April 2010 Bombing in Yangon

The government says 10 people died and about 80 were injured by three bombs during waterfest. But the wooden dance stage wasn't damaged. The Emerys sent me an article from The Irawaddy magazine saying three journalists were arrested for taking photos of the bomb site, but the magazine also said it didn't actually know what three people were arrested for there, only that there was a rumour it was because they were photo journalists, which it also didn't say if they were actually known to be. I couldn't even find the bomb site, and there certainly wasn't any police barrier around any site that might be under investigation.

The newspaper didn't say who the people killed were, except that they were security forces, and that the bombing was aimed at a general's grandson, but I don't know if he was there. They said it was done by insurgent terrorists, though it didn't name the insurgent group or offer any suggestions on which one. The party seemed just as raucous before the bomb as after.

International media, such as the BBC, did offer suggestions, one of which was the Karen National Army. However, every international news story I saw used only the official government statements about the bombs, and didn't seem to have anything else to say except that the businesses around the lake are owned by SPDC supporters, whatever that means.

Me, I saw two ambulances go down our street that afternoon, and that's all. I walked around the entire lake looking for the bomb site and couldn't find a single pandal that looked any different from the others, much less a barrier or cop gaurding over what was supposed to be an investigation site.

Thinggyan Water Festival, April 2010

Young people rented pick-up trucks and lorries, and drove around all day dancing, drinking whiskey and getting soaked. Some of the pandals were equipped with fire hoses. Some people used pressure washers to spray, some had buckets of ice water. Little kids waited on street corners with water guns, babies had cups of water poured down their backs, and dogs stood in the spray smiling. 

The only ones who didn't get splashed were monks and authorities, though Liz said she saw one soaked monk, and she personally reached into the passenger window of a taxi and dumped a bucket of water into a soldier's lap before noticing he was a soldier. Even if you begged, there was no way to escape having water tossed on you.

Esma's Birthday, in Yangon

For her 28th birthday Esma, the first grade teacher, threw a party at the school. She invited some other female teachers, me, and her regular year-round students. Summer school students were from well-off families. Families who cared about English and had the money to pay the exhorbitant summer school fees, but not enough for the whole year. The students at Esma's party were her year-round Grade 5 class.

They were all cheerful kids who clearly liked Esma very much, and she said she wanted to have a party for them because she loved them and missed them too.

They all looked well-fed, some of them much too well-fed. Their English was almost perfect. Even their accents were almost perfect—almost American.

After the BBQ Esma broke the kids into teams and sent them all on a scavenger hunt. After 15 minutes a group of boys came running back to her waving a bag of chips.

“Teacher, this is the treaure?! We all share this? Teacher it wasn't worth looking for!”

“Wow,” she said to the adults, “when we played that game with the summer school kids no one complained about the prize.”

After that it was time for cake. She had two made up, a toffee and a strawberry, with “Happy Birthday T. Esma” written on both. The children ate a little before they began chasing each other around the soccer field with chunks of cake, trying to smear it on each other's faces. I think maybe it's traditional.

“It's disgusting,” said Esma. By the time their parents came to pick them up the sun was setting, the temperature was finally almost tolerable. There was a telling mess scattered around the lawn for the teachers to clean up. Whole slices of birthday cake, paper serving plates empty but for the untouched vegetables, an unopened bag of potato chips.