Author Archives: jkmarsch

We rode bikes through a monastery to get to a picturesque lake. Many nuns came out to see us pass and two dogs chased us up a pathway! (The nuns wear bright pink robes and shave their heads bald. Their robes perfectly matched the setting sun.) When we got to the lake we saw a woman doing her laundry and three boys swimming around naked. We got closer and they ran out and put their clothes on to sit and stare at Em, Maddux and Lennon. They looked at them and would whisper and laugh, then one tried to tell me about a boat (by using hand signals.) Another boy skipped rocks with Maddux. When we started walking back, two old women stopped close to us while balancing bunches of leaves on their heads. They just kept smiling and saying “minglabar” to us (it’s like saying hello.) Some of these people seem to truly live in the moment. You catch glimpses of pure joy everywhere you go.

In one picture, we are looking at a guy’s artwork that he was trying to sell. The other photo is of hieroglyphics. It doesn’t seem like the Burmese people do a lot of art restoration or preservation in some of the temples- maybe that will change as more tourists traipse through.