Visit to Ka Mar Wet
From Kot Kha Pon (described in Part 1), we drove a few miles to the Drop In Centre at Ka Mar Wet (also in La Mine Township), which I’d first visited in 2014 (described in the series of posts Burma-2014). As expected, the small building was already full of excited children, from various grades, obediently seated on the floor and monitored by a group of volunteers, many of whom I recognised from my first visit. I was also recognised by the volunteers, there not being many elderly English ladies in La Mine Township.
Ka Mar Wet Drop In Centre.
In addition to presenting the ‘kit’ for the new school year (school bag, folding umbrella, supply of exercise books, pencils, eraser, sharpener, Biro, plastic ruler and a school uniform appropriate to the age and sex of each child), a few girls at High School were being given financial assistance to continue their studies. Doctor Hla Tun made the presentation of assistance to these girls first, before carrying out a medical examination on a small boy who had been hurt in an accident with a bicycle a few weeks earlier and had been brought by his concerned mother. The boy didn’t look very happy and he certainly had some nasty abrasions, inexpertly covered by bandages, but a few tests confirmed that there were no broken bones and his mobility was good so the treatment was a course of antibiotics to prevent wound infection and paracetamol for his discomfort during the healing process.
The injured small boy with his mother.
The distribution had been made easier this time because the staff had placed all the other items in the school bag so Emily and I were able to present the remarkably heavy bag to each student quite easily.
The distribution being received by a young girl.
After the children had changed into their new uniforms, we then posed for the 'group shot'.
Having changed into their new school uniforms, the children looked very smart.
We were to sleep at the Ko Dut Drop in Centre, so as to be ready for presentations at Ko Dut the next morning. From Ka Mar Wet, we drove to Thanbyuzayat with its 'Tin Shelter' and paused to look at the 'plinthed' C56 steam locomotive displayed near the end of the 'Death Railway'.
The road to Ko Dut is not great at the best of times but a bridge closed for maintenance meant that we had to take a detour from the usual route. Part of this detour ran across a series of fields so, with heavy traffic in both directions, it seemed more like Stock Car Racing than a public road.
Part of the diversion to Ko Dut.
We re-joined the ordinary road with some relief. The previous year, we'd examined a Monastic School under construction a little outside Ko Dut but it was clear that work had stopped. Dr. Hla Tun explained that the Head Monk had paused the work at the school so that he could use the budget to 'seal' at least some of the rutted dirt roads by laying coated roadstone ('Tarmac'). As we turned onto these 'sealed' roads we noticed a remarkable improvement in 'ride quality'. We stopped at the house of the manager of Ko Dut D.I.C. and were invited in for snacks before moving to the 'Mon School'.
Go to next post.
My pictures
Ka Mar Wet D.I.C.
Around Mon State, 2015
C56 plinthed at Thanbyuzat
My posts on this trip
All my posts on this trip to Myanmar can be found here.
[Pictures added 15th May 2015]
