Opposite of déjà vu

MYANMAR | Thursday, 4 July 2013 | Views [918] | View Smaller Image

After preparing the campfire breakfast for the family, Hayma, the wife of Manue (her name means “forest” in Burmese) spends her morning hours cutting and laminating bamboo stalks into sheets and planks that serve as new walls for their small hut. Every year by the end of the monsoon rains, the bamboo planks have to be replaced and renewed to offer proper shelter for the family. Hamya explains that weaving bamboo is one of the ancestors’ techniques in the Shan Region: not only it shelters and protects us during the cold nights, but it also allows for the passage of the river breeze during the hot days.

Tags: myanmar, shan state, myanmar girl, weaving bamboo, rural, unspoiled village

Every early morning, the 40-year old Manue, a son of Pushia, returns with his oxen from the nearby forest with a wagon full of wood. Dressed in his traditional Myanmar longji and a jacket to warm him from the morning cold, he has been following in the footsteps of his father since he was a child. Manue delivers the wood to some of the neighbors in exchange of goods (rice, vegetables, eggs, etc) and sometimes to the neighboring villages in exchange of money that helps him buy specific goods and medicine for his family

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Almost every day, Thura, the 10 year old son of Manue and Hayma, (his name means bravery in Burmese), takes his father’s buffaloes on a walk to the river. The buffaloes enjoy their journey grazing along the way to finally take a dip in the refreshing river. Thura sometimes joins his animal friends in the water and plays with them. He told me that the water buffalo posing with him in the photo is his oldest friend. After I departed from this village, I was overwhelmed with how this small family lived in togetherness with themselves and nature; how much the mother forest has to give to its brave child if he can appreciate and value what she has to offer

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Opposite of déjà vu

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