ALOHA 4

ALOHA 4 (April, 2003) Word Format

Something like this is an example of reverse culture shock for me because I never saw this kind of signboard in America :-)

Burma is very beautiful and a very nice place to live

People crossing the street

I went to West Yangon University today because my friend wanted to turn in his assignments for his University of Distance Education classes. There were about 200 people waiting for their turn. We waited for 2 hours to find out that his assignments were not due until June. It was 200 * 2 = 400 hours of wasted productivity because 200 people have to wait about 2 hours each. It reminded me of long line at IPFW at the last date to pay tuition fees. At least it wasn't 2 hours we had to wait instead it was about 15 minutes to 30 minutes maximum.

I noticed 20 workers working on 5 feet wide and 100 feet long aisle bridging 2 buildings. They have to figure out a more efficient way.

I wrote a letter to Ms. Grant, who works as an English teacher at United States Information Services thanking she and her friend for sending books to MIT:

Dear Ms. Grant,

I am Lwin Moe. I teach computer science and Maths at Bacheolor of Arts in Religious Studies Program at Myanmar Institute of Theology here in Burma. I helped Allan Po, the librarian, with IT needs of the library.

We just want to say thank you for the books you and your friend form Texas sent to MIT. They are useful for our books-hungry students.

I also want to give you some information on some contacts in the States that might be helpful for you and your friend in sending books with M-bags. While I was in the States for my undergraduate studies, I have involved myself in many community library projects. I have also volunteered to create and maintain a web site for our library projects. Here is the URL for our site:

http://dmw.mine.nu/~lwinmoe/lwinmoe/library/

Since I came back from the States in December 2002, I had a hard time maintaining it from Burma. So some of the info might not be up to date. The only thing I could update is my diary.

There are also other community libraries in Pathein and Taunggyi. We started a bible school library in Moulmein and we have vision that it be expended into a public library in the future. Some of those are mentioned in the web site.

I would appreciate it if you can encourage your friends to collect books and send them to MIT with M-bags. Our friends in the States will be able to help you with information in case you have a question. Here are the addresses of our friends.

1) Dr. Neil and Diana Sowards, 548 Home Avenue, Fort Wayne, IN 46807, (260) 745-3658 nsowards@juno.com

2) Dr. Adam Maung and Tansy J. Kadoe, 18050 N. 89th Lane, Peoria, AZ 85382, (623) 594-6742, TansyJKadoe@aol.com

3) Dr. David and Doris Horton, 386 W. Rio Altar, Green Valley, AZ 85614, (520) 399-0675, dehgvaz@cox.net

I just want to thank you and hope that you will be able to help your friends in the States send more books for our youths in Burma.

Thank you again,

Lwin Moe
http://dmw.mine.nu/~lwinmoe/lwinmoe

I received a letter from my Alma Mater, Indiana-Purdue University, asking me an alumni survey to evaluate my former professor for his tenure. The address says:

Mr. Lwin Moe
Bars-Mit
Seminary Hill
Insein 11011
BURMA

The word "BURMA" was crossed out by the Post Office people. They prefer the name "Myanmar." But I had experiences before in which I used the name Myanmar without Burma and the letters were sent to Saigon, Congo, Cameroon, etc. Sometimes even to Manila. I started to use the term Burma since then with Myanmar in parenthesis. But the post office still doesn't like it. But I can't help it. I had to use the term Burma in some parts of the world where nobody has heard of Myanmar. Otherwise my mails will be mis-sent to Saigon. My formula now is using like this: Burma (Myanmar)

I went to Dagon University with some friends. They had to take some lectures for their Distance Learning classes before their finals. On our way, we stopped by a gas station, he was supposed to get 6 gals for his car and I noticed that the guys from the gas station shorted him at 5.9 gals. Guess how much the gas station is making by stealing 0.1 gals from each car? The situation is if you own a car, you are entitled to 6 gals a week from gas stations owned by the government with a price quite a bit cheaper than the market price. There are vendors selling gasoline illegally with a market price, which is more expensive than the government price.

