Nu Poe or who's in charge here?

On the road













I don't feel well








Yes, those are two people underneath the tarps. And yes, it is pouring!







Are we there yet?

March 14/2009

Mosquito net, new cameras, peanut butter, cookies, instant espresso, UHT milk, ink cartridges, paper, computers, power cords, extension cords, soap, mosquito repellant, head lamps, extra batteries, power bar (electrical), deck of cards, folders, pens, scribblers, masking tape, large flip chart paper.....I think we've got everything into the truck, along with 3 teacher trainees from KYO, the driver and someone we are dropping off at Umphiem Camp. And so we're off to Nu Poe Camp, 5 hours south of Mae Sot, through some hair-raising, gut-churning mountains, a short cloud burst, and a few bouts of motion sickness.

The MY STORY photo project is going to Nu Poe Camp where the three teacher trainees, who have just had a 3 day intensive photo workshop teacher training course with us, will practice teach.

This is home

Our home for the next eight days is the KYO office; we have the upstairs loft space which we will share with Bob, a small mouse that sounds like a large rodent at night. Class room is downstairs; the work surface is one half of a ping pong table that we keep trying to up end by inadvertently leaning on it.






Paw Tha Shee, Der Lweh, and Htoo Gay are doing the teaching; we 'supervise'. Since we can't really follow what they are saying, we judge the training on the images that the six students make. So far so good!




One of their assignments is to take portraits of each other. Using a piece of cloth, they created a portrait studio!





Writing captions

Closing ceremony

Set the self-timer, then leap into the picture!
Flash!
It really is this dark.


Saturday, March 21, 2009
Every training has a closing ceremony and this workshop was no exception. Der Lweh, Htoo Gay, and Paw Tha Shee went off to the market on Friday at noon. After class that afternoon, they worked well into the night chopping, frying, peeling, boiling; all by the light of one small candle. Look at the size of the cleaver Paw Tha Shee is using...

The next morning the students mounted the photos they had chosen for exhibition on the wall ( newsprint and masking tape) and then set out plastic chairs. Promptly at 10 am, the camp leader arrived, the chairs were filled, and the speeches began. At one point we heard the camp leader speak of 'Pee' and 'Poo'. Was that us? Yes. Der Lweh, Htoo Gay, and Paw Tha Shee presented certificates of completion to the students while Nat and I presented teacher training certificates to our three new MY STORY photo project teachers. After the required group photos, we ate. And we ate! Soup, chicken, fish curry, veggies, fried catfish. Delicious!

Camp life

Street life






Nu Poe has a busy market where we got nambya and bebyo (hot flat bread and chick peas and onions) every morning. We passed on the beef.


To market, to market...
The butcher



Hands-free shopping.

Spectator sport: football
The food