Herding buffaloes out in the fields in Nyaungshwe, Inle lake region, Burma
I. The Buffalo Herder/ December 2016
He's ten.
He herds buffaloes in the fields every day.
"Do you want to go to school?"
When I asked if he goes to school, he struggled and took a while to comprehend before he shook his head.
He stopped to think again, somehow the language barrier and sentence structure was too much to take. He shook his head once more.
We stood there in silence after that. He was calling out to his buffaloes with a kind of code only they can understand. Then, he stretched his palm out towards me.
I wondered what he wanted me to do. Then, I realised what he meant after a while, punctuated with an awkwardness in between.
However, something deep down nagged at me, I know that I wasn't going to do it yet at the same time... "a few hundred kyats won't hurt right?" This time round, I shook my head and walked away with a heavy heart.
There are children like him in Nyaungshwe who are able to attend school. In fact, I see them cycling in groups on the way back to town.
How will a child's education be a priority if their families are struggling so hard to make ends meet?
A sulfur miner at Kawah Ijen (Volcano and Crater lake), Java, Indonesia
II. The Sulfur Miner / June 2017
He was making his way up steadily from the crater of Kawah Ijen (Ijen volcano) carrying these baskets of sulfur that were mined earlier in the morning.
He stopped to take a break when I asked if it was okay for him to have his picture taken.
He is one of the many miners who make several trips up and down the crater to mine and collect the sulfur found at the deepest part of the crater (where the solfatara is) every day, starting from the wee hours in the morning. They are aware of how toxic the sulfur fumes are and how damaging they are to their health when inhaled yet they still do it, albeit knowing that they may be overexploited in the process. For every 1kg of sulfur mined, they receive 1000IDR in return for their labour.
He continued to toil up the precarious, rocky paths and I followed behind, climbing up the steps gingerly.
Mine Thauk village, Nyaungshwe
III. Teacher Nu Nu / December 2016
It was a thirty-minute boat ride on Inle lake from the town of Nyaungshwe to Mine Thauk village. I visited an orphanage at Mine Thauk only to realise that the children were at school (a 20-minute walk away). So, I ended up sitting in the teachers' office having tea and conversing with a staff member for almost 2 hours. Her children at the orphanage call her Teacher Nu Nu.
We were talking about the children under our wing and how lessons were conducted for them back in the orphanage. She told me that she had to pack lunches for them so they can nourish themselves during their breaks in between lessons.
It was nice listening to her sharing about how it was important to listen to children whenever they speak, take their ideas seriously, craft interesting lessons so that they will be more engaged. She moved on to share with me where she grew up in. She walked to her desk, carefully unfolded the map of Burma and pointed excitedly that she came from Taunggyi, further up in Shan State.
Even in a different country, notions of education and child advocacy are similar in the hearts of educators. 😊