Myanmar and Assets Conference
Well, well. I know I've disappeared from here for a long time. Get ready for a post with quite a lot of photos. Heehee.
Firstly, the week before I spent 4 days in Myanmar. I must say, while it wasn't the most fantastic of trips, it was quite fulfilling in the sense that I got to see a glimpse of how recce's for humanitarian trips are done.We even had to recce the food places and the R&R places, which was basically a reason for us to shop. :)
Edmond fixing up his bag at Changi Airport.
Landing in Yangon
Andry our Singaporean-Indonesian-based-in-Yangon host.
Boat to Dalla slum
Kids in the slum
Kids having their little bit of fun
My poor-thing sweaty trishaw rider.Let's just say I was a lil' heavy.
More kids on the street playing in puddles.
Street Hawker
Edmond going mad over the money. It can be quite ridiculous sometimes in Myanmar. If you go to a bank or the hotel money changer, u get 6 kyats (the local currency) for US$1.If you go anywhere else unofficial, you get 1260 kyats for US$1. Guess where we went. Edmond went bonkers counting money. But guess who went bonkers even more? Our local host who bought a car for US$46,000, but had to pay in kyats. There are no bank transfer facilities in Myanmar. That's 57960000 in kyats, a currency whose largest note is 1000 kyats.
Shoes at one of the orphanages.
Beautiful girls asking for alms. The group would move from stall to stall, sing a Buddhist hymn and ask for donations. :)
Man by the street.
Me and an orphan I met.
Well, essentially, that is it. Not much. We pampered ourselves with the nice hotel and the food.The strange thing with Myanmar is that although the country is poor, many things are very expensive, like Singapore prices. From the looks of the country, probably in the 70s the country was probably at the forefront of SEA, but it has really stagnated over the past 20 years under military rule. I hope things get better soon.
____________________________________________________________________
Savings, Assets and Financial Inclusion: A Global Symposium
Hehe.. as I told Cindy my scribe buddy on the first day of the conference, this was probably the best job one can get. I mean, I get paid $8.74 an hour, but I also get to stay 4 nights in a 5 star hotel and get fed hotel quality food for 4 days? Woah, almost heaven man.
My room. U see, being in Social Work, all the fellow student helpers were GIRLS. and by virtue of that fact, I got my own room. Ok, I shall stop feeling bad about having my own room. Cos i always see families where 3 brothers share one room but the little 6-yr old girl gets her own. :)
Briefing time
Packing time.
Ok, this is a bit girlish, but yeah! Pleasant surprise when I got back to my room at night.
The beautiful girls
Cindy acting cute
Mics that we took and ran all over the room to pass to delegates whenever there was a Q&A session.
When super bored during off-duty times.
Polo Ralph rocks, whether pirated or 2nd-hand. Guess which was which! Amanda and me :)
Pink was in season! Alexis and me :)
How could I forget Cindy? My incredible scribe buddy. I'm damned sure between the two of us, we took down every darned word the speakers said. We rock! OOOOOHHHHHHMMMMM!!!
Fondue for Hi-tea, anyone?
Ok, get excited NUSHA peeps. I actually met this guy at the conference. His name is Alex Counts and he had something to say on every topic that came up during the symposium. Guess who he is? He's the President and CEO of Grameen Foundation,the organisation of Muhammad Yunus. Apparently, he learnt micro-finance directly under the tutelage of Dr Yunus. It was cool to meet him!
Ok, NUSHA peeps. get MORE excited. Haha.. I met Stuart Rutherford! I'm not sure if you guys would remember him, but I do remember reading/ hearing his name several times when we were researching and planning for Bangladesh. He's the founder of Safesave Bangladesh, a micro-finance institute that basically provides ultra-flexible schemes to allow Bangladeshis to save. He discovered that the more often they are reminded to save, the more the poor will save. The result is that his staff go into the slums every day to visit the poor, and they get to save 60 taka a month, instead of 8 taka if the staff went once a week or 2 taka if they went in once a month. SUPER COOL. and frankly, during the whole conference, he was one of the rare ones who could articulate his points clearly in theory, but spoke also with great compassion for the poor. I respect the 'old man in pink'.
Frankly, how could we forget our amiable Head of Dept Dr Ngiam? :)
Executive wannabes, future social workers. :)
Satisfied smile on the face of the organisers. This is Leila by the way. :)
ooooOOHHHHHMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!
