size – 10-17cents) are quite good, but not so easily digestible. Good thing there is an exhaust fan in my room! It gets cooler while there, and i even turn off the oscillating fan in my room. Having air blow directly on me causes prolonged sneezing attacks, but when it is too hot, having no breeze makes it impossible to sleep. Now is probably the very best season to come – late November and December – no rain and a pleasant coolness.

Usually in the evening after coming back from the translator’s, i walk around the town a bit, buy some food and come back and enjoy supper by the window of my 7th floor waiting area. Listening to the kids studying Islam chant and shout their answers, the loud clanging of the sugar cane juicers, and watching the hundreds of near-misses with people walking between the cars, heedless of whatever light the traffic signal is displaying — there is always something to watch. Not quite as interesting as India, maybe because there are no cows wandering the streets, but still, interesting. Also, i’m too high to really see them spitting their red betel nut abomination all over the place 🙂 The coolest thing i see tho, is near the end of my stay, when the two stars that have been vertically aligned, now appear more in a horizontal positioning, and what is this? – the crescent moon coming up from below?!?! Sure enough, the next nite is absolutely perfect, a heavenly “smiley face”. It brings lots of chuckles and wonderment to this old man. I want to tell my friends in Thailand, but decide it isn’t worth the trouble to walk down all 7 floors, go to the internet cafe, have them juggle the proxies a while to get Hotmail to come up, send them a email, and then do the reverse, so i just gaze in awe at God’s handiwork for myself.

The Union president agrees to my friend’s request that i be given morning worship for two days, so we skip to chapter 32 of the 1858 Great Controversy book and do the detailed proofreading for it, then print it off, so i can go look for a place to copy it in the evening to give to everyone the next day at worship. I was told a copy should be about 1cent. I want to make a reduced copy of the book cover art to fill the empty space on the 2nd page, but am surprised at the strangeness of the man at the first copy shop i go to. He has reduced the picture only 50%, then tried to force-fit it on the page by covering up some of the text! His copy machine gives a terrible result anyway, so i smile and say i will go elsewhere. I go to 2 places asking people, and am pointed to the donut shop. Sorry guys, my pronunciation of “copy” i know sounds like “coffee” in your language, but surely my showing you this paper and making the copy machine motion should give some hints….. Finally i’m told to go over to 31st street. While making my way over there, a lady comes up and starts talking to me in Spanish. Guess my beard has different effects on different people. Some little street beggar kids come up to me saying “Asalaam” – ha! Anyway, this lady takes me to a man who has a little bench selling cigarettes. He takes me to one place then another then finally one a little far away where they do a nice job – for about 3.5cents each. Very expensive, but i get 30 copies done nicely for which i’m grateful. I offer this man something for his nice help, but he refuses, and is quickly lost in the crowd. Fortunately i find him at his little bench a few days later, and have him rebind my English-Japanese New Testament Bible. He does a good job, and when i ask “How much?”, he waves me off saying “Nothing”. His answer surprises me, as i’m used to being ripped off by most everyone, and hold out a 1,000kyat (80cent) note to him. He smiles and takes it and looks like he puts it in a fold in his longgi. Yes, i know the price probably should be around 300-400kyat, but his very nice way i wish to reward, and hope that this type of thinking in business spreads 🙂

The morning worship covering chapter 32 – The Shaking – goes quite well, with one member coming to the front and reading one paragraph, and then i ask some questions with my translator friend interpreting for me. The people seem generally interested, but not overly so. We finish the first half the first day, and the last part the second day. While going over the part about Laodicea, there are many smiles and nods in the audience when i say that us SDAs think we are doing so well, when we are miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Before i first came to Burma, i was hoping that their isolation would have kept them away from the theological errors and general backsliding of the church, but was sad to see that the backsliding part anyway is here in force too. The seminary we have in Burma seems to be sliding too. Even while working in the Union headquarter’s building, it is difficult to get away from rock music. No wonder, when even in the church they have similar-sounding music on Sabbath, just with different words.

Burma has only one internet provider, and everything is checked. It is so frustrating to try to use :
ail or look at most English-language news sites and get “Access Denied”. Compared to three years ago tho, the number of internet cafes has increased markedly, and with a few (many) proxy changes it seems that just about any site is within reach. In Thailand the main user of internet cafes seems to be young boys age 10-25 blasting each other, but here the main user seems to be 16-35 male and female, chatting with friends or looking for jobs in foreign countries. I’m pleasantly surprised when i find out the young man typing next to me is a teacher of Old Testament history at the Baptist seminary.

My days are routinely like this:
1. wake up around 6:45, get ready
2. eat breakfast at the hotel
3. walk 17minutes to the Union offices
4. join everyone for morning worship
5. check email
6. work with translator on proofreading book
7. eat lunch at translator’s apt.
8. go back to office, discuss religious themes and work on book
9. buy food walking back to hotel
10 eat, work on japanese study guide for 1858gc or read something, take shower, go to bed around 10pm

I guess the power of habit is very strong. For example, the waiter in the hotel’s restaurant asks every morning “tea or coffee?” And when i always reply “no”, he always looks confused (i tried “neither” first, but nobody in the hotel could decipher that one for him, so changed to something easier). He delivers a banana, cut papaya, 3 pieces of toast, and a fried egg every morning.. He waits patiently for me, but sometimes i have to go look for him, and then verifies several times when i say “breakfast”. I usually sit in the same chair near the window so i can see the pigeons that people feed so they can obtain “merit”. Not many people do, as i guess most people have enough work to do to feed themselves without worrying about the pigeons! But anyway, one morning he stands right in front of me at the window for about 10 minutes, no doubt enjoying the view too – ha!

