2nd Myanmar Post

Today (Tuesday) we saw an Area Development Program in a rural town about a hour outside of the city. Very poor! The program has been working for 12 years and it's amazing the work that the development program does.
We visited the preschool, school, the center, and then we saw one of the people who took out a micro finance loan. This is in a hut that gets flooded in the rainy season. They had 5 sewing machines running and they were makin versace pants. Yes...the $300 pants. They sell them in Ragoon for $4.00. So I made a deal with them to custom make me a pair of pants for $10 and they are going to get them to the hotel. We'll see if it happens.
They measured my waist and I was a 41. The crew had a good laugh at that for the day, because I swore I was a 38. We have been eating well.
After that we had another amazing lunch. Again...we are eating well. Yikes...
I can't put in perspective that our girls rode horses and ate cupcakes today, while these kids are fight and stealing to buy rice.
After lunch we went to the Mary Chapman School for the deaf. They do american sign, so I was able to communicate a little with them. They had a performance for us. It's amazing...every where we go the kids have gifts, etc. for us. Then we went to the office for another presentation.
Tonight we had a dinner that started at 6:00 and finished at 9:00. Slow eating, much conversation, and great time with friends. I think right now I can't decide if seeing a third world country has more impact than the amazing people we meet.
Tonight we had dinner with a brain surgeon who left his practice to go operate down in the delta after the cyclone. He also was one of the few that wrote the new Myanmar Consititution that is guiding their new election in 2010. Seems as though the government might be changing a little.
The head of World Vision Myanmar has been with us the whole time. He was a sponsored child in Indonesia over 50 years ago. He is brilliant.
There's so much more, but I better try to send this why I have a chance.