I sat in the lecture room with my friends. The professor was explaining some functions from economics. I am wondering about the teaching style. He was explaining the definitions word for word (translating from English to Burmese.) Students are not taught how to do self-study, how to observe and learn, apply those in life. They are not trained how to read and learn. Most students don't ask any questions to the professor. Bo Hein, my friend, did raise a question, though.

There were also people laughing and talking outside of the classroom. Those kinds of behaviors are also found in some students of BARS at our Myanmar Institute of Theology. I think the root of the problem comes from students studying subjects they are not interested in. They have no electives to choose from. Their class schedule is determined by the department. I have been trying to fix that at BARS. But lack of full-time faculty and staff has forced us to use a compromise between the US system and Burmese system.

The lecture in economics was followed by a Math class. The teacher was very good at explaining. A tall, thin teacher wearing a Kachin longyi, he looked experienced and kind. He had my respect. In my personal opinion, no system will work unless the mentality of students can be changed. Curiosity, observations and self-study need to be promoted among students. Our BARS program is still struggling and has a lot of problems such as faculty resources, equipment resources, etc.

Happy Easter!

These are interesting articles about Burma by two Japanese.

http://www.yangonow.com/eng/magazine/essay/nishigaki_m/essay06.html

http://www.yangonow.com/eng/magazine/essay/kimura_k/essay05.html

I learned of some bad experiences of Burmese students wanting to take TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language.) TOEFL is a test foreign students have to take to get admitted to an American university. I had to take it about five or six years ago. It reminded me of difficulties just to pay for the fees. Since we don't have a reliable banking system, it is very difficult for an ordinary citizen to transfer money to a foreign bank. In my case, a friend who went to Singapore on a business trip helped me pay with the money order from Singapore. There were not a lot of students wanting to take the test. So I got the test date I wanted. But nowadays, the seats are almost always full on the date a student wants because of increased interest in studying abroad or hopes and rumors spreading around that TOEFL is all a student needs to get a scholarship. Many desperate students have been misinformed that TOEFL is the only thing they need to get some kind of scholarship or financial assistance from America. So they are all trying to take TOEFL, spending all their savings.

If there is not a seat available for a student at either test center in Rangoon (Yangon) TOEFL will refund the fees. They mailed the student a check, which is useless in our banking system.

My desires are 1) to have a stable exchange rate 2) to have a reliable banking system 3) to create job opportunities for our youths.

I took part in the youth camp at Mon Baptist Church this whole week. I gave a lecture on Information Technology in Society. I felt sorry because I had to give a lecture on the technology that they can't afford. The Myanmar Institute of Theology doesn't have the Internet access let alone those small churches.

We went on a trip to Kandawgyi Lake on the last day of the camp for fellowship. It was a lot of fun. We all thanked God for a wonderful meal He provided on a beautiful day. God has been kind to all of us during this time of misery and hopelessness.

It was 910 Kyats a dollar yesterday. I was thinking about spending around $500 for a desktop computer.

There is a rumor around town that a few cases of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) have been reported at a private clinic in Burma. I don't know how reliable the source of the rumor is. It's the cost we have to pay for the lack of freedom of press. Nothing is mentioned in the newspaper about any bad things. The mentality of Burmese people is that only good things are reported. It's even true among Christian ministers and church leaders. Only good news is news in the papers. Rumors can't be ignored here in Burma because they have proved to be true in the past. One thing we need to learn in our society is failures and mistakes don't mean bad. We will need to acknowledge our failures and mistakes, and need to learn from those experiences.

One of the examples is our newspaper. Newspapers reported many good projects that the government is doing. It has been glorifying the bridge projects and road repairing projects for the past few years. There are also many bad things going on around the country such as high inflation rate, terrible living conditions, and reduced job opportunities for the educated youths.