Yangon Thu

Back in the days, when I was young...... I'm not a kid anymore...somedays, I wish I was a kid again...

I spent my first 10 years in this house.
Of course, the house was just built when my parents moved in a few weeks before I was born (or after, I don't remember) so it looked less dilapitaded than this. Maybe we could blame the government for not taking care of it (it is government housing) or you could blame the mother nature - the house has to weather the monsoon floods every year, come June, July, August, which is Rainy Season in Burma. The 2 People walking into the garden are my uncle and my cousin.

This is the entrance to my old school No.3 Basic Education High School, Ahlone, Yangon. Sad how this looks so much older too. Could use a coat of paint. This was an all girls school from Pre Kindergarten to 10th Grade. Maybe this is why I don't know how to talk to boys. Just Kidding.
All school uniforms in Burma are white and green. White tops and green bottoms, even for teachers. And text books, and so it seems for Signboards as well.

This is the road that goes from the gate to my school - I know - it's long.

This is the other gate that lets people into my school.

This was my playground, really. I don't know if you can tell, but this used to be an old basketball court - back when sports were actually allowed in schools in Burma - you can ask my mother - she excelled in them- having gold medals to show off for swimming, badminton and volleyball. But then, you know, the evil Burmese Military government came on, took every everything, blah blah, you know the story and so the basketball court remained empty, only there for us girls to play catch, jump rope, hop scotch, gossip on the benches, and hold assemblies in the rain.

The buildings you see behind it were the Primary/Elementary classrooms. Those were where my classes were held. Now they are living quarters. I don't know who live in them, but as I walked through the hallways, eyes stared at me, disliking the unusual intrusion into their lives (it was the school holidays in that October weekend, when I went). They were so comfortable in their rooms, those families that I could hardly see my classes in them.

But I could see my classes again when I tried really hard....I remembered my first day. I remembered the first time I walked in. I was late and all frazzled and wondering if I had made a big mistake asking to come to this class as all the kids looked so big. You see, I was supposed to spend 2 years in Kindergarten in another school but I refused to because all my friends had graduated and I wated to go to a real school like my big sister.
So the teacher at Thu Ngaa Ten (Like post Kindergarten and pre Grade 1) said she'd accept me, even though I was only 5 years old (you are supposed to be 6) if I make it to be top 50% of the class. I stayed and sat beside this girl, who was acting like she knew everything already (she remains 1 of the friends I keep in touch with to this day, this girl and I - she is married with a beautiful baby).
So, as you might have guessed, I stayed in that class because after the first test, I was 7th in class and deemed a smart cookie (ha!) and allowed to stay.

This was actually our canteen, our cafe, our lunch place, whatever. Those little stalls usually sold Mon Hin Gha (noodles in fish chowder) or Ohn No Kyaut Swe ( Noodles and chicken in Cocomut Currylike broth), etc. You are wondering why this is so small, when there are classes from pre kindergarten to 10th grade in this school. Well, truth is, most kids bring lunch from home and most kids eat at their desks during lunch. I would say 96% of the kids do. They then perhaps use lunch money to buy a snack - preserved fruit or what not - now adays chocolate and all that good old western junk food.
Again, this dilapidation - I don't know what's going on. Maybe there is no longer a canteen.

I never played musical chairs when I was little. But this game was like musical chairs. You'd choose a pillar to cling to and then someone doesn't have a pillar and then I forget half the rules - and you'd count to 10 or something and you'd have to switch pillars - and the one who doesn't have one must snatch one - and the game goes one. We played that game here. We would stop when a teacher passed by. That was the only rule. LOL.

This is the main building of the school. You get to have classes here, after you are done with your elementary part of your education, after you pass grade 4. After passing grade 4, you learn more things, you see, (grade 3 &4, you learn Eng, Burmese, Geography, Math, Burmese History). Grade 5 - it's another ball game. You get to write with a pen, for girls, you cannot wear a skirt or pants or dresses anymore, you must wear traditional Burmese Longyis and for boys, no more pants or shorts - traditional Pasoes. The subjects are Burmese Grammar, Burmese, Literature, English, World Georgraphy, Math, Advanced math, and so on and so forth...
I never made it to grade 5 in Burma, so I never made it to these buildings, except for school functions.

The above is the school's very own water pump. Most places in Burma has to. Water supply sucks ass, I guess. The first day i was in school, I was already kind of in alarm mode of my unfamiliar surroundings and I then I heard this unusual chugging of this water pump. I swore a train was coming at me and ran - I ran like I was on the train Tracks and the train was about to hit me.
Me, my sister and the parents had a great laugh afterwards. It's still funny to this day.

Whew! I think that was the longest blog ever.

Posted by Yangon Thu at January 22, 2006 09:42 PM