We wanted to discover Myanmar differently and be involved in an interesting project to meet locals and live like locals. Before our departure from London, we met with Jean-Marc Debricon, who is CEO of a foundation called Green Shoots. He was looking for volunteers to go to Myanmar and do a research on Microfinance for People Living with HIV. It was exactly the type of mission we were looking for! When we arrived in Yangon, we therefore started to really WORK...what a change:)! We divided the mission into 2: first of all, we interviewed 108 patients who have HIV to understand their financial needs. Secondly, we met with the key microfinance players as well the United Nations, the World Bank...etc to understand the microfinance context and assess which players would be best placed to support Green Shoots in its mission to help People Living With HIV. We ended up with a 53 pages report, which (we think) provides all the responses we were looking for. This project enabled us to learn so much both on HIV and Microfinance & indeed live the country like locals! We hope it will now get implemented using our findings and recommendations. Thanks again to all of you who made a donation for Green Shoots!
Just after Christmas, we decided to go out from Yangon and discover the country like "tourists". We went to Inle Lake and Bagan, which are truly fantastic places to see...
4 days in Bagan (Dec/Jan 2013)
Goat keeper in the middle of the temples and our first view on Bagan...
...
Cycling in Bagan late afternoon/ early evening
Colours start to change at sunset...
Fog appears just after sunset
A thought to our Rosbeef friends ;-)
Again...
Lovely sunset on temples...
Homestay in Bagan (As all hotels were fully booked, the hotel employee took her to her home for New Year's Eve)...we slept in a kind of old library, with dust and nice frames...
Agnes with an upset stomach on Jan 1st, 2014 & the family auntie
SOS with iPhone...our boat engine failed in the middle of the river at night ;-)
Rescue...
Agnes enjoying the Bagan sunset from river before rescue ;-)
...
...
4 days at the Inle lake (Dec 2013)
6.30am on Inle lake...fog and fishermen
...
...
Like a Turner painting, no?
Early morning young couple taking out nets
Pink color on Inle in the morning
Deforestation in the background
Another fisherman "Inle style" paddling...
Cliche...
Tomatoes growing on floating gardens
Old floating monastery
Inle style paddling...
Cute and professional guesthouse staff at Inle...
Floating traditional houses
...
Farmers...
...
Market at 7.30am and the famous Inle tomatoes...
Women selling veggies... and kids arguing about money ;-)
Nice lady..and grand-ma with her grand-son
Market...
Lotus fiber....
Lotus is 8 times more expensive than Cotton (You need 8,000 Lotus flowers to make a small scarf)
Around Inle: workers going back home at sunset
"Helicopter View" from a hill ;-)
View on Inle...
Nice reflection...
Kids wanting to impress and scare us as they were eating sugar canes...
Another cliche pic...
...
Crossing the lake with our bikes during sunset
No comment...
...
Monks walking near pagoda
Bago golden pagoda
Bago palace
But what are they looking at?
2nd World War Military cemetery (In Myanmar, the war was mainly against Japanese)
Marie, me & Florence: the French ladies going out in Yangon
Shwe Dagon small pagodas at sunset
Shwe Dagon main pagoda at sunset
...
]
...
...
...
...
Shwe Dagon pagoda from distance at the main Yangon lake
...
Shwe Dagon broom men and ladies
Ines & Matteo (My niece, Agnes' god daughter & nephew) discovering Santa's generosity
Bicycle riders ice cream break (Who eats the biggest one?)
Ines & Agnes pulling faces
Ines playing in her bedroom
Ines vs Mignons
Ines escaping from mignons
Matteo enjoying his mini football game
Matteo at his school
Matteo having his dad's support during his swimming lessons
Wedding day in Yangon (Dec 2013)
We had the chance to get invited by Tony, our translator, for his brother's wedding...A 2 hours wedding in a Chinese restaurant with traditional cloths...what a nice afternoon!
The official picture...
The wedding girls or "enfants d'honneurs" & Nwe + Tony
You may have a question: why on earth does the groom have to wear this..on his head?
Some ladies wearing longyi included Agnes who got the advice from Nwe. One of them has the Afro vibe, don't you think?
More pictures about our life and project in Yangon (Dec 2013)
Agnes & Nwe, one of the two translators during the interviews. In total, we have done 108 in 5 days. The analysis now starts and our project continue with meetings with local & international micro finance players.
Kids playing outside the clinic
Day care center baby...
Cute girl who was usually afraid to look at me ;- + girl with her younger brother
By the way Thanaka is the name of the powder (roots), that Myanmar people put on their faces and arms to protect their skin from the sun...for example.
Young Mum & her kid, HIV patients
"Football-Tennis" match at the South East Asian Games
Our second week here in Yangon & at the clinic (Nov/Dec 2013)
Cute girl with her younger brother who come everyday at the day care centre
Staff Lunch
Agnes and Nwe, our translator, interviewing the funniest patient we had: a 67 years old lady who was full of smiles and energy!
Nuns waling in the streets & walking snacks seller
The standard 6 months rent that you have to pay in advance before entering your flat ;-)...lucky us, we don't stay that long here.
"Beautiful" and "Wise" ladies on trishaws...
Typical urban building (like ours)
Trishaws...
Our first clinic visit in the Hlaingthayar township (Nov 2013)
One of the clinic patio looking at the laboratory and privacy rooms for HIV women
Laboratory
Counselling staff
Clinic view from street (you can see two buildings but there are 4 in total)
Another view of the clinic
View 3...
Feeding center for HIV women and their kids
Lunchtime for women & kids
Reception room with file
Pharmacy
Laboratory staff member
Impressive, no?
1st days in Myanmar - Our environment (November 2013)
Sule pagoda by night
Shwe Dagon on daylight
Nice temples near downtown
Flip flop stall in Bahan township...
"Fresh" seafood stall...fancy buying something?
Video gaming center for kids
Salad and spices stall
Vegetables stall
Gems small factory
Eggs stall...some look greenish and open ;-)
Our corner cafe for our 1st week in Yangon
Football training on carpark...
Nice trishaw driver reading a football newspaper
Bahan market
Home S....Home: After 5 days in a hotel, we finally settled in here. We found one French lady and one American man looking for flatmates...how lucky we are to have found so quickly...and to tell you the truth, the standards are above the average (especially inside)
