Spring is here!

It’s the beginning of spring! A time when we symbolically celebrate new beginnings and welcome the end of winter and the brightening of the world outside (yes, even in Texas!) Suddenly greens seem so much greener and there are wildflowers popping up all over and we revel in the newness of nature all around us.

We are taught from the time we are very small that there are four seasons; Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. As we begin to understand the world outside our backyard we realize that though these season ‘exist’ not everybody everywhere experiences all four.

Oddly enough, in Myanmar there are three all together different seasons. There is the cold season, the hot season, and the monsoon season. The cold season is marked by coolness in the breeze, especially at night. Occasionally the weather gets down into the 60’s and you might even need a light sweater…unless you’re Burmese and then you need a jacket and a hat and maybe mittens because MAN that is COLD! The hot season is oppressive in it’s heat. Imagine the hottest Texas summer days and no central cooling. People literally sleep (in their shops, in the streets, at their jobs) during the heat of the day because the sun saps your energy and strength and all you can do is lay very still and hope the evening comes quickly. The strangest most foreign season to us westerners is monsoon season. Sometimes lasting six months, this is marked by torrential rains everyday alllllll day long. Living in Myanmar for two years, I can tell you that I only THOUGHT I knew what a rainstorm was. When you walk everywhere an umbrella does little to help keep you dry and a few days in to the season you resign yourself to just getting drenched.

Why does this matter? When everything stays wet all the time aggressive molds and mildews take root in your walls, and your clothes, your pillows, your bedding, your…..well you get the picture. When you don’t have proper satiation and the flooding starts the streets that you walk through, sometimes even your home, are taken over with bacteria filled water. You can imagine that this season sees a rise in sickness and the need for medical care as well as proper hygiene and cleanliness.

At Love For Myanmar we provide basic hygiene items like soap so that children can bathe and wash their hands daily. We also ensure that our homes are well made and clean, with proper bathroom facilities and places to sleep that remain clean. This means that we replace bedding and pillows regularly so that children are not inhaling dangerous mold/mildew.

It is donors like you that help us provide these services to the people of Myanmar. It is donors like you that will ensure we can continue to help in these seemingly simple, but life changing ways (When a bar of soap is a coveted and pricey luxury it IS in fact life changing). Thank you.