N 113 Covid 19… 3^rd Wave

Maybe it started about a month ago or somewhat earlier than that. The Covid 19 virus doesn’t stay constantly in one form. It changes over time. So the virus that hits the whole country ( and other countries as well ) this July and August  is called Delta Variant and it causes a terrible impact on the lives of the people of Myanmar.

As most people don’t believe in the news that the Army Council is broadcasting we get our news mostly from Facebook. Before Covid and power grabbing by the Army Facebook was full of everything, good  and bad, entertaining and fruitful, and annoying and worthless.Many people in our country spend much time on it.

But now when we open Facebook the posts we see are mostly about Covid’s suffering.About people who passed away,posted by families and friends.Some posts are by some who are at present hit by the virus and how they are coping, some are encouraging posts about how they went through it and recovered.There are also many advisory posts.

Oxygen is the most needed remedy in curing Covid. Because the Virus attack the lungs and cause difficulty in breathing and in Yangon where it is wide spreading there is shortages of O2.People have to go around town to look for  O2 filling stations.   Those  who have O2 cylinders have to stand in line for a long time to have their cylinders filled. Some who have successfully acquired the O2 they needed, returned home with the cylinder , only to find their loved ones already dead because they cannot wait anymore. Some people got a call while waiting for his or her cylinder to be refilled that there is no need to get the O2 because the patient at home had already died.

Bussiness people are not staying quiet while all these are happening, Some who have power to import the O2 through the border checkpoints really do so and sell them at a high price. We  also heard about the exploitation of O2 by the Army. They would arrive at the filling stations and grabbed away all the O2 available without leaving some for the people who are lining to buy. A convoy of trucks carrying O2 donated by rich people arrived but news about distributing to the people in need were not heard anymore.

Without O2, medicine , and even food lives cannot be sustained. Many people lost their lives during this 3^rd wave, especially in Yangon where many people live crammed in a small space. One who live alone died alone. Two people who lived together died together. The most horrible incident was the news that all 18 people in one family all died together. The photo of a young man sitting with his mother’s corpse waiting for cremation with a status that said… Mum I can’t wait anymore, I have to go home. They are mother and son who lived together , only 2. The thought of his going home alone to suffer the disease and die alone had hurt my feelings much.

So with much dying in Yangon ( and also Mindat ) the problem of cremating the dead bodies arise. This is mostly done by welfare association and people.When usually there are about 50 dead bodies to cremate , now when it had risen to about 300 , the crematorium cannot cope with this and so dead bodies would pile up there. People have to die without dignity and proper rites. The army council instead of taking action to reduce the spread of Covid ordered the setting up of 10 crematoriums.

While Covid deaths are surging there are not enough hospitals and care centres for the affected. People would take their sick relatives and go around town to look for care centres, only to be refused to be taken in, and so have to take back to their homes to care for by themselves. And so more were infected which resulted in more deaths.

During this time prices of food and medicines had risen significantly, but medicines are selling well. People have to queue to buy medicine which also result in more infections. Many people are without food and medicines and no help come from the power grabbing military government. They even beat and nab welfare people who are trying to help those who are in need. We can’t understand their actions , but have to assume that they are wanting people to die and starve to death.

With the unstable political situations  and the pandemic the economy is declining. Some estimate that the GDP will fall about 18% this year which is huge. Inflation has risen about 50%which hits the consumers terribly.  I hear that many people are really without money and food and are in harsh conditions. If help will not arrive in time people will be without food and medicine which will lead to starvation and more deaths.I hope the country will not come to that worst situation and will see better days before long.

 

 

N    112  English Books I learnt in High School  (part  2  )

Coral Island

Coral Island  is about the adventures of 3 teenage boys who happened to meet on a ship bound for the islands of the Pacific Ocean. On their first trip their ship met  a dreadful storm and got wrecked. The 3 boys escaped death by clinging to an oar and they were washed ashore of an island.

They survived by eating coconuts, oysters and what food the island had to offer them. Later they discovered an underwater cave where they can hide from enemies.

They  encountered island people who were cannibals, and  came in canoes to their island, and also a pirate ship, but they overcame all dangers and even got hold of the pirate ship. With that ship the boys sailed back to their home in England via Tahiti where they recruit a crew of sailors and thus left behind the beautiful, bright green Coral Islands of the Pacific Ocean.

The Kon Tiki Expedition

Kon Tiki is the name of the chief God of the Indians of Peru of South America. The inhabitants of the Pacific Islands claimed  that he is son of the Sun and the original founder of their race.

While staying on a small island in the middle of the Pacific the author Thor Heyerdahl started to think about the origin of the people who inhabited the South Sea Islands such as Polynesia , Samoa, Easter Island, Tahiti and Fiji. The islands are far apart,but the people speak the same language , Polynesian.

