Save the Children - Yangon, Myanmar

I checked into the Summit Park View hotel late that evening finding one of the better hotels that I have stayed in. this always makes for a comfortable stay but I always have concerns for the cost. Eventually I found it to be a great value, not only in that it was less than ten minutes from the Save the Children office, but the basic room rate amounted to but US$38! It was explained to me that international economic sanctions had hurt businesses who were striving for tourist dollars.




The next morning I awoke and pulled back my hotel room curtains hoping that I might be somewhat near the 2,500 year old Shwedagon Temple which looms over the city covered in over 600 tons of gold. There it was, just to the east! I would makesure that I would be able to pay a visit.

It was, even at this early hour, quite warm and very humid. It was now Wednesday morning and soon a driver would arrive to pick me up for that first day at the nearby office. I had already emailed my Scope of Work and detailed training plans, so my principle contact, Naida Pasion & I both should be ready for the days activities.

Yangon, Myanmar

Note: Cyclone Nargis made landfall in Myanmar on May 2nd 2008 three weeks after I departed from the country.

The cyclone name "Nargis" (نرگس, IPA: næɵr-ɡɵs), is an Urdu word meaning daffodil. It was the second deadliest named cyclone of all time, …and is the 8th deadliest cyclone of all time causing catastrophic destruction and at least 90,000 fatalities with a further 56,000 people still missing.

After my arrival back in the U.S., I had many comments of, "aren't you glad you were not there when it happened!" Things have certainly changed with my mindset. My first thought was one of abandonment and escape from my new friends in Yangon. Honestly, I wish that I could of been there, not only to selfishly experience such an event (probability and the care of the staff would of precluded chance of harm), but to possibly press into service my seven PDA's for some assistance in the disaster relief.

Still, I remain with a shadow of guilt that I did not leave a PDA as is my custom. But, for the 1st time, I was required to sign a customs statement upon entry that I would depart with all of my equipment. I have led a safe comfortable life; I certainly could have endured some bureaucratic pain to possible offer some succor to the hundreds of thousands who experience the bewilderment, loss, and death from Cyclone Nargis.




(for more images, go to http://disaak.phanfare.com)

During my high school days, as I sat in class being instructed in world geography, I knew of this country as Burma. I also knew that it was tropical, situated somewhere to the east of India and adjacent to Siam (Thailand). I was involved with what was then popularly known as rockhounding with my father in the mid-60's in Southern California. I recall being quite young (ten years old) and attending a gemology class where we learned to identify semi-precious and precious gemstones through measurement of their refractive index, inclusions (tiny clay and/or gas/fluid filled specks in a crystal), and of course color and hardness.

I remember Burma as being the place for the finest rubies. Or, at least, there was an abundance there that made them popular. The rockhound club had a shop where you could slice, grind and polish a myriad of stoney materials. Most of our activities involved agates and other non-crystalline geologic artifacts, shaping them arduously into a half-rounded shape called a cabochon. I remember trading "up" for what was a rather large garnet. Due to my gemology instruction, I suspected otherwise. You could, loosely, term a garnet as a low quality ruby. Sure enough the gemological tests discovered it to me as a genuine ruby. Well, a long story short, I still have that ruby in an unfinished cabochon (I had neither the access to, nor skill for grinding facets). That hunk of ruby-red crystal was hard! It is naturally only exceeded by the diamond in the Moh's scale of hardness.



My point is, our knowledge of faraway places are rather two-dimensional. I not only mean the lines and colors on a map, but the disparate threads of knowledge that we glean from various sources. Wednesday morning, I awoke and drew back the curtains of my hotel room and gazed out upon the ancient city of Yangon. I was just thrilled to be able to see the huge golden Shwedagon Pagoda complex to the east of my hotel. In fact, I would drive by it each morning on the way to the Save the Children office.



In order to ameliorate my ignorance of a destination, I try to locate a book to read that will provide some insight before my arrival. I chose a non-fiction book called The River of Lost Footsteps by the grandson of the former United Nations Secretary General - U Thant. I loved this book since the author, Thant Myint-U ("U" is a term of salutary respect) prefaces the book with chapter after chapter of historical background. Myanmar is in a difficult time in its history. It is struggling towards a more open society and movement towards a democratic government. Thany Myint-U acknowledges the countries struggles with different factions on the country, including the bloody demonstrations in late 2007, but he states that to better describe a possible solution to a complex issue, it might be useful to look back at the root and evolution of a countries outlook on itself and it's neighbors. I was prepared upon my arrival to see vestiges of British Colonial rule as well as the effect of U.S. economic sanctions on this beautiful country.

I had concerns of my entry into Myanmar before my departure, simply of the bureaucratic sort of the immigration and customs processes. I was advised to secure a tourist visa before my departure which was securely placed in my passport. During this assessment, I would not be able to travel to any of the field locations to observe the use of PDA forms in actual conditions. In fact I found that data collection and dissemination was not encouraged by the government.



I had just replaced my luggage with a higher quality set. I rationalized this expenditure due to my frequent travels, loss of a piece of luggage in South Africa departing from Malawi in February, and having literally worn out two prior sets of luggage. I also bought three TSA-approved security locks for each of my luggage pieces. Since I was leaving the smallest of the the luggage, I had scratched on the bottom of each of these tiny locks a Roman numeral to designate which lock, and hence what combination, used by each.

Well, things get rather rushed packing for a long trip. I placed the wrong lock on my medium-sized suitcase containing my equipment. There was no chance of forgetting the combination, since I had it secured away within an encrypted program on my PDA (absolutely the most useful computer-type program I have ever used. One password to access ALL of my passwords, credit cards, identification, membership - you name it. It is also backed up multiple times on my laptop, flash drive and several email accessible accounts). Sure enough, exhausted and severely jet lagged I fumbled at trying to open the medium luggage in preparation of a customs search. I was not realizing that I was using the wrong combination. Meanwhile, my SC staffer who had met me at the airport, Peter, was increasingly nervous since here I was trying to gain entrance to my luggage and I was the only person left at the luggage carousel - quite conspicuous!

Finally we approached the customs official locked luggage and all. He did inquire what was in my equipment luggage, so I showed him my 3 other PDA's that I carry in my personal fanny pack, indicating that was what it contained. Since I had arrived on a tourist visa (business visa were not being processed very quickly), Peter conversed quickly with the official, and then he gently jabbed me in the side to sign the customs declaration promising to exit from the country with all 7 declared PDA's. Now, why would a tourist bring 7 PDA's into a country? I had my story - I was here to visit my dear friend Andrew Kirkwood (actually the as yet un-met country office director) prior to a business trip to Jordan on behalf of Save The Children. I was relieved that I was not required to tell my dishonest tale. We quickly left the airport....

There are significant infrastructure limitations in Myanmar such as electrical shortages don't use the elevator!)and US$2,000 cell phone SIM card costs (I saw but two cell phones during my entire stay - mine never worked). Also I encountered numerous restricted Internet sites. When this assessment first came up, my consultancy manager and I agreed, that even though conditions suggested a difficult assessment environment, it further warranted a visit to see if we could improve some aspect of their operations. This was not only from a PDA aspect, but also their overall data management strategies. This latter would prove to be a significant part of my assessment.

Of course, I wanted to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda (not shown above) - a 2,500 year old struture, which now stands at over 600 feet, covered with more that 600 tons (yes, tons!) of gold with a massive 78 carat diamond and innumerable rubies and other precious stones at its spire. The pagoda is actually situated at the center of a massive complex filled with many small pagodas and temples.