Local cosmetic options...

The girl in the middle is one of our brightest students. She is 13 years old and is quite good at English. She lives with her mother (on her right)
and grandmother in a small house. The mother works really hard and is quite a fiesty character! She wanted to make me look Myanmar one day, so here I am wearing Thanaka (traditional cosmetic used as makeup, sun protection and
moisturiser). This was taken a few days ago, but since then I have bought my own stick of Thanaka, because it feels really nice - so I am wearing it everyday, much to the children's amusement. You can also see one longi that
I bought in Thandwe.

Thandwe Baptist Church

This is the Baptist Church in Thandwe - there has been a church on the same site since 1879. The two people in front both come to my adult classes. I sometimes play the organ here for Sunday church services!

Eagle chicks

One household has tamed two eagle chicks and are keeping them as pets. They have cut some of the flight feathers so they just live in the outdoors. The boy on the left is Ye Zee Tun, he is 11 years old and hilarious, such an attention-seeker (for the good reasons) He is really good at the recorder.

Thandwe market

A less busy than normal scene in Thandwe market.

Therapeutic mode of travel!

This is in the garden of the house. And I'm sitting on an ox cart; there are hundreds of these things everywhere in Myanmar. They travel really
slowly, it's quite therapeutic!

Elephant at Work

We went to find this elephant in the bush, because we knew there was one there. It is a proper working elephant, but it had just finished for the day, so it is not carrying any timber at the moment. Normal tourists would have had to pay quite a lot to see this, but I was with lots of locals
so it was OK. I was offered a ride but I was in a skirt and didn't want to disgrace myself!

Claire with pig!

Why the pig?

People are asking why Claire is holding a pig! She bought it for me (for my recent Birthday) and gave it to a poor family in the village to help them make a better living. Apparently it squealed like mad as she was holding it! She had never heard such a noise! Antoinette (C's Mum)