There also is history that before the Inca Indians came to Peru, there was a race of white skin people, who put up enormous monuments, and taught the Incas agriculture, But they left Peru as suddenly as they had come and they disappeared forever across the Pacific.

So the author thought , are these island people, the people who left Peru long ago and came to settle in these islands. But how did they cross the ocean? They had only rafts made of balsa wood and could they reach the islands in these rafts?

To prove this theory , the author and 5 friends acquired a balsa woof raft and sailed the Pacific, faced many difficulties and like many stories had a happy ending.

Treasures of a kingdom

I don’t have this book in my possession, so I cannot even give a short gist of it.As much as I remember it is a treasure hunting story and the setting is in Thailand. But I remember one thing and that is the long question I had to answer in the final exam.I had to write about “Ordeal by Water “ The treasures may had been hidden in a cave and to reach that place the characters in the story had to swim or dive in water.It was not easy ,so that it was dubbed ordeal which means a very unpleasant and prolonged experience. If interested anybody can look for that book in some library or old book stores.

Now I have described 5 books I had learnt in Matric class about half a century ago.After us I remember the books prescribed for Matric class students are more easier and only one book was prescribed

The English texts prescribed for students in our country are all abridged or made easy with limited vocabularyfor students who are learnind English as a 2^nd language. But all are interesting in their own way. As for me I would read from beginning to end as soon as I get them, at the start of the school term.They can be called classics by now, but they will never become out of date and are good for English learners. So students who are starting to learn English should look for them,  to improve their English or simply for leisurely reading.

 

 

 

N   111  English Books I Learnt in High School   Part 1

While we were gathering in the room I keep my books my granddaughter ( would be 1^st year student in college ) Nang Saw Yun Nwe  happened to open a cupboard, took out an English book which has the date 63-64 on its opening page and asked me when I used that book.

The book is Six Detective Stories. I remember that it was the book we had to learn in Inter A, my 1^st year in college and I told her so. The books I learnt in my High School  class are also nearby , and so  I took out what I have and showed her, telling that those were what we had learnt in matriculation class.And then I got an idea that it would be good if  students of these days know what we learnt in our times (more than half a century ago )it would be knowledgeable for them , and so I decided to let them know in a blog.

In my matriculation class I chose to take Additional English as I was weak in Science subjects. Additional English was not taught in school. So, students who took that subject had to attend private tuition from our English teacher Mrs Jasper. I remember we cycled to her house which was on highground in the western part of  Taunggyi.

For Additional English 3 books were prescribed for us .They were English Short Stories of Today, Great Expectations and Coral Island .For Enlish subject we had to learn two, which were Treasures of a Kingdom and Coral Island ( If I am not mistaken with 9^th Standard English books ) What I want to say is that  English was not as easy as today, when students have to learn only one textbook and even that is not easy for them.

As I have mentioned above our English teacher was Mrs Jasper, a plump English lady who wore dresses and sandals and spoke English only.She lived with her sister Josephine, and adopted daughter  who would become teacher Angela  and 2 dogs. At the beginning of the period she would talk about them and only after sometime she would run through the pages of the English text. I don’t think she taught us in detail, but I remember we were given short and long questions.

I think long questions are not included in today’s 10^th Standard question paper.As for me English is not very difficult  as I had been reading English books from about 7^th Standard, simple , easy ones like comics, schoolgirls picture and own library. I can answer short and long questions well without learning  by heart. But I was not that hard working and because Distinctions were not so popular those days , I did not get any D even though I passed from the 2^nd level.

Now I will give the gist of the texts….In English Short Stories of Today there are 14 stories written by famous authors of which “ A Night at a Cottage “ is the shortest, and many readers would know about it as there also is a Burmese version of it.

An escaped convict had difficulty to find a place to stay on a rainy night.He chose a cottage set back far from the road.He broke the lock, opened  the door and settled in an inner room, which had a rusty stove . He lit it to dry his wet clothes and went to sleep for a while. When he woke up he heard sound of footsteps coming in and then saw a stranger enter the room. The stranger was dripping wet and he went to the stove to warm his hands.The convict greeted the stranger and they got into some  conversation.The convict asked why nobody lived in that cottage and even no signs of tramps stopping there either.

The stranger answered, “Ghosts “ The ghost who lived there, and continued to tell the story. The man’s children had gone dead and he decided to drown himself in the pond. He was all slimy and floating when people pulled him out of the pond. And after that people would hear him walking up and down the cottage..

