Shortly after Cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy delta of Burma May 2nd two travel organizations that Generosity in Action has worked with for a number of years asked if we could collect funds for them to distribute to help the local people. [As of 6/30 we anticipate that further funds will go to repbuilding schools in the area and for plowing equipment as described in later reports.] We were happy to do so. Below you will find segments from emails received from them. If you wish further information, please email me at duncan@GenerosityInAction.org

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These photos go with the June 14-19 report to the right.

This is page 7. To read earlier emails, click here.
There are now multiple pages of reports from Burma.
This is page one. Click below to go to other pages.
Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6.
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This report is from Kyaw Soe - owner of Arcadia Travels in Rangoon

14 and 15 June 08
A friend and I went around and looked for some tiller machines. We found one good, reliable tractor company which imports those from China. Those are for villagers at Taw-kyaung village tract composed of 9 villages altogether. We actually based at Kyaung Su village where I played games with kids in my last report. One monk from Yangon and his men some of whom are carpenters are managing rehabilitation process there since a week after the cyclone. My friend's medical team got connected with them to go there. Now I befriended with a man who is working to raise funds. Now he and I mobilize with my car to get supplies in Yangon. The monk has got a wireless phone and we got communication with them easily. The phone is charged with a small generator they have or via solar system during the day.

16 June 08
We decided to buy with funds from one monk and ours.
They could buy 5 tillers (single wheel tillers). I could buy 1 single-wheel tiller and 2 Cultivating Roller Boat which cost me for approximately USD 500 apiece. We delivered it on the same day of purchase and all 8 and 23 gallons of diesel fuel arrived with us (my friends, Audrey and I) at 10 p.m. Villagers assembled frames overnight. We returned at 4.30 a.m.

17 June 08
Villagers mounted engines on the frames and started plowing the lands 9 a.m. onwards one by one. Total 4 acres of land was plowed and ready to sow the paddy. Our friends who based in the village along with a monk video taped it and we could viewed it in the evening after a friend came back by bus. In the evening one of my friends and I collected more diesel fuel from friends and acquaintances. We could collect 65 gallons altogether.

18 June 08
We drove there at 5.00 a.m. to deliver the fuel and witness the plowing and distribute plastic pieces as ponchos for school kids. We saw several kids suffered from pink eye.
Took pictures on one of the girls who suffered and show it to an eye specialist when we returned at 7 p.m. the result is not good. She said it is like the swelling of pupil or something like that. Tomorrow they will come by taxi and we will welcome at jetty across the river. We will take care of everything for them including treatment, medicine, transport, board and lodging.

19 June 08
I received call from Kun-gyan-gon town from our friend about the late departure of kids and am waiting at the jetty in front of the Strand hotel. Another friend is waiting at the other side of the river to accompany them on the ferry. Please the kids best of luck for their eyes!

also 19 June 08
We have brought the girl to the opthologist at midday and diagnosed as congetivitis. The opthologist provided medicine needed straight away for free.
Other kids who suffered pink eye will be brought tomorrow morining. The main reason is the water they use from a village tank. The doctor insisted them to use the water from hand pumps they have in the village. The girl and her father are checked in at a small hotel for tonight for the doctor requested us to take her back to the clininc tomorrow. With other kids coming tomorrow all of them will go back tomorrow evening.

Please see the link below to view the use of the tillers on the morining of 17 Jun soon after the engines are mounted.
http://www.mediafire.com/?nn12gjzgzjy
(Editor's note: It is fun to see KS having some fun...)

22 June 2008

I had purchased two more cultivating roller boats with your funds on 20 June and delivered those to Kyaung-zu village by a car contributed by a friend. Yesterday on 21 Jun we went out to Taw-kyaung village with a team of 10 including three medical doctors in two separate cars at 5:30 p.m. We arrived at Kun-gyan-gon town at 08:30 p.m. The muddy road access to the village is worsened by recent rain and inaccessible now. We had to hire a boat to get to a nearby village called Kya-khat which is 10 min walk away from our base in Kyaung-zu village. It took 30 min by boat. Along the way we saw the debris of the wooden and bamboo houses destroyed along Ma-yan creek. The villagers welcomed us to help carry medicine we brought.

Since our arrival at 10:00 we had set our stuff up for the clinic in the village school and started giving treatment until 4:30 p.m. by having snacks we brought with us as lunch.

It was Saturday yesterday and school was off. I tried to distract the attention of 70 to 80 school kids in uniforms in one room by teaching them basic English greetings to avoid interference in setting up our clinic. I found out that they are asked by school teachers to gather for some official photos of receiving some hand-me-down clothes for official photos. I also told them about animals and their appearances by teaching them names in English. Some of them have pretty good response to some of my questions. Word game by writing one or two alphabets of a six-letter word pretty and let them guess the rest of the letters to find out the word. They were slow at first but later on they like guessing words. Finally around noon I told them about myself in simple English and motivate them by telling how I learned English in my childhood. They listened carefully when I explained them that the English language is the language of Science and everything else.

We received 145 patients from different villages. There are about 10 cases of eye sore. Other cases are hypertension with high blood pressure, respiratory diseases, skin infections and trauma. I became a new assistant to the doctors in the afternoon by giving out medicine prescribed for patients. Some of them are reluctant to receive many pills which are antibiotics for at least 5 to 7 days. People here tend to dislike taking pills which we think are very bitter and taste not very great. I myself even in childhood used to drop pills right deep into my palette and swallowed it abruptly by water. We had to explain them that they need to take all pills to cover full course of dosage which will uproot the germs in their body in villager's parlance.

At 4:30 p.m. we had to start packing everything which took one hour with some remaining patients. Our departure from the village to the jetty was at 5:30 p.m. and we got back to town at 6:15 p.m. On the way we had dropped one of the cultivating roller boats (in parts) at the farm of a peasant who owns 15 acres of land. He knows how assemble all those major parts himself and will plow his land for the next few days with this machine. Normally the plowing with single-wheel tiller plowed and finer plowing with roller boat in filled water on land by rain or from the river will cover 1 to 2 acres per day until the seed can be sowed. We got back to Kun-gyan-gon at 6:20 p.m. and Yangon at 9:30 after dropping three doctors and medical kits at our usual meeting point.

This is page 7. To read earlier emails, click here.
Click here to go to page 2. received May 19th and 20th
To go to page 3 received May 21st
To go to page 4 received May 23
To go to page 5 received May 27 and May 29
To go to page 6 received June 8-10
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