Myanmar

Hey!!


On Wednesday we went to Myanmar for the day. When we were heading over to cross the boarder we had to leave our passport behind- I had never done this before. And for once in my life I felt stateless. My conditions were obviously not comparable to actually being stateless but it was a strange feeling. To walk away from your passport, from the one thing that holds your Canadian identity was scary. We often don't think about how blessed we are to be from Canada and how truly free we are. Being in a strange country with no identity is very frightening, it gave me weird feelings of insecurity and the unknown- something I was not familiar to. It was interesting to say the least. 

I did not enjoy Myanmar, it is very poor and the people really like to hustle you, especially in the market. We took TukTuks and drove past a garbage dump where some of the children from the home used to live. It was incredible to see where they came from and let your mind wander in to thinking about how much they have grown and evolved. You can only imagine how far they have come from before and the struggles they faced in between. 

In the afternoon we went to one of the drop in centres related to the children's home. This is a place where children who work and beg on the bridge can go and feel safe. There are volunteers at the drop in centre that go out to the bridge and talk to the children each day and provide them with basic necessities like simple medical supplies and food. Children can go to the drop in centre and say that they want to move to the children's home and get off the streets, with the agreement of the parents they can do so. When we were at the drop in centre we ended up taking a kid back to the children's home with us. He told them he wanted to try and go to the children's home. You have to wonder and think to yourself, what was the breaking point? What happened that made you want to get out of your situation and look for change and a better future? There are so many untold stories, but no matter what you have to remember that these kids have all gone through something a child should never have to: whether it's physical or emotional abuse, drugs, or sexual exploitation. Kids are just kids and should be able to embrace their innocence in the freest of ways- like playing games or finger painting, things that are so normal to us.

Myanmar was definitely an interesting experience to say the least. It was really good to see everything start to come together but there are still so many unanswered questions. I cannot wait to go home and educate myself more and more on the matter and see where and how I can help! 


My journey has not come to an end, but it has only just begun. I cannot wait to further develop my skills and be able to continue travelling and helping people in any way that I can. From now on I will be travelling with my brother to Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand and will probably not be blogging or communicating nearly as much.


Thank you so much for all of your support, I couldn't have done this without you. 


I love you all so much :)


& have a very Happy Mother's Day!


Bianca