Here is the poem Bob Winter, an English teacher from BARS, wrote. Insein is the name of the place where our school, MIT, is.

Ode to Insein

Insein. Insane?
Your fighter jets keep ripping up the sky above my head!

Insein. Insane?
Your Buddhist monks start chanting chants when I am still in bed!

Insein. Insane?
Your Hindus drum and drum on drums and keep me up all night!

Insein. Insane?
To hear my students speak in class I must put up a fight!

Chin, Kachin, Karen, Kayin. Help me! Please! I'm so confused!
Reading off the list of names, I hear their "Ha Ha Ha's" and "Hoo's."

Hmmmmmm. Uh huh. I get it now. You're not the one to blame.
It's me, not you, who's losing it. Insein is just your name.

OJ from Canada, Lwin Moe and Bob Winter, fine professors at MIT :-) ----- in front of MIT library

Bob at Ashee teashop, MIT campus (Bob teaches poetry and drama at BARS)

OJ at Ashee teashop, MIT campus (OJ teaches linguistics at BARS)

Lwin Moe at Ashee teashop, MIT campus (Lwin Moe teaches computer science at BARS)

Today is my former roommate's wedding. I had a reunion with my old friends from medical school. It was a happy moment. The mixed feeling is I had sensed that it would be getting harder and harder for all of us to get together again. All of them are working.

Burmese bride and groom (in traditional dress), Dr. Min Aung Soe and Dr. Su Su Soe

I am back in Mudon, a small town south of Moulmein. There was electricity for about 10 hours today. It was like a miracle. Here is how Mudon has developed. When I was young back in the late 70s, we had electricity all day and all night. In early 80s, when I was in Kindergarten and primary school, we had electricity every other night and all day. In the late 80s, we had electricity all day, no electricity at night. In the early 90s, when I was in high school, there was no regular electricity. I had to study with a kerosene lamp. I don't know about the late 90s because I was in Rangoon (Yangon). When I came back from the States in 2002, there was electricity for about 2 hours in 10 days. These are the development stages of a small town in the Southern part of Burma, about 90 miles from Thailand border.

I was amazed at the development of our town into the 21st century. :-)

Today is the first day of BARS. There were a lot of students for this semester.

We have 543 students now.

I am in Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin) and I visited several places there.

A house on Forest Road in Pyin Oo Lwin (Maymyo)

Kan Daw Gyi park, Pyin Oo Lwin (Maymyo)

Waw Lay and his son, Modeta at Kan Daw Gyi park

Lwin Moe at Kan Daw Gyi Park in Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin)

Wawlay, Lwin Moe, Modeta, and Wawlay's brother-in-law (Yaw Han) at Kan Daw Gyi Park in Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin)

Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin) is so beautiful

Dr. Sikhia, Lwin Moe and Waw Lay at Kan Daw Gyi Park