mae sot......cont'd.......

(top) this is a typical dinnertable spread....we have a meat and sauce dish........soup......salad.....(this only happened once----thank goodness!!) deep fried crickets!!!.....and the rice has yet to arrive......yes, the rice........lots and lots of rice! (bottom) this was my going away dinner......you can see fried eggs......there's also every kind of meat (chicken, fish and beef)......various other things (salads and soup).........



















this is a typical market in mae sot.......this one has mostly food but the bigger market downtown sells everything!......

this is just a photo from one of our visits to the monastery...........i think some burmese-american kids were being ordained into the monkhood for 10 days during this ceremony (burmese buddhists believe that men should serve about 5 terms as a monk---typically lasting 10 days for those who choose not to make this their permenant way of life)........

this is a photo from my favorite burmese friend's school..........she teaches children of migrant workers who are some of the poorest people i've seen........i was too shy to take a photo of how they live and would have felt intrusive for doing it.......whenever i think life is becomming hard for me i think back to how i saw these people getting by and life seems almost perfect for me.........these children were a blessing to visit........they were happy, bright and excited to have us there (i visited with my volunteer friend---stuart )........their teachers are from stuart's class (some of my favorite burmese friends)