Mingalabar from Myanmar

We are in Myanmar and Mingalabar is how we say "hello." Myanmar was once a British colony just like the United States. We have 50 states and Myanmar has 14. We visited the western state of Rakhine to learn about Mrauk U, one of Myanmar’s oldest Buddhist historical sites. Most people in Myanmar are Buddhist. We had to fly one hour from Yangon, the largest city, and then take a boat up the river for six hours. We visited a temple with over 80,000 statues of Buddha but saw many other interesting things.

We were surprised to see many American Willys Jeeps. They are left over from WW II. We thought it was amazing that vehicles more the 60 years old were still in use. Myanmar has many interesting things to see and do. We liked driving along the streets of the village in the Jeep. The children would rush out to meet us and shout, "Bye Bye." We stopped to watch people making hats and fans out of bamboo. There is always something interesting to see.

One day we took a boat up another river to Chin State. We love boat rides because the scenes along the river are so interesting. There were ladies washing their clothes in the river because they don’t have running water in their houses. Many people were fishing. Everyone stopped to wave to us. We visited two Chin villages. It is very hot in Chin State so most people live in bamboo houses built on stilts. It allows the air to flow all around making it cooler. Also it keeps the animals out. The older ladies have beautiful designs tattooed on their face. We asked, "Why do you have tattoos and the younger women do not?" They explained, "Many years ago there was a king who would take the prettiest girls to his palace so we tattooed our face so we would not look pretty. We did not want to leave our families." We wanted to know if it hurt to have the tattoos. One lady explained, "Yes, it hurt a lot and I was sick in bed for one week."

We visited a Chin school. We saw hopscotch squares drawn in the dirt. It is a game that children all over the world play. There was only one room in the school but five grades. That was all they needed because there were only 23 students. Each grade had their own table and benches plus a blackboard with their assignments on it. Notice some of them have light yellow powder on their face. It is very common and called thanaka. Men, women, and children wear it to protect them from the sun. We were surprised to see they were learning English. The children sang "Frere Jacques" in English. The French lady in our tour group, said, "It is a French song, not an English song." She tried to teach them the French words. We explained that in America children know the song in French and English. Then the students stood at attention and sang a song in their own language. It was a very nice song about how important it is to study hard and do good work in school. Notice some of them are wearing long wrap around skirts. It isw called a longyi and worn by men and women. It is perfect for the hot climate in Myanmar.

When we returned to Yangon we visited the International School of Yangon. It is like the schools in the United States. Cars were lined up outside with parents dropping off their children. The teachers are from Australia, England, and the United States. The students use all the same books as in the United States. The halls were decorated for Valentine’s Day and there were posters on the walls. One poster said "Don’t Run in the Hall." We did a power point presentation about schools around the world. When the teacher wanted everyone to be quiet she clapped her hands once then all the children joined in and together they clapped their hands in rhythm five times. All was quiet. We liked that. It seems that students in Myanmar have many things in common with students in the United States.

Many people from all over the world come to visit Myanmar. They like to see the historical sites, meet the people and to enjoy the beautiful beached. We spent five days relaxing at Amazing Resort in Ngapali Beach. Just like all it Myanmar it was amazing.

Salaam Alakium from Dubai

Salaam Alakium is "hello" in Arabic but most of the people in Dubai speak English. Dubai is one of the seven United Arab Emirates located on the Persian Gulf. It is extremely modern because everything is quite new. The people were fishermen, traders, or nomads until oil was discovered in the 1960s. Oil made Dubai very rich. Everywhere we look we see new roads and buildings being constructed. People come from all over the world to work in Dubai. There are many amazing things in Dubai. They are building the tallest building in the world. They are running out of land to build on so they are creating new land in the ocean. The new lands are very imaginative. Three are groups of islands in the shape of huge palm trees but the biggest land-creating project is in the shape of a map of the world. Each individual island will have many homes, hotels, and be like a village. The have built the world's most expensive hotel.

Even though Dubai is in a desert it is possible to go snow skiing. One of their shopping malls has an area called Ski Dubai. It is very big with ski slopes so long skiers have to take a chair lift to get to the top. They also have two toboggan runs and places to slide on tubes. Because most of the people do not have cold weather clothes they provide coats, boots, mittens, ski outfits, and even the skis and snowboards.

Many people come to the United Arab Emirates to enjoy the beaches. We went to the beach in Furjairah, one of the other emirates. It was only two hours from Dubai where there is less tourism. There was a huge rock in the water not too far from shore called "Snoopy" because it looked like a sleeping "Snoopy." We enjoyed our relaxing stay at Sandy Beach. It was a great place to go snorkeling.

Another fun thing to do in Dubai is to go on a desert safari. It is exciting as the vehicles go dashing over the sand dunes. We went to the top of one of the largest dunes to watch the sunset, then went on a very short camel ride, followed by a BBQ in a traditonal nomad desert setting. There were many other people there.

Islam is the religion of Dubai and their house of worship is called a mosque. We visited Jumeirah Mosque where they explained many things about the Islamic religion. There are five main duties for Moslems: They should believe in one God, pray five times a day, give to the poor, fast (that means to go without eating from sunrise to sunset) during their holy month, and visit Mecca, their holy city, once during their lifetime. The lady explained how and why it is important to wash before praying and entering the mosque. When entering a mosque people remove their shoes.

Moslem females in the Dubai wear a long black, lightweight coat called an abaya over their regular clothes and a black scarf called a sheyla. Today many females have decorated their abayas and shelya with lace and sparkling sequins and crystals. Some of the women also wear a covering on their face. It is their choice. The men wear long white coats and a red checked scarf with a black band. The style of dress is traditional from the days when they were nomads in the desert. In fact, the men’s clothing looks like what the shepherds wear in our manger scenes at Christmastime.

Even though Dubai is very modern the Shiekhs (which means "leader" or "elder") want people to remember their history so their museums are very good and only cost $2 to visit. We learned many interesting things like how they were able to keep cool in the hot desert by creating wind towers on their houses. A wind tower is like a chimney with material inside designed to catch the wind. If the material is damp the wind blowing over it will cause evaporation creating cool air in their house.

One evening we went to a Heritage Village where ladies were cooking traditonal treats and making handicrafts. There were camel rides and a beautiful white Arab horse. They love their horses. We enjoyed watching the school girld doing traditional dances. There were many families there enjoying the cool evening.

With all the building going on we wonder what Dubai and the other emirates will look like in 20 years. We are sure it will be amazing.