3-17-2015 – Kalemyo, Myanmar

It’s been a few days since I have communicated with you all. Monday I traveled up to Kalemyo by plane, and, after a small delay in Mandalay, (no pun intended), I arrived into Kalemyo about an hour and a half later than planned. Fortunately my host was not overly concerned and after a few minutes of waiting on my bag, we came to the hotel.

Actually, let me digress a moment. The baggage claim was quite unusual. You actually exit the airport to come out on the small street in front of the airport building (which is pretty small), and they bring your bags out in wooden flatbed wagons (see picture) pulled by three wheeled scooters. To collect your bag, you hand one of the helpers closest to you a one thousand kyet bill (it’s a dollar), and off you go! After arriving at the hotel, we talked for a few minutes together and then my host, Pastor David, left me to rest and get ready for Tuesday morning.

This morning I traveled less than two miles to the church and began the class with about 45 to 50 pastors, teachers, and other members of the church here. With the ring of the bell (see the picture: It is a World War II bomb that never exploded, and they turned this weapon meant for destruction into a church bell!), we started just after eight and taught till eleven when we broke for lunch. We came back promptly at 12 and continued until 3. We needed all the time we could get in order to make up for the lost day of class on Monday. We covered a lot of material today, and tomorrow we will see how well everyone does on the first quiz. They didn’t seem all that excited about it, but who knows. Maybe I’ll see some smiles tomorrow. After all, there are a lot of preachers in the class!

You would be amazed to see how many motor scooters there are here on the roads. It’s shocking. They come in droves and just keep coming from everywhere. That is how I got picked up this morning and taken back to the hotel today. Check out the pictures from today, particularly the pumpkins for lunch. I ate several whole pumpkins (about the size of brussel sprouts)!

Bruce Snavely