Carol and I arrived in Yangon at 7 pm on Saturday evening local time. It was a long trip, with very little sleep. If my math is correct, we were 34 hours in transit (from San Francisco) and 50 hours from the time we awoke on Thursday morning to our arrival. We are 15 1/2 hours ahead of PST. 7 pm Wednesday is 10:30 am Thursday. China air still has good hospitality and great food!

We are excited to be working with Miss L and the English school. Yesterday we interviewed about 25 students in a placement test. It’s amazing to me that they are able to write in an English alphabet (theirs is a Siam type script) and communicate why they want to learn English. Not all of these students will actually take the classes, some are just curious to get a placement level established. Carol will be teaching upper level English. There are also teachers from Oklahoma, Switzerland, Michigan. There is also a German class with a German teacher, Katrine.

While at the school a few days ago, I attempted to read my email on my Yahoo account. Impossible. The powers that be block Yahoo. So, please correspond with this Gmail account. For whatever reason, it is not blocked. Thank you Father!

We are staying with a family with three children. The father, is from the Cook Islands (think Samoan) and the mother, . is from Michigan. The children call us Uncle and Auntie. Rachel is 11, Joshua 7, and Rebecca is 4. We are enjoying them, and they us!

There are also two Burmese cousins who live in the home and take care of cooking and laundry. Dabway and Koo koo are great cooks, and Dabway sings constantly. Her song is often in Burmese, but the melody may be a hymn that is familiar, so when I can, I sing along.

I’ve been asked to repair some furniture, and fix “stuff,” as well as assist Carol in her class. Miss L is not sure what exactly I’ll be doing, but she is confident that she can keep me busy. There is some talk of teaching guitar lessons to children in a local orphanage. That would be wonderful.

We were able to visit the local school, (like the one we work with in Salem) today. This is where we are able to email from. They have had schools here for 10 years with 10 -20 students.

Those of you who send fwds, I would ask that you hold off until our return, as our internet time is quite limited here. Personal notes would be greatly appreciated though!