Three weeks into my time in Yangon, Tony, fed up with Canadian winter decided to join me.  I was concerned about what he would do alone in the city all day with me at school, so I asked if they could use a volunteer handyman.  They could, what a relief.  Much to my chagrin my real contribution to Growing Together was to bring Tony along, what they desperately needed was a good project engineer for the new rural school, how serendipitous

Getting to Thanlyin involved a horrendous 90 minute journey on two dilapidated buses circa 1950 and sometimes on the back of a pick up.  Goodness knows how they keep them going.  The buses were always crammed to over-flowing, there were few seats and he always had to strap hang.  Tony passed the time chatting to students on their way to the university,  neither of us ever saw another Westerner on a bus

He doesn't look too unhappy travelling home on the bus.  Perhaps because somewhat belatedly we had discovered the Grand Mee Ya Tha hotel offered a reduced ‘volunteer’ fate to use their pool and facilities.   A lifesaver for him after working outside through the heat of the day

His first project was to source, purchase and install a compressor and motor to pump water from the existing well to a holding tank.  Children and staff from a School in Hong Kong had raised the money to fund the project.    Because of the recent 'Saffron Revolution' Margaret, a teacher from Hong Kong delivered the cash.  No students were allowed to make the trip with her as planned

Once installed they were worried about theft so Tony had a cage fabricated locally along with a trolley for carrying the diesel fuel from the main road. They were well pleased with the cage saying it would  'hold a tiger’

We really enjoyed acquiring the tools, parts and equipment needed, with just a few drawings, sign language and a lot of goodwill on the part of our neighbours.  Luckily Motherland 2 is in an area of sidewalk shops selling tools, high-pressure pipe, hoses etc and even the steel fabricator 

Thanks to the British Raj much of the building industry still uses imperial measurements which made life easier

Our appearance in their midst always drew a crowd as they sensed they were in for some street theatre

Day Tripper

Although Joytish thought Tony should work seven days a week at the school that, didn't happen.  We needed two days to source equipment, materials and tools and a little time to relax

Then on this beautiful day he got to accompany Margaret and Khiang Zar on a day trip on a train