Firstly, the week before I spent 4 days in Myanmar. I must say, while it wasn't the most fantastic of trips, it was quite fulfilling in the sense that I got to see a glimpse of how recce's for humanitarian trips are done.We even had to recce the food places and the R&R places, which was basically a reason for us to shop. :)
Edmond fixing up his bag at Changi Airport.
Landing in Yangon
Andry our Singaporean-Indonesian-based-in-Yangon host.
Boat to Dalla slum
Kids in the slum
Kids having their little bit of fun
My poor-thing sweaty trishaw rider.Let's just say I was a lil' heavy.
More kids on the street playing in puddles.
Street Hawker
Edmond going mad over the money. It can be quite ridiculous sometimes in Myanmar. If you go to a bank or the hotel money changer, u get 6 kyats (the local currency) for US$1.If you go anywhere else unofficial, you get 1260 kyats for US$1. Guess where we went. Edmond went bonkers counting money. But guess who went bonkers even more? Our local host who bought a car for US$46,000, but had to pay in kyats. There are no bank transfer facilities in Myanmar. That's 57960000 in kyats, a currency whose largest note is 1000 kyats.
Shoes at one of the orphanages.
Beautiful girls asking for alms. The group would move from stall to stall, sing a Buddhist hymn and ask for donations. :)
Man by the street.
Me and an orphan I met.
Well, essentially, that is it. Not much. We pampered ourselves with the nice hotel and the food.The strange thing with Myanmar is that although the country is poor, many things are very expensive, like Singapore prices. From the looks of the country, probably in the 70s the country was probably at the forefront of SEA, but it has really stagnated over the past 20 years under military rule. I hope things get better soon.
____________________________________________________________________
Savings, Assets and Financial Inclusion: A Global Symposium
Hehe.. as I told Cindy my scribe buddy on the first day of the conference, this was probably the best job one can get. I mean, I get paid $8.74 an hour, but I also get to stay 4 nights in a 5 star hotel and get fed hotel quality food for 4 days? Woah, almost heaven man.
My room. U see, being in Social Work, all the fellow student helpers were GIRLS. and by virtue of that fact, I got my own room. Ok, I shall stop feeling bad about having my own room. Cos i always see families where 3 brothers share one room but the little 6-yr old girl gets her own. :)
Briefing time
Packing time.
Ok, this is a bit girlish, but yeah! Pleasant surprise when I got back to my room at night.
The beautiful girls
Cindy acting cute
Mics that we took and ran all over the room to pass to delegates whenever there was a Q&A session.
When super bored during off-duty times.
Polo Ralph rocks, whether pirated or 2nd-hand. Guess which was which! Amanda and me :)
Pink was in season! Alexis and me :)
How could I forget Cindy? My incredible scribe buddy. I'm damned sure between the two of us, we took down every darned word the speakers said. We rock! OOOOOHHHHHHMMMMM!!!
Fondue for Hi-tea, anyone?
Ok, get excited NUSHA peeps. I actually met this guy at the conference. His name is Alex Counts and he had something to say on every topic that came up during the symposium. Guess who he is? He's the President and CEO of Grameen Foundation,the organisation of Muhammad Yunus. Apparently, he learnt micro-finance directly under the tutelage of Dr Yunus. It was cool to meet him!
Ok, NUSHA peeps. get MORE excited. Haha.. I met Stuart Rutherford! I'm not sure if you guys would remember him, but I do remember reading/ hearing his name several times when we were researching and planning for Bangladesh. He's the founder of Safesave Bangladesh, a micro-finance institute that basically provides ultra-flexible schemes to allow Bangladeshis to save. He discovered that the more often they are reminded to save, the more the poor will save. The result is that his staff go into the slums every day to visit the poor, and they get to save 60 taka a month, instead of 8 taka if the staff went once a week or 2 taka if they went in once a month. SUPER COOL. and frankly, during the whole conference, he was one of the rare ones who could articulate his points clearly in theory, but spoke also with great compassion for the poor. I respect the 'old man in pink'.
Frankly, how could we forget our amiable Head of Dept Dr Ngiam? :)
Executive wannabes, future social workers. :)
Satisfied smile on the face of the organisers. This is Leila by the way. :)
ooooOOHHHHHMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!
this is really interesting memory! :) I love this entry, captures the moments of our experiences at MM as well as your exp at cambodia! :) cheers to our buddyhood! :P ohmmmmmmm!
haha u silly cindy! it wasn't cambodia! it was myanmar!!! ur OHM power not strong enuff!
OOOOOHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!
Yo Liren,
are the social workers so pretty? hahahaha