April 22, 2018
Dear FBC,
Has winter finally gone and are you seeing signs of spring? Wish we could send you some of this tropical heat. Even the native people are suffering and saying that this April is hotter than last year. We’ve had NO rain showers to give a short reprieve from the high humidity.
Sports tournaments are going on, with lots of sweating. Cane Ball is finished. Students and teachers are enjoying the competitions. Non-participants have fun cheering.
We had a busy weekend with different experiences. Saturday Ready, Aye Aye and Hnin Nu went to “Grandfather Beach” with some of the workers at CEC. You may have seen their photos on FB? They said the beach was beautiful, but the tide was strong.
This weekend I attended the wedding of Hay Thar Htoo who worked here last year and came to MN in August. Her wedding took place in The City of Love Saturday morning at 7:00 AM! Friday afternoon I traveled with Tamla and others on continuous hairpin turns through the mountains. The scenery is breath-taking. Between views of rolling mountains and bamboo and Betel Nut forests we passed through little villages of little houses made of bamboo. As I saw people going about their daily chores, I thought of how hard many people here work just to stay alive. When we arrived in the City of Love I was happily surprised to learn that we were staying at the home of Wai Moo. We visited his home last year and he visited MN in August. Wai Moo’s mother and sister are members of FBC.. His mother was there at his house having come for a visit! She recognized me from First Baptist. It was fun to talk with her and commiserate about the long flight. Wai Moo and his wife have two little girls, 4 years and 9 months, almost the same as my granddaughters.
We are all enjoying instruction time and seeing the students make progress. My grade 10 students have gone from speaking words, to sentences, to writing paragraphs. Saturday afternoon, after returning from City of Love, some of my boys helped me wash the ever-present red dust from the classroom wall so we could display their drawings and writings. A few students are very slowly catching on to expressing their own ideas and being able to ask questions. Can you imagine an education of “Teacher tells, students memorize” all through high school? I am both saddened and angered when I think of how these inquiring minds have been stunted by a cruel dictatorship. Maybe some day Western educators will hold teacher trainings for Asian educators. (A prayer for the future of Myanmar.
Two little girls just popped through the back door, saying “I have come to visit Teacher Cecilia.” And now they are going to practice the dance routine Hnin Nu is teaching to many girls.
Please pray for rain and cooler temps.
Blessings to all,
Cecilia and the Dawei Team
First Baptist Church of St. Paul 