Acquiantances
Posted by: Fats in: Fats, Vitamins & Minerals > Pagtatanghal > Burma 2004Finished my presentation (PDF, 3.86MB) today 1-3PM at Books for All - which I enjoyed a lot and I guess the audience enjoyed as well. I was very happy to meet familiar faces there. My translator KWT recently finished his medical degree but is interested in translation work and frequently works as translator for the center. Earlier this morning, the American co-founder of a foundation in Cambodia was there too (I met the other co-founder in Yangon in 2002), to follow up on a research-writing workshop she was doing with the center.
My asthma problem seems to have disappeared. I guess it was an allergic reaction to a kind of spiced tiny dried shrimps that I keep pouring into my rice. I didn’t take this at all for dinner last night which must be why now I’m feeling better. A commercial photographer from Singapore who was also at the center left yesterday morning. He stayed here for about two weeks and conducted a series of photography workshops. The last time he was in Myanmar was about 8 years ago and stayed a total of 10 months over three years. It was really nice knowing him and we will most probably be meeting together in Singapore again when I arrive there. My hosts will also be in Singapore around the same time so we’ll be having a kind of reunion. 
Actually, my hosts will be leaving for Malaysia on October 9 (and they will move on to Singapore after a couple weeks) which means next week I’ll be left here with our really great lady cook, and a funny young lad who assists my hosts with admin and housekeeping matters. Our cook’s husband, a very good carpenter, also comes here sometimes with their two little daughters. A younger fellow who helps in the center is also around sometimes.
Last night, THA finally came over to see me - he’s one of the artists that I wanted to work with in developing the sound art workshop. I’ve met the other artist recommended by the center two days ago, KZL. THA is the one who’s into classical piano and keyboard synthesizers and KZL is the one into painting (he uses small rubber stamps (texts) for creating (mostly Buddha) images).
The other day was particularly interesting - we visited the place of KT, a tourist guide who recently finished a masters in education in the UK and returned to Myanmar to establish a training center for out-of-school youths. The place is amazing - a really wonderful space for young people (age 16+) who had dropped out of school but want to continue studies in the university. The training center is a kind of preparation for these young people for the university entrance exams, and there they train for an intensive period of 5 months rather than the customary 10 months. The training is free, and KT uses a reward system to pay the trainors who are also students. KT was extremely interested in my host’s center and was keen on working with them.
Then in the evening after dinner, I went out with NL and a photographer friend he met in Singapore a fews years ago. LES works with a foreign-based media organization and the organization is probably the reason why he is not in prison. We had beer in their apartment with three of LES’s friends, and another friend. Later that evening, we took their friend home to this really rich village. As it turns out, their friend belongs to a very rich Chinese family, and is the only one who converted to Christian (Baptist) while the rest of the family are communists. It was the religion that brought LES and his three other friends together - they are all Christian Karens.
