Have you ever walked down the street with a man talking about something and have them shush you? I can now say that I have. These past few days I have been in Myanmar (pronounced me-an-mar and formerly known as Burma) and let me tell you that this country is like no other place I have been. Myanmar is run by a military dictatorship and because of this you really cannot talk about the government without threatening the life of the person you are talking to and your own well-being. Also, because of the military dictatorship the United States has created and enforced a number of trade sanctions, which means that no one in the United States is allowed to legally trade with Burma. This means no foreign investment, which is a major disadvantage to economy in Myanmar. However, I did read a local newspaper and found out that China has begun to invest in Myanmar, which will help the countries economy.

Myanmar is decades behind the rest of the world. I went to an “internet café” with a friend of mine and well the café was a room with an old computer in it and dial up internet. The power was so unreliable and unsteady that the computer was on a major surge protector and an extra power supply. Every few minutes you would hear a few clicks and a beep from one of the many boxes in the room, which indicated that the power had surged or dropped and the computers support system prevented it from being destroyed. There are so many other ways that Myanmar is behind, but it is hard to describe them all. I will just say this…I took a hot air balloon ride early one morning and got into a conversation with the British balloon pilot. He said that occasionally they will land in places were no white people have ever been seen. In these cases the pilot will speak the little Burmese that he knows to assure the villagers that the people in the balloon are not gods or evil beings.

I did not know that my world could be this shaken up. I experienced things in Myanmar that I am going to have a difficult time describing. I have realized the best thing I can do is tell everyone stories and let everyone come to his or her own conclusions. However, I know that telling stories is nowhere near the same as experiencing it, but stories are the best I can do at explaining my experiences.

I have begun to wonder what I will think of everyone and everything when I return to America. I might be getting ahead of myself and I might be worrying about the changes I am going through too much (when I should not worry). But all I know is that the past two ports and the next few ports are really going to change my already changing worldview.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 13th, 2006 at 6:32 am and is filed under Default. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Comments are closed.