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This January 15, a team of fifteen young
Chinese people headed for Myanmar to work as volunteers in the
sectors of agricultural technology, agricultural equipment manufacture,
agricultural software development and rice quality analysis, also
to teach swimming. Having lived in this beautiful, unspoilt country
for six months, they have many stories to tell.
“ I’m Called Bob”
 Volunteer:
Peng Bin, 29. A graduate of electromechanics from Guangdong Industrial
University, Peng held the post of engineer at the Guangdong Province
Agricultural Machinery Promotion Station before going to Myanmar.
Bob is the word for brother in the Myanmar language. I am happy
to report that of the many visitors from neighboring countries
in Myanmar, it is only the Chinese that the locals call Bob.
I work at the No. 5 State Agricultural Machinery Plant that produces
tractor parts. Its standards of technology, efficiency and product
quality are around the level of those in China during the mid
1980s.
Conditions in the workshops are very basic. Everyone works amid
sweltering heat, deafening noise, choking soot and dust and the
blinding glare of oxyacetylene and molten iron. Although my position
within the team is that of rank and filer, my Myanmar colleagues
take every opportunity to assign me the easier tasks. Many of
them have good skills, but lack schooling. After work I go over
mechanical theories with them and we discuss the problems and
issues that baffle us all. Soon after arrival I was put to work
helping the chief engineer’s office to complete its blueprint
for a new workshop. I later worked out the ingredients ratio and
technical plan for a casting test, and translated the newly imported
precision boring machine tool manual from Chinese into English.
Injuries on the plant are common owing to a lack of health and
safety measures. The traditional lungi, or sarong, and slippers
worn by both men and women workers put them at risk, and the women
workers’ waist length hair is also a common source of accidents.
While treating minor injuries with medicine brought from China,
I make suggestions as to how my workmates might reduce the risk
of injury at their workplace.
Language is the greatest obstacle to smooth cooperation and communication
with locals. None of my colleagues speaks Chinese, and few other
than the plant director know any more than a few words or phrases
of English. It took me two weeks to realize that when the workshop
chief asked me “how old are you” every morning he actually
meant “how are you.” In order to make myself better
understood, I always carry a dictionary with me, and talk to my
colleagues in a mixture of English, Myanmar, Chinese and mime.
The more information I exchange with my Myanmar friends, the closer
we become. It is a wonderful and inspiring feeling to understand
and be understood by the people of another culture.
Having heard that I am keen on sports, my colleagues often invite
me to play chinlone – Myanmar soccer. Sometimes after work
we take off our shirts and play a match in the corrugated iron-roofed
workshop. By the time we stop kicking and heading the wisteria
ball about, we’re all helpless with laughter at the sight
of one other, soaked in sweat and besmirched with soot and grease.
I have many visitors at evenings and weekends. I am glad to see
them and share snacks and drinks with them as their company helps
fend off the pangs of homesickness. My laptop is always an object
of great interest to my guests. I display on it pictures of Chinese
landscapes and cities, and tell them about the changes going on
in China. My friends respond with admiration and questions. When
I show them photos of my home, wife and son, they share both my
joy at being so blessed and my sorrow at being apart from them.
I have been guest of honor at several weddings of colleagues
at the plant, which entitles me to a larger than usual helping
of noodles and sauce. In return, I act as wedding photographer,
show them the tricks traditionally played on the bride and groom
at a Chinese wedding and always present the couple with a hongbao
(red envelope containing a cash gift) as is the custom in my hometown.
A few days ago I was invited to lunch at the home of one of my
fellow workers, who lives 20 kilometers from my residence. After
a three changes of bus along an unsurfaced road, it was a wonderful
experience to help prepare a meat-free meal while having a glass
of wine in his cramped cottage. My affection for this country
and its people was rewarded on my way back when I offered my seat
near the window to a woman and her baby. She flashed me a brilliant
smile of thanks, and her child fixed me with a long, cool gaze.
 “I
am the Daughter of a Myanmar Elder.”
Storyteller: Gao Fengling, 40, a soil chemistry
graduate of Huazhong Agricultural University. Gao is senior agronomist
at the Soil and Fertilizer Station of Guangdong Province, and
is studying for a master’s degree at the College of Food
Science and Nutritional Engineering of China Agricultural University.
