Before Christmas, in Sitwee, I had met a man who works for Relief International.

All was still and quiet. Peering through the windows of the large hall nothing stirred. There was no sound. We had been told that we could observe the head monk’s class but perhaps we had missed it already? With the flexible scheduling it was entirely plausible that something had come up and affected the class.

On Friday there was a very unusual scene in the small village. Around a table sat 5 people, each with a generous bowl of rice and a smattering of curries adorning the center of the low wooden table.

One gaping hole which was left from my last visit to the R.E.C village was to observe one of our teacher trainees teaching his grade 8 English class and this was an oversight that I was keen to rectify.

The new year means back to work. After my weekend visit to the village which is home to the two talented teachers I was due to collect Van for her annual visit to Myanmar.

One of the students learning English showed great potential as a teacher during the Yangon teaching training, and I was keen to watch him in his natural environment.

After my holiday I arrived in Sittwe and although tired from traveling I had the pleasure of attending a CEAL open mic night. I met a really excited student who sang in English especially for me; unfortunately he was so excited that he forgot some of the words!

At sunrise, we travelled by a small van cab with an open back with two benches either side for passengers. My student who had the best English sat shotgun with me in the cab of the van while my poor other student had a 4 hour trip open to the elements in the back.

This unfortunately suffered from the blight that I refer to as Myanmar time.