So i can recommend the Sunflower Hotel for its central location, and decentness. It seemed that of the few foreigners i saw, most of them stayed in the air-con rooms on the lower floors, which i think cost 10dollars each. My floor has 5 rooms, and a communal row of 3 showers and 3 toilets. I did try to find a quieter, cheaper place, and found “Daddy’s House”. It was quiet alright, but was told 6dollars. Like with most people i meet in this country, the people smile and seem interested in talking or helping, not just in the amount of money you have.

I’m allowed to speak at the English church service on Sabbath. There are around a dozen people in attendance, and basically i give a study on chapter 32 of the 1858 Great Controversy book, along with a little history of my religious life. I was quite concerned, as in the Sabbath School Lesson period, one man basically said that Buddhism is one way to heaven, then a Filipino PhD said that he liked to go to all the different religous places and learn things, and one Indian-looking man talked about how the Hindu gods’ story is very similar to Jesus’. All three tho are very silent and attentive when studying. After the service, the formerly Buddhist man says “I’ve never met anyone quite like you”. I’m sure he meant it in the way that i’m so strict in believing that there is only way to heaven – thru Jesus Christ, and that all other “ways” are false.

It is about time to get ready to go back to Bangkok. Eh? What is this?! People have sat down at the airport, and there are no flights going in or out? I go to the Thai AirAsia office on the bottom floor of the Park Royal Hotel near the central train station, and re-register for the next available flight out. I’m supposed to leave on Monday, and they tell me the first open seat they have is for Friday, so i accept it. Fortunately it does turn out to be the first one to start back to Bangkok, but i have 4 extra days to find something to do.

The 1858 Great Controversy detailed proofreading finished very nicely on the day before i’m supposed to leave. My friend becomes busy, so i do something that i was planning to do while here anyway – go to the press and get a quote to print the book. A taxi driver finds the place for me pretty quickly, and i o into the old, dilapidated building. It is really hard to believe this is perhaps the best religious press in the entire country. The man who greets me is different than the one who quoted me 447kyats/book nearly 3 years earlier. He has quite a hard time, making a couple of mistakes even with his calculator. He comes up with a price quite a bit lower than what was quoted before, so i ask him to add on stitching. Even with that the price per book is only 400kyats, or around 33cents each. I’m still a bit incredulous, as i thot for sure the price would be higher now. Hopefully the paper quality will be 70gm and white, and not some newspaper junk that turns yellow in 2 years!

Wanting to give some kind of Christian pamphlet to people, i ask my SDA friend for something. He says the Union office has nothing, so when i go to the Baptist place for the book quotation, i stop at their Evangelism dept., and they give me a very thin newspaper thing that you can fold 3 times into a little 8-page pamphlet. I get brave and give away around 15 of them, all the while thinking that we SDAs should print some nice full-color pamphlets to give away. My friend tells me it is legal to give out, just that no one seems to have had the idea to do that yet. OK, let’s start 🙂

I walk back the 25 minutes to the town, keeping one tall building in view. It seems that there is nobody using it, except maybe for a guardman at nite i see sometimes with a flashlight inside this blue-glass ghostly skyscraper. Let’s see,,,, oh yes, i saw a huge, old red-brick complex, with people sleeping around outside etc. Seems to be the General Hospital, giving me visions of how Burma was probably the best and most upcoming place to be in SE Asia (along with Singapore) 100 years ago. The spit on the broken-up sidewalk has the same color as the bricks in this huge complex. The old English style really looks cool, giving me visions of how this country could be a hot spot for tourism in the future if changes are made.

Finally Friday morning comes. The hotel owner laughed the nite before when i asked if he could open the restaurant at 6:30 instead of 7 so that i could eat breakfast. He has done fairly well with sending someone up to spray for mosquitos or change bedsheets when i ask, only forgetting once or twice. I paid up the nite before, so just hand over the key, and say goodbye. A taxi stops for me pretty quickly. There are taxis almost everywhere in this city, so no need to make a reservation. He says he wants 6,000 (5dollars), but i say 5. He says OK, and i get in. After about 1 minute we stop, and he gets out and comes around telling me to just sit in the car. I smile at him and get out as he gets the tire jack out of his trunk. Actually glad not to be riding with a betel-nut driver at 6:45 in the morning. The next driver says 6,000. No. He gets noisy telling me that 5,000 is ok, but i’ve already moved to the next taxi. The driver says the same, i react the same, causing him to react the same. Now i feel in control, and when the next driver says “5,000”, i reply with “4,500” which is the actual price i was told it should be by the front desk man at the hotel. The driver quickly agrees, and i get in for the 20 minute ride to the Yangon airport. I don’t really notice any damage in the city from the Nargis cyclone, except that there are quite a few roofs that have a brand-new sheet of zinc that doesn’t match the rusted ones. One place i see what can only be described as a graveyard for huge root systems from downed trees – sad, and yet strangely beautiful. This is almost the perfect way to describe what i’ve seen in this country – sad at what has happened and the current state of things, and yet nice to see the people still living, still doing their best to live as best they can.

I pray the 1858 Great Controversy can be printed nicely, and then distributed well. Hopefully there will be people interested in studying and spreading it, and it will help cause a revival among SDAs there.