Our first week in Myanmar

On the 20th of September we arrived at Yangon Airport after a good 12 hour journey.

Yangon is the largest city in the south of Myanmar and has a population of 5 million. After an hour of waiting at the baggage claim to receive our travel bags, we left the airport with Guido. Guido and Tirsa, and their two children, have been living and working in Yangon for 4 years for development work. We have met them when they were in The Netherlands for a few months earlier this year.

After a good night's rest in an air-conditioned room, we put on our shorts, t-shirt and flip flops and we go out to explore the neighborhood. When opening the front door, the enormous difference of temperature is enormous and overwhelms us - Boy, it's hot...!

At the end of the residential area we arrive at a busy main road where crossing requires the necessary guts, stopping for pedestrians is obviously not a traffic rule here (as is in many Asian countries)! You cross over in stages, hoping a car will not hit you in the back, an art we had to master quick.

Everywhere along the road friendly smiling people sell their merchandise in small stalls or on carpets on the street. Many are smiling at us and pointing to us, it's obvious they do not often see white giants in these suburbs.

Walking between the houses, shops and stalls, it's hard to understand why people can look so incredibly positive here, but they do! Although people look very positive, it is clear that they certainly do have a small income and have to work long days in the heat.

Exploring Downtown Yangon also turns out to be a view in two completely different worlds. Speaking of contrast ... This is within a radius of only a few hundred meters!

On Sunday, we go to one of the local churches. Church service takes place in the living room of a house in a lower income part of the city but, where we are again warmly received. The sermon in Burmese (the language in Myanmar) has the effect that we can not really keep our attention to the speaker for long, but there is plenty to see with colorful people and many children around us.

Immediately after the church service is over and everyone is gone, the pulpit is transformed into a dining table and within no time all kinds of plates with good food came in for us as their special guests.

In order to gain more perspective on the business opportunities in the country, Guido takes Albert to a few of his business coaching trajectories. During the week, Guido also introduces him to a number of other development workers who do business coaching at different levels, helping local people build their own businesses.

Tirsa takes Judy to the slums where a couple, and their old severely disabled mother, have opened their homes for hold a children's club, to offer children a few hours of fun in the poverty in which they live. The house is no more than 4 wicker walls, a corrugated roof, a few rugs on the wall and a sheet of canvas on the floor.

The children sing together, listen to a story and at the end of the morning get a cup of soup and cookies and with a big smile on their face they cheerfully leave for their home again.

In the afternoon, Judy goes to the International school in Yangon where Tirsa is teaching Dutch kids of expat families. What a contrast! In the morning in a hut in a slum, in the afternoon in a school with all the luxury for kids from the West.

The local market is an experience in itself where we find a long list of product that can not be found on the shelves of Albert Heijn, Walmart or Tesco. Besides all sorts of vegetables and fruits, some of which are completely new to us, pieces of meat and chickens are chopped in pieces on the spot and the fish is richly displayed. Everything in the scorching sun.

It is simple to see that Myanmar is a strong Buddhist country; everywhere you see the pagodas and monks, both men and women, young and old. In general, they are aloof and do not want to be photographed, but occasionally there are exceptions - there is a monk on the market who wants to take a picture with Albert. It is good to make contacts and establish relationships, relationships are of utmost importance in this country.

All in all, the culture shock is serious for us, the heat overtakes us and the first days are quite intense. We currently struggle to get excited about a possible prospect of living here and have to let it sink in for a while. Could this be an environment where we can establish ourselves and where we can put our knowledge and experience at best use? At this moment we can not imagine it yet, but we want to investigate further what possibilities there are. In the coming days we will travel to the northern/center part of Myanmar, visiting several cities north of Yangon, planning to meet many new people again.

In this post we include a few extra pictures to give a bit of an impression of this beautiful country. A country with many positive people with good ambition to grow.