Myitkyina photo workshop

Mae Sot, Thailand, to Yangon, Myanmar, Yangon to Myitkyina.  It takes all day to fly to northern Kachin State, 2 airplanes, lots of wait time in airports, so we arrived late in the afternoon of May 9. Greeted by our friends Maggie and Tara and a bunch of pink paper roses!

The next morning, our guest house owner drove us out to the orphanage, about 5  kms out of town, where we met our 10 students, but no translator! What to do?  Lum Tse, one of the participants, said she could translate if we spoke slowly, so we started in.  A half hour later, the orphanage’s assistant director, showed up and offered to translate, ‘but I’ve never done it before!’. he said  La Htoi turned out to be an excellent translator, attentive, enthusiastic, who doubled as our go-fer, taking image files to print shop, buying me a card reader when I discovered I’d forgotten mine in Mae Sot… nothing was too much trouble.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By now we had bicycles, wobbly ones, but they got us to the orphanage and back.  The scariest part of the trip was negotiating the one round-about where we had to make a left hand turn through a stream of cars, motorbikes, trucks, the odd cow… Our students always had water and a snack waiting to revive us when we arrived, and of course, there was a cold Myanmar beer waiting back at the guest house when we returned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a day off on Sunday, so Maggie and Tara took us to the Irawaddy river and the market, followed by ice cream at Nylon ( short for New York and London and with a branch in Mandalay!)

We finally had to get a guy to cut off the bike lock because it refused to unlock itself!

Lucky Bakery, where the croissants are cut into bite-size chunks provided additional sustenance on the ride home from the workshop:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portraits, human or otherwise:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One morning, before the workshop, we taught the Nelken Line dance to a bunch of 7 and 9 year olds who were at Maggie’s summer day program.  Hilarious!

The exhibition was held at the Kachin Center Canteen, where the most refreshing fresh grapefruit juice can be had!  The Kachin Center serves as the non-governmental administrative center for Kachin State.