Jo, Myanmar (Burma) - Grabbing a lift by boat - a touching and lasting memory

Our taxi to the village

So at the end of this week I will be leaving. Myanmar is a beautiful country and when I get onto that plane on Saturday evening I will be taking some wonderful memories home with me.
Here is just one of them...
We have travelled to most of the villages by boat along the branches of the Ayarawady, but the final village in the pilot programme was only accessible by car and foot. We went there on a morning after some very heavy rain and the roads were quite flooded. The car dropped us off at the end of a long lane bordered on either side by paddy fields. We set off to walk the final stretch but the lane was slippery and difficult to negotiate. The ditches at the edges of the paddy fields were flooded and suddenly there was a canoe coming towards us along the flooded ditch. A man from the village and his little boy had come to give us a lift. Such a lovely gesture! As we headed towards the village we passed fishermen up to their chests in water in the ditch.

My Doctor Livingstone moment

Just one of the many memories that I will be taking home with me.
This is Jo, signing off for the last time!

Jo, Myanmar (Burma) - Developing a new Health Education model in rural Myanmar (Burma)

Travelling by road after heavy rain

So here I am nearing the end of my mission, when I look back to the day nearly 3 months ago when I arrived, it seems like a lifetime and yet each day seems to have sped by. I have been so busy that there really hasn’t been time to count the days.


The project aims to strengthen the existing community based health services in Pyapon Township in the Ayarawady Delta following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008 and to that end Doctors of the World has developed a co-operative working relationship with the health authorities. Together we are moving towards establishing a ‘Maternal and Child Health’ programme in our target area. Doctors of the World will be supporting the training of ‘Auxiliary Midwives’ and helping to expand child development surveillance.


I have also been developing a new Health Education model, which we piloted in four villages over my final two weeks in the field. There were some concerns about the drama that I had proposed, the topic was ‘Safe Motherhood’ and the concern was that people might be too shy to get involved. Not a bit of it! There are some very talented actors in those villages and they really enjoyed taking part. The audience were hugely entertained as well and participated enthusiastically in the discussion afterwards.


I have also designed a learning game based on ‘Snakes and Ladders’, with a few adjustments in the design of the board. (I am very good at drawing snakes now!). The pilot evaluated positively and it was lovely to see the villagers being so involved in their own education.

Jo, Myanmar (Burma) - Speaking Burmese like a local - almost.

I am now in Yangon preparing to leave at the weekend. I continued my Myanmar language lessons while I was in the Delta. Although they haven’t really equipped me for long philosophical discussions,  I did learn enough to greet people and ask if they have eaten, (which is the Myanmar equivalent of an English person saying “how are you?”). I can also go shopping, ask the price of something and request a little discount, direct a taxi driver and order a cup of coffee without sugar. This is about as much as I have needed. I also think that people like it if you make an effort to speak their language, so it breaks down more barriers than just a linguistic one.

Safe Motherhood Drama. Happy outcome.

Jo, Myanmar (Burma) - Nearing the end of assignment revising a health education programme

Doctors of the World meeting with villagers

 
I am nearing the end of my mission, so I am beginning to get anxious about all the work that I still have to do. I have been working on remodeling the health education programme and we are about to start piloting the new model. It is quite exciting, but a little nerve wracking as well.
One of the main concerns since I have been here has been to evaluate the health education programme that Doctors of the World has implemented in the villages. I have observed a few of the sessions now and although the field teams do a great job, each session depends heavily on the skill of the presenter. The programme is very teacher/lecture focused.

 I feel that a different model would be more appropriate, one focusing more on the learner and learning activities that encourage enquiry and discussion. So I have been developing a package of activities for the villagers to take part in, hopefully that they will enjoy and also that they will learn from.
 I am currently piloting my new model in four of the villages. The topic I have chosen for the role play is “Safe Motherhood”.  The  package consists of a quiz, discussion topics and two role play scenarios;  a bad version (where everything goes wrong) and an ideal version, where the pregnant family does everything right and ends up with a lovely healthy baby and healthy mum. There is a section for discussion between the 2 versions.

The result is they love it! We have just come back from one village, where they had asked to have the scenario in advance so that they could prepare. They did a great job and even had a theatrical director! The audience was really engaged and the quiz section was lively and very noisy.  The consequence is we are now making a start on another topic and will probably include some board games.

In the meantime that’s it for the time being.  So from the hot, humid and sometimes wet but always mosquito-ridden Ayeyarwady Delta, I am Jo signing off for this month.

Jo, Myanmar (Burma) - Dressing like a local

I now wear a longye to work every day, it is such a sensible garment in this heat and so comfortable. I started with a nice red one that the office staff gave me and decided to build up my supply so that I could wear a fresh one each day. When Thomas was here we went to the market and I bought two. They are really pretty, you buy them just as a piece of pre-cut fabric. I think most people must have a sewing machine and run them up at home, but of course I can’t do that, so arranged with the stall holder to have them made up for me. They cost me $6,00 US for the 2!
I even cycle wearing my longye, but haven’t mastered the art of cycling in the rain with an umbrella. The roads are so pot holed that I need both hands to hang on for dear life. And when it rains here it really knows how to rain.