They continued talking for quite a time, but even then the man didn’t seem to get dry. The convict cried  “ God…. man…. can’t you ever get dry “ The stranger replied, “Dry….I shan’t never be dry, be it wet or fine, winter or summer, see that “

He thrust his muddy hands in the fire, glowering over it fiercely and madly. But then the convict caught up his boots and ran crying out into the night.

Great Expectations

 Great Expectations is a classic written by the famous author Charles Dickens (1812- 1870 )It is a long and complicated story with many characters, among which the following are the main characters.

Pip…. the main character who was an apprentice to his brother in law, Joe, the blacksmith. He suddenly came into a large fortune (his Great Expectation ) from a mysterious benefactor.

Miss Havisham…. an eccentric rich old lady who lived at Satis House

Estella… Miss Havisham’s adopted, beautiful but cold daughter

Magwitch…. an escaped convict whom Pip helped to escape when he was a boy

Herbert…. Pip’s best friend in London

Mr jaggers…. a lawyer

The story is long and included wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and eventual triumph of good over evil. It is popular with both readers and critics and has been translated to many languages.

To be continued….

 

N 108   The Way we Live  2

I like living in a big household. Most of my life I had lived like that. At least there would be about half a dozen family members, and neighbours who we could communicate were not far away. We can get helping hands when needed and also can give help if necessary in return. I am amazed when I see and hear someone living alone because I am worried about them especially in time of health emergency.

I once asked a friend of my daughter who was living alone “What would you do in time of emergency  like something bad about your health happen in the middle of the night”  She replied reassuringly “ I can call 911 “ Yes , they can do that. Because the country they are living in are modernized and everything is organized. Even then as a person who worries about everything , I thought if somebody passed out suddenly he or she would not be able to do anything but have to wait until somebody find them out.

But at present that is not the issue I have to worry about. I am living with a big family as I wish. There are 6 family members 2 maids and an errand boy who work for the household. The family members are the 2 of us, 1 single daughter, and the youngest daughter with her husband and the cute grandson Sai Ollie. So our house would not be quiet and serene and monastery like. But quite the opposite.

 But living with many people is not always quiet and harmonious. There are not 2 persons who share the same view, same liking, same beliefs. If I like this another family member will like that and so on. But most of us understand that to insist on our likings would bring only trouble and turbulence in the family  , and so will stay quiet and not bring the subject again . especially not to antagonize the head of the household.

It is the same with our neighbours. As there are 4 houses comprising of 5 families in our compound we try to live harmoniously with each other. As I have written in my blog “The way we live “some years ago there were many more people in our compound then. But now as 3 seniors passed away and one big family moved to their new house the number of people in our compound had fallen that only about 24 left.

But even there are fewer people we all are still enjoying a friendly accompaniment. With a few steps we can go and visit , to chat  at somebody’s house. When we have oversupply of food like some guests bring from their hometown , usually Kunhing, we would share with each other.

Our family like to cook food such as mohnhinga or warm tophoo and when we do we will share with the whole compound. When there is occasion like birthdays we will make some specialties like buffet dinner or hotpot . At times like this some who knows how to cook give a helping hand and  all households are mee kho teik ( no smoke which means  do not have to cook at home )

One family (our nephew ) has 2 daughters whose ages do not differ much from our Sai Ollie. When they are at home the noise they make while playing or bicycling or riding ski board together make our compound full of sound and laughter. Anyway life with children is more lively and cheery . It is better than without children.

I like the way I am living now. Our house though it is not modernized or luxurious, is convenient for our family. We are well provided by the head of the family and don’t have to worry for ourselves.But like all people is not free from anxieties. Besides I have reached my senior age and is not without ailments. When will I fall ill and reach the end of life I cannot know. Like many people  my  only wish is not to feel pain before dying but to have to face death calmly.

But although I am contented with my life I don’t feel much happiness. I have always felt that life is a misery. Even if my life is fulfilled I am seeing , reading, hearing about miseries of life. Miseries, hardships, inconveniences of lives of people around the world. The world itself is facing many problems that one day it will come to an end.

As I said in the above paragraph my life is a fulfilled one, if I don’t compare it to a much higher one. I owe all this to my husband though I never said that to him.He is a wonderful husband who never mistreated me, never raised a finger on me. If I had been greedy and asked for not ending things I think he will fulfill my wishes. But I am not that kind of person

and keep my own limit.

And another thing is I believe he will look after me well if I fall ill. As we are not young anymore who will go first Idon’t know. But at this old age we sure need each other’s company.

To end this blog I would like to say…..

Thank you USTM for everything you have done for me and  the family. May you live a long and healthy life free from anxieties….and don’t go away before me.

 

S of the Shan Hills                                                                          9^th Oct 2020