Gli studenti del villaggio di Shwe Myint Thaar
una lettera del nostro corrispondente, Thann Oo, Dicembre 2008
Mingalarbarr,
I hope you all are in good health.I arrived from the village of Shwe Myinth Thar on 10th December after staying there eight days. At first, I invited and discussed with all the villagers about organizing a ceremony for the students of our school: now it is harvest time for them, but finally we decided to do it on 7 December. We did it in a very simple way. In our school thirthy-one students are studying happily. In this year, there are five students of 4th grade who possibly will join to middle grades if they pass the exam (it will also depend on their family’s situation). You know, the villagers use to think as “blue collars workers”: they never consider to invest in education in a long term, but this is normal, I suppose. The village leader and I always explain about the importance of education and that it is not only finalised to the job.
Anyway, after doing ceremony, some villagers told me that in coming year we’ll make the ceremony in a more beautiful way, including food and entertainment. Even if it was a small event, it wa vital and, I hope, just the first of many others. I believe that, from now on there’ll be a ceremony in SMT every year, in collaboration with Share. We agreed to do it every first week of December or January.
As you know, there are four children that, thanks to the support given by Share, are the firsts, ever in this village, to study in a middle grade school . They are doing very well. And they inform me every month about their school positions. I left them some money for communication fees. I also intend them to be familiar with the telephone. Now the first two need only one year more to finish the middle grade. So I’m very happy and I’m thinking about how to manage when they’ll be in higher grades. They also invited us to come and teach in summertime. They promised to serve the meals themselves and to stay all together in school all the time while we’ll be there to teach.
Finally, I can say we’ve got the interest of the students and that of some villagers, I believe. In the future I’ve to try to create deeper relationships among villagers, teachers and students. It is important to keep operating On the other hand, to let them understand about education. I also would like to implement the library which has been created in the school and to have more people use it. And I’m planning to open an English summer class in the village (like Share is doing in Cambodia): when I discussed it to the villagers, they seemed very interested in it. I’ve to think more about this idea.
The villagers have made some reparation to the road to Pyin Oo Lwin by putting some rocks, but it still needs work since the budget and the time were limited. So they will keep the road in this condition at least for one more year. In any case, after the road was repaired, one can already see some changes in the farmers’ cultivations and in their economy.
So let me say: our operations are going on!
Please, pass my regards to all.
Tanti saluti
T’OO, Share-HLP, Myanmar