I am assigned to the Department of Agricultural Research of Myanmar.
I live in its No.B9 guesthouse where renowned Chinese scientist
Yuan Longping, known as father of hybrid rice, also stayed during
his visit to the department. There hasn’t been a drop of
rain since my arrival, and the temperature never drops below 104?.
But I have never regretted coming to Myanmar because it is rewarding
in so many other ways.
Communications are underdeveloped in Myanmar. Each sector of
the department has just one telephone, on which international
calls cannot be made, and one extension line. My cell phone is
useless here, and for a long time it bothered me to be so cut
off from family.
Mr. Uhla Tin, chief of the Soil Science and Use of Water Sector
where I work, has been to China twice. During his first visit
in the early 1980s all the Chinese wore a green or blue “uniform”
and the market economy was in its infancy. When he returned in
the mid-1990s, he was amazed at the huge edifices in Chinese cities,
the wide range of styles and colors of clothes and the abundant
commodities in every store. Dr. Tin Htunt, in charge of the seed
warehouse, has read up on his Chinese history. He told me: “It’s
hard to imagine how the Chinese government succeeded in putting
such a big nation with such a huge population into such good order.
China has a long and brilliant history, and Chinese people are
good at teamwork. I am so glad to have Chinese volunteers in the
Department of Agricultural Research.”
As a DAR staff member, I don’t hesitate to point out the
problems I come across at work, and am also always ready to give
linguistic help in dealing with inquiries and translating information
about Chinese agricultural products.
The old gatekeeper is very friendly to me. He has given me the
Myanmar name AA, also the name of one of his own daughters. It
means peace. He says that he regards me, and all the Chinese volunteers
in the department, as his own children, and often gives me eggs
and invites me to his home. When I sent him the video I had taken
of his family, he was happy and astounded to see images of himself
and his family on the TV. I also take photos of my other colleagues,
and take pleasure in the delight they find in seeing their images
printed on paper for the first time ever.
The department has given me special privileges, most notably
that of a bike for my trips out to do field studies. This is no
small favor, as a bicycle costs the equivalent of an average Myanmar
employee’s six months’ salary. Department head Mr. Uhla
Tin sent me medicine after learning that I had suffered an attack
of toothache, and the deputy chief of my sector gave me thanakha,
a creamy facial powder that local women and children apply to
relieve sunburn.
I regard my Myanmar colleagues as sisters and brothers, and distribute
hongbao to young members of staff at Spring Festival, as I would
in China, and offer medicines I have brought from home to those
that need it. I have learnt the Myanmar language, and sometimes
my friends and I sing karaoke at the homes of those with a TV.
I am enjoying my time here and feel a part of the community in
which I live and work.
Chinese Volunteers Go Where They Are
Most Needed
The Chinese Young Volunteers Association
has recruited a number of young Chinese people and, after putting
them through training courses, sent them to nations such as Laos,
Thailand, Myanmar and Ethiopia.
From 2002 to 2004, four batches of 37 Chinese
volunteers went to Laos, and two groups of 10 went to Myanmar.
On February 25, 2005, 18 Chinese divers
left for Phuket and Koh Phangan to assist local Thais in cleaning
inshore coral reefs and waste left on the seabed by the disastrous
tsunami.
In August 2005, 12 young volunteers from
Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai and Yunnan went to Ethiopia to work
in its sectors of firedamp exploration, Chinese language teaching,
sports training, medicine, sanitation, and information technology.
They all have bachelor’s degrees and speak good English.
Five of them are studying for master’s degrees and one for
a doctorate.
In October 2005, 15 volunteers of an average
age of 28 from Shanghai and Yunnan headed for Laos to teach locals
the Chinese language, computer science, dance, martial arts and
table tennis, and also to assist in planting and administering
Chinese medicinal herbs. Two of them are MAs, 11 are BAs and 2
others are technical school graduates.
On January 2006, 15 volunteers of an average
of 30 from Guangdong Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
went to Myanmar to work in the sectors of agricultural technology,
agricultural machinery manufacture, rice quality analysis, agricultural
hardware and software and to teach swimming. Among them are one
post-doctorate, five MAs and nine BAs.
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