Brother Mark lives in Myanmar and our visa applications are pending. We will know in 2 days if our visas are granted. If so, we hope to see Myanmar/Burma with Brother Mark's experienced help.
Brother Victor drove us about 30 minutes north of Bangkok, where the Christian Brothers (founders and former owners of the famous brandy bearing their order's name) have established a 5,000 student school for local children. Brother Victor is about 70, speaks 4 languages, including the incredibly difficult Thai (27 vowels, 70 consonants). He founded the so-called Bamboo School west of Bangkok, on the Myanmar (Burmese) border at the Three Pagodas Pass. The pass was where the Bangkok to Rangoon "Death" Railroad of "Bridge Over The River Kwai" fame was built by the Japanese, during WW II, by forced labor.
Today two local hill tribes are pushed between Thailand and Myanmar and are literally people without a country. The Bamboo School (so named because it has a roof supported by strong bamboo poles, but no walls) is for the children of these tribes We leave with Brother Victor, and a load of milk, for the 6 hour drive, tomorrow at 4:30 a.m.
It may be tough to sleep. Last night while talking to the airlines over the phone, the woman asked, "Where are you?". We were Skyping her from an iPad, so we were on speaker. The noise she heard was a combination of the frogs, odd tropical birds, the ostrich, and something like an iridescent emu! Here is a short clip of those neighbors of ours, which we took while the kids were singing the Thai national anthem early the next morning.
http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=7hxXGyBCv6s
Internet will be problematic for the next 5 days or so, and then it's off to Myanmar....we hope.
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