Trip Recap

Well, we're home. Not Bear Creek home, but Sanibel. I feel, however, that I didn't write quite enough about the trip. So I'm now going to attempt to give you a quick recap of the whole adventure.
     Thursday afternoon we boarded a full double decker 747 bound for Seoul, South Korea. And it would take a very long 13 hours until we reached our destination. From there we flew to Singapore, where we spent Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night. Singapore was ah-mazing. It was the first English speaking county I had ever been to...unless you could Canada, but I don't think that really counts. Being somewhere so vastly different from the states, yet speaking the same language was, well, kinda weird. But nice at the same time. We spent Saturday touring around the city on a double decker bus, and hanging around the hotel. It was a short visit, but definitely an unforgettable one.
     On Sunday we flew to Yangon, Myanmar, and from there we flew to Mandalay where we'd be spending most of our time. Sunday night there was a church service at the Bible school. Being it was our first night there, we were all still rather jet lagged. But we made it through the service without any serious casualties.
     Monday morning we went back to the school and did arts and crafts with the students. Jewelry for the girls, model airplanes for the guys. Monday night was the dedication for the new building at the Bible school. They put on quite a show. Lots of dances, a human video, a video recapping the last 10 years of the school, and lots of songs, both in English and Burmese.
     Tuesday, we went sightseeing around Mandalay. We got to go inside the Forbidden Palace, which was so cool- the walls were like a mile thick! And they seemed to go on forever. I felt like Hammy, from Over the Hedge, the first time he saw the hedge, "It never ends that way!....and it never ends that way either!" We got to go up Mandalay Hill too, but being it was considered the most holy ground by Buddhists, we couldn't wear shoes. If you had told me that I would be walking through markets, temples, and the dusty, dirty streets of Myanmar, I would called you crazy, but thats exactly what I found myself doing. Talk about a cultural experience! We also got to see lots of amazing pagodas, and copious other incredible cultural sights and landmarks.
     Wednesday, we took a short flight to Heho, where we stayed til Friday. Later Wednesday afternoon we visited two orphanages. One had about 15 kids and the other had about 130. We went to the smaller orphanage first and did crafts with the girls and legos with the boys. The craft we did was glitter butterflies. Which was essentially just a paper butterfly that had a sticky side that you decorated it with glitter. We tried to keep it neat, but by the end, glitter was everywhere and there was a full blown glitter war going on. But I love glitter, so I didn't mind. Except for the time when I got a whole mouth full; gritty glitter all over your tongue and in your teeth isn't exactly the best feeling. But the kids were laughing and having fun, that's what matters most, right?
     After that, we went to the bigger orphanage. Our friend called the lady who ran it, 'the Mother Teresa of Burma.' And after meeting her, I totally agree. She was such a selfless incredible woman of God. She even kinda looked like Mother Teresa. Anyway, we executed the same strategy for this orphanage as the first one: Crafts for the girls, Legos for the boys. We did the same glitter craft, but it was far more successful this time around. In the sense that we didn't leave the place with a nice dusting of glitter covering it. We also sang at this orphanage. We sang some for them and they did some for us. A couple in english and a few in burmese. It was really cute to hear them sing in english with their accents.
     Thursday we spent all day on Inle Lake, but I already wrote about that so I won't bore you by repeating redundant information.
     We flew back to Mandalay on Friday. There was a goodbye party for us at the bible school and the students sang 'Friends are Friends Forever', which was really nice, I even found myself getting teary. They were just so sincere and full of gratitude. After that we just went back to hotel to pack up and get ready for our trek home.
     We left for the airport at about 7:30am and being our long, memorable, long, tiring, lengthly, and did I mention long? trip home. We flew from Mandalay to Yangon to Singapore to Seoul to Atlanta to Fort Myers. We got here Sunday afternoon. With the time change, it was about 40 hours of travel. I also calculated up all the flights and figured out that we flew more than 50 hours over the course of the 11 days.
   
Today also happens to be a three-way birthday. Evan my friend in PA is turning 15. He claims he's going to be all calm and mature now, and I want to believe him, but I still have some major doubts haha. And Nick, my little buddy who always makes me laugh, is turning 12. I haven't seen him since in like a year and a half, though, so I'm missing him and his family pretty badly. And last but not least, it's my Opa's birthday. He died of cancer right before I was born, so I never knew him, but I thought I still should say something.

I don't really want to end on a sad note, but I haven't really anything else to say at present, so I guess that's it for now:)

A totally different world...

Yesterday we spent the day motoring around in long boats (kinda like a large canoe) on Inle Lake (said like inlay). It was like nothing I had ever seen before. We crossed the lake and there was a whole village build up on stilts in the lake. Shops, houses, a school, a hotel, and restaurants, all up on stilts. Everyone paddled around in long boats through their streets of water. It was so incredible.
We stopped by a shop were they sold products made of silk and lotus. It was amazing to see the ladies making the material at the different stages. From taking the fibers out of the lotus plant(I didn't even know they existed) to spinning it into spools, to dying it, and weaving it. It was just so fascinating.
After that we kept boating til we stopped by another shop. A long necked lady (with lots of gold rings around her neck) lived here. There used to be more long necked ladies living here, but they had all returned to their villages and he was the only one left. I had seen pictures of these kind of people, but never thought I'd see one for real. She said she got her first ring when she was nine, and by the time she was 14 she had 19 rings, and now she has 24 rings. It's really sad in a way, to think about her as a little girl having that done to her. But she said they don't do it anymore.
During another stop two boats pulled up next to ours, full of jewelry. It was quite the interesting experience. We bargained at bit a got a few nice pieces. That's one of the great things about shopping in places like this, you can always negotiate the price. For example, we got the lady to drop the price on my pearl necklace $25. Can you imagine being able to do that in the states?
After that we headed back across the lake. During the ride home, the sun set. It was quite a magnificent sight as it slipped behind the mountains.
I've still more to write, but I'll stop here for now.