Events of Sunday 27th April 2014
Click on any picture below for an uncropped image.
On Sunday morning, I walked from my hotel to the Clinic in time to chat to Doctor Hla Tun briefly before he started his consultations. There were noticeably fewer waiting patients.
Sunday: Patients waiting outside the original clinic building. The new clinic building, currently used for physiotherapy, is in the background.
I sat in the small staff area in the clinic for a time watching the activities. An elderly lady looking very poorly was slowly assisted through the clinic and outside at the rear of the building. Palms had been planted here when the clinic was built giving a shaded area cooled by a breeze from the river.
The lady was placed in a folding chair and the staff commenced an infusion, using a nearby palm as a convenient attachment for the infusion bag. What appeared to be two relatives, a boy and a girl looking concerned, stayed with the patient.
A range of fresh fruit and biscuits was placed on the table in the staff area and the Head Monk, on one of his regular patrols of the clinic, urged me to eat.
I returned to my hotel for the rest of the morning and indulged in a can of ‘Coca Cola’. I’m always intrigued in the way western marketing and the use of English has impacted Burmese society. All the writing on the familiar ‘ring-pull’ can was in English. Amongst other things, it claimed “Proudly Produced in Myanmar. Manufactured for you with Love and Passion”.
Later, I made my way back to the clinic at the time the Doctor paused for lunch and a short break, taken in the adjacent Monastery. I joined him there with the Monastery’s car driver and the kind lady I always regard as Chief Nurse at the clinic.
Doctor Hla Tun takes lunch in the Monastery before completing his consultations.
Once again, I was struck by the contrast between the range of fresh fruit and freshly-prepared food provided at meal times and the apparently-increasing use of modern ‘convenience’ products. On the table there were three different makes of ready-mixed drinks, all in gaily-coloured plastic sachets printed in English. ‘All-Time’ produce a 3 in 1 tea mix and a 3 in 1 coffee mix but there’s a similar coffee mix revelling in the name ‘BLingBLing’ with its curious capitalisation. Knowing my odd tastes, the nurse offered me Ovaltine which is slightly more traditionally packaged in a glass jar. This time, the printed English text modestly claimed “Complete Nutrition for Every Healthy Day – 14 Vitamins and 10 Minerals”.
The Doctor apologised that we would have to change our plans. He and I had intended to spend the following day, Monday, looking at new building work being funded by the Education Support project (no distributions as the schools were in the Summer Holiday shutdown). However, he’d been asked to be in Yangon on Monday to meet a visiting party from ‘Rotary’. Instead, he’d arranged with the Head Monk that I could still make the visits using the Monastery’s ‘Hi-Ace’ and driver. We said our farewells and the Doctor returned to his remaining patients, after which he would catch the overnight bus to Yangon.
I’m afraid I merely returned to my well-appointed hotel and the Monastery ‘High-Ace’ was provided for that journey as well, people being concerned for my well-being. Temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius were rather knocking me about and even the locals were complaining that it was “too hot”.
At times, even the five minute walk from the reception at the Aye Yar Hotel across the manicured lawns to the River View rooms seemed a long way but the benefit was the views of the ever-changing Ayeyarwaddy River with its boat traffic – the ‘Road to Mandalay’ written about by Kipling and, of course, the name also adopted by the modern luxury river vessel which formed my first introduction to Burma.
The ‘Road to Mandalay’ cruises don’t operate through the hot season but, as I watched, the modern ‘Pandaw’ vessel berthed just a few yards away. The original ‘Pandaw’ was one of the flat-bottomed river craft forming the 'Irrawaddy Flotilla' used by the British to develop communications between Rangoon and Mandalay. The ‘Pandaw’ I watched is a modern version providing luxury accommodation and cruises for tourists. The boat had tied up parallel to the shelving river bank and it took the crew some minutes to construct a substantial gangway to the shore, complete with handrails. Then the guests were able to come ashore and, in the afternoon sun, they walked away from the boat. Presumably, transport was waiting to show them some of the glories of the temples of Bagan.
'Pandaw' berthing outside my hotel in Bagan.
In the evening, 'Pandaw' was brightly lit and the guests were presumably enjoying dinner on board but I’m afraid my appetite had not yet recovered and I was content to rest in preparation for my visit to three schools the following day.
My Pictures
Bagan Medical Clinic (My visit, April 2014).
Aye Yar River Resort, Bagan.
Around Bagan, 2014.
More
Next Post describing this trip.
All my posts on Medical Support in Burma.
[Revised 20-May-2014, 22-May-2014]
