Semester at Sea Fall
2006 Voyage 
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
- Home Page
- My bio
- Multisited Ethnography
Project: Realms of
Conflict Among Youth (Egypt, Turkey, Spain)
- Shipboard Interview
- Japanese Youth: To
Conform or Rebel?
- Vietnam: Youthful
Participation with Children
- Burma:
Finding
Never-Neverland
- India: India's Poorest
Caste, the Dalits
- Egypt: A Wife Acquired, A
Dream Fulfilled
- Turkey: Escaping Near
Imprisonment
- Spain: Witness to a
Protest in Barcelona
- Open Letter
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Finding Never-Neverland in Burma
By
Ryan Harper
Behind us were two plane flights which added up to be over four hours in total, a helaciously bumpy eight hour car ride, and a three hour boat trip up river until we finally reached our final destination. The travel agent who organized the trip and private guide for the five of us said the only words we needed to hear in order to convince us to embark on the long journey: adventure, a little risk, and best of all children. We referred to it simply as Never-neverland.
Our destination was a very small and remote minority ethnic village Northwest of Yangon and close to the Bangladesh border. As our boat began to approach the village we witnessed a few young boys and girls playing naked in the water on the shore and once we became near we could how ecstatic and shocked they were to see that we were Westerners. We were told the village consisted of nearly four hundred children and no more than one hundred adults to care for them, which was the primary reason why we chose to visit.
Upon arrival we were immediately swarmed by gangs of young kids who were intrigued by everything
monastery, school and orphanage for the
four hundred or so children which he taught and helped care for. We
were informed that some of the
children arrived there because their parents had been killed either
through direct military force or as refugees who fled to the jungle to
escape such persecution. This terrifying situation is the unfortunate
reality for many Burmese and is
one that reminded me of a particular family that I had read about in an
article written by Maura
Stephens. The article entitled "The Heart of Burma" describes Han Lin and Htay Htay Yee who were the parents of five children ranging from 5-15 years old and whom were separated because the husband, Han Lin, was forced to flee "from the murdering military into the safety of the jungle". They were separated for 2 years before she was forced to flee as well because of frequent harassment and death threats by the military before they were reunited and then continued to spend the next six years hiding away as jungle refugees.
As I sat there having tea and oranges with the master monk I was shocked by the news that some of these children, which were at that moment surrounding me wide eyed and in awe, could have very well endured such harsh conditions as those which I had previously read about. After our meeting with the monk we played longer with the kids and then finally ended our visit by leaving in the same fashion as we had arrived which was by singing, dancing and laughing all the way to our small boat. It was at that moment that I realized the immense amount power I have been given to make an impact on those young children and it was from that moment on that I decided to seek out kids to play and laugh with in every country which was to come on the rest of this journey.
