When We Stand Together As One – Volunteering Abroad in Myanmar

20 Aug When We Stand Together As One – Volunteering Abroad in Myanmar

The best surprise on my birthday!

Volunteering abroad was so much harder than I thought. Each move required us to step outside our comfort zone. I know I really preach this but damn, it was such a hard adjustment. Amaluddin (he prefers Amal) and I arrived in Myanmar, Yangon ready to take on our volunteering project. My birthday was literally the next day and to start the new year by giving back to the world was exactly what I wanted to do. We were excited, scared, nervous, and every emotion you can think of. It was our first time volunteering together and boy were we in for a shock. Neither of us were prepared for what was to come.

Our project was at a buddhist monastery in Thalyin Township, Yangon. The center helps their community by providing shelter, food, education, and meditation opportunities at no cost to the people. They believe that daily meditation and doing good deeds with the “right understanding” will guide you to living a more peaceful life. The people consist of children, homeless, old, sick, refugees, nuns, and monks. The good deeds consist of: teaching english, cleaning rice, cleaning/developing waste solutions, landscaping, plumbing, electrical or medical knowledge, water filtering, recycling projects, eco-building etc… and any skill or idea you can offer to the monastery.  In exchange for your time you receive shelter, meals, and different types of meditation and buddhist classes.

Our meal times were 6am, 11am, and 6pm. Everything you do in between is either meditation, buddhist classes, and doing good deeds. We slept in one building with different genders on each floor and the classrooms at the top. We covered our shoulders and knees at all times. We lived with 10 people per room, shared one shower and toilet. We took daily cold showers, hand washed our clothing, dealt with bed bugs, crazy mosquitoe bites, diarrhea, hot weather and had water shortages.

Volunteer Home

Amaluddin and I’s choice of good deeds with The BarWa Centre

Daily Alms at 715am: Where we walked barefoot for over two hours with the monks, nuns, children, and other volunteers in downtown Yangon to collect food for the monastery. Everyone walked in pairs alongside a monk as they bless the offerings and we would carry them. We initially had a hard time wrapping our head around it. Myanmar is very dirty and lots of roads aren’t developed. It was also monsoon season. Our minds were flooded with fear. Yet, at some point we felt if they could do it, so could we. It took a few days to build the courage to finally take the plunge. The monks asked Amaluddin to lead the line with them at the front as the rest of us followed. I spent half the time looking at the floor thinking I was going to step on something and the streets were so hot. At the end of it, we were both so in awe. We really admired how they do this everyday. I still can’t believe we did this.

Daily English Classes:  Can you believe this is the elementary school in the village? It’s just 4 bamboo walls. This one broke our hearts. They only go to school when a foreigner comes to teach and its optional for them to show up yet here they are. I remember the days when I dreaded school and took my education opportunities for granted. Every bit counts. We went on to teach english classes with the baby monks as well.

Daily Wheel-Chairing: I knew before I got to this center that this was the project I wanted to work on. Where we would go to the infirmary and take patients out. If I had the mental capacity, I would have wheel chaired all day. So many patients of this center are sick, immobile, and terminal with little medical resources. The living conditions are terrible with barely any light to the area. Some of them don’t have family to come visit and take them outside. Even though it was tough to accept that this was how they lived, this was our favourite activity to do. To see the look on their faces when they got to go outside or when the patient yells at Amaluddin for better wheelchairing services. Golden.

Amaluddin and I’s favourite class with The BarWa Centre

Daily Standing Meditation with Sayalay Agga Vati & Sayalay Cala Theri: They preach meditation like nobody’s business. They have daily meditation classes several times a day. It was so interesting to learn the different types of meditation to help you be more present to now and detach from what hurts us. Our favourite style of meditation was the standing meditation as the sitting meditation seemed to put us into sleep mode. We both really value being present so learning a style that worked best for us was more than we could ask for.

Thank you for taking this picture of us. 

It was so unbelievable to walk into this village where a whole community works together on helping each other survive. The amount of gratitude they had for what they had. Words can’t do justice for the feeling of being at this place. When we got to see the smile on the peoples face after each act of kindness, it filled our souls. However, we weren’t prepared for what we would feel and the mental barriers that came with it. You think going in, yeah we are helping them and then done. What we didn’t account for was seeing all this poverty, the way they live, the medical system, food, and knowing how much they really don’t have. As well as the adjustments of living in the same environment. When your volunteer home is better than there’s because they have hope to having more volunteers to come help. It takes a big toll on you. To absorb everything thats happening. Trying to stay positive all the time for the community because they don’t really know what else is out there to compare what we know. That was the struggle.

Home

Some questions that came along the way was how can we, as global citizens, make big changes to our world? Do we just accept the balance in this world of the super wealthy and the poor?  I  honestly don’t have answers to any of my questions and I don’t have a solution yet. All I know was when we went in there, we could feel the change happening. I can’t even imagine what it would be like if more people came. As some of you know, I am a big advocate on education. I believe education empowers us to make better choices in life and no one should be denied this opportunity.

How did volunteering abroad happen for me? I personally always want to know what drives people to go and do things like this. Whether their decision making was generated through internal or external factors. Here was my thought process prior to the project. I’ve always talked about volunteering and traveling at the same time. I never really did anything about it. So during my solo backpacking trip in SE Asia before my student exchange in China, I met some travelers who took the time to give back during their trip. I was so amazed and inspired by their actions that I was like “Hey, the world worked with me to help get me to Asia. I’m going to go give back”. So I made the decision that I would be volunteering after my exchange. All it took was for them to share their story with me to accelerate one of my goals of volunteering abroad. I picked Myanmar because I’ve never heard of the country before. Amaluddin’s always been curious to take on new challenges, so he decided to come as well. What a bonus! It was nice to be able to talk about our obstacles and overcome them together.

Monk Paparazzi’s 

This project reminded us of the bigger picture of things in life and to once again truly appreciate what we have. To count our blessings, always. I look at the world with more awareness of whats happening around us. When you are immersed in their life, you’ll realize seeing and walking by it feels completely different than living it with them. You can donate money from where you live, but they really don’t experience change until people come in there to make it happen with them. I didn’t stay as long as I wanted to as I wasn’t ready to take on the project longer than we had given. I am hoping to volunteer again. Until then, we can only give what we are able to and do the best we can. Whether it is overseas or in our own communities.

My gratitude goes out to the people of the monastery, for continuously embracing and showing us love while we were there. As well as the other volunteers, for the support during the highs and lows of this project. Together we stood as one for this monastery in hopes of impacting several lives. Volunteering abroad in Myanmar was one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever taken on. I am thankful for the opportunity to have experienced this and to have Amaluddin with me. By the way volunteer friends, I got the job. Thanks for cheering me on till the end for my phone interview!

Our Amazing Volunteer Group 

Have you ever volunteered abroad before? I’d like to hear about your experiences.