The Village

Motorbike Gang

If I had to choose one moment on this entire adventure that encapsulated everything, or the first image that will pop into my mind when I get home and people start asking me “How was your research trip?  How was Myanmar?”  Today was it.

Walking through the mud...so much for that bike!

At 7am Monday morning, Hosana, Khin Mg Swe (the manager of the hotel) and I put on our rain jackets, waterproofed our documents and set off for the villages.  We had interviewed many people that were located in the local Ngwe Saung village, but in order to get a more accurate perspective, we had to venture out to the villages near the shore and farther away from the center of town.  Only problem was – our little toto golf cart wasn’t going to make it over the rough terrain and two hour ride to the villages…which meant I had to take my first motorbike ride.

  

I’m not going to even pretend that I wasn’t excited, but at the same time incredibly nervous about sitting on the back of a motorbike.  I was fairly certain I would fall off, and terrified at the thought of not being able to hold on to anything while we rode around these villages.  I had nightmares the night before envisioning me tearing through the villages on a motorbike screaming in terror and scaring all the villagers away for our interviews…

Dolly ride across the river

I got on the motorbike and the driver smiled as I frantically tried to figure out how to hold on…and we started off!  I closed my eyes rather terrified at the speed we were going, and thankful that it was too early for my brain to convert kilometers into miles to see how fast we were going.  I closed my eyes for what felt like seconds but all of a sudden, we slowed down and he motioned for me to get off the bike.  I was confused, but followed Hosana and Khin Mg as they took off their shoes and began tiptoeing through the mud.  I had gotten myself all worked up about riding a motorbike and was on one for 30 seconds before I had to get off to trudge through mud because the road conditions were too poor to drive!

We came to a river crossing and I watched in awe as two young boys pulled a dolly boat across the river filled with motorbikes.  It turned out that this was one of the transportation improvements since the hotels and tourism came to town…wow!

Practicing our survey questionnaire

We made it to our first village and Hosana and I eagerly met with our first translator, who was going to take our surveys to interview several people in her village.  She was 19 years old and had just graduated high school and was awaiting her matriculation exam results but hoped to be a teacher.  We explained the survey and allowed her to look over it, and then conducted one survey together, interviewing a neighbor farmer to ensure the proper procedures were followed.

We hopped back on our bikes and set out for the next village…and the next…and the next, handing out surveys, practicing them with the local people, and interviewing a few individuals on our own on the side.

My favorite fisherman :)

My favorite village was a small fisherman village, Naung Maw.  There we interviewed my favorite fisherman, who had a smile that was absolutely contagious.  He had the body of a 25 year old despite his age of 58 – and still went out each and every night to catch shrimp with his crew.  His town had no electricity, running water, or connection, but he happily sat down with us to share pictures of his recent catches on his digital camera that he preciously took care of.

  

There are moments when you try to take everything in – and as we traveled from one village to the next, it was a chance to internalize the interviews and people we had just met and the information we had just obtained.  It had been overcast and raining all morning but after our second village, the clouds parted just as our motorbikes touched the sand of the beach.  As we rode along the beach, with the sun warming my face, I watched the sun sparkle and dance along the waves.  In that moment, I realized how truly special this entire trip has been, and that an opportunity this special will never come again.

Not bad for my first motorbike ride?!  ;)