What a glorious night of sleep last night! The hotel clerk had warned us that occasionally the government turns off the power in the city “to protect us”, but God is good because last night we had AC all through the night. And it would have been quite humid without it.The Bishop’s procurator, Fr. John Bosco, came to pick us up at our hotel at 7a.m. this morning. A priest of Shan descent, he is one of the fruits of PIME’s work in Kengtung. He was our driver for the rest of our stay in Myanmar, and I have to say that he was extremely helpful in all things. He really was a nice guy and he had such a happy spirit.
Let me just mention something about Kengtung. It is one of the big “cities” of Myanmar, but it seems worse than anywhere I have ever been. The roads are only poorly paved if at all, there are soldiers and policemen everywhere, there isn’t 24 hour electricity in the whole downtown area, and foreigners are closely controlled. However, with the natural spring lake in the middle it really is gorgeous. Really, from a distance it looks like paradise, but then when you get up close… 
Myanmar is an officially Buddhist country and the government makes sure that the Buddhists are taken care of. Here is a picture taken from the compound of the Diocesan offices. A couple of years ago the government confiscated some land from the Diocese (which they are allowed to do to anyone at any time) and built a Buddhist monastery right next to the Cathedral. To show just a little bit more disrespect, do you notice which side is facing the Diocesan compound?!
We celebrated Mass in the Bishop’s chapel, had some breakfast, and then we had a meeting with several of the priests in the Diocese. It gave them a chance to talk about their difficulties and ask PIME about potential funding (as well as continued funding) of some of their projects. A very interesting fact came out of the meeting: did you know that PIME in the United States were the very first ones in the world to begin doing long-distance adoptions? ! And it was to support these little ones of Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Afterwards, Fr. John Bosco took us to the Catholic cemetery which is located outside of the city proper. (You can imagine why – the Buddhists don’t want cemeteries in their cities for the same reason the Romans didn’t over 2000 years ago.) We were disheartened to see that the tombs of all of the foreigners (except for the nuns!) and many of the people had been vandalized. “Everyone tells us that the soldiers did it,” Fr. John Bosco told us, “probably to get the iron out of the crosses to sell it.” Here is the tomb of Kengtung’s first martyr, Fr. Stephen Vong.
The diocese is working very hard to build up the youth involvement in his diocese, so he spends a lot of time with that. While we were meeting with them, I taught them the same song that I taught in Thailand and the Philippines: Chickaboom, Chickaboom. Again, they loved it! So Fr. Claudio had me do it almost everywhere else we went, too!
We spent the rest of the morning visiting the activities of the different parishes and convents in Kengtung. Everywhere that we went they presented us with something to drink and several songs. The sisters had even taught one group to sing in Italian! Anyway, here is one song that I enjoyed – do you recognize it? How appropriate considering where we are… it even brought tears to my eyes.
What is your favorite breakfast food? For one of these boarding houses, the children were all in agreement: Guinea Pig! Or rabbit if the Guinea Pigs are all gone. IF you’re lucky enough to raise them like they do at this convent, then you can always have fresh meat at a low maintenance cost!
We had lunch with the Sisters of the Infant Jesus (Gesu Bambino); this is a congregation that is biug in Italy and very well known and respected throughout the world. Among the delicacies they served: Centennial Eggs and caterpillars (although I think they’re really grubs). Have you ever tried them? The caterpillars are easy: you just drop them live into a vat of boiling oil and they straighten out like French fries. The centennial eggs are another creature.
First, let me tell you the Burmese way of preparing them: they take the egg and wrap it in a mixture of lime (such as you would use at a construction site) and then bury it in the ground for several months. Now the Thai way: they take the egg and carefully cover it with a concoction made of horse urine and a little bit of lime and they bury it in the ground for several months. Scrumptious!
Have you ever heard of Fr. Cesare Colombo? He is the PIME priest who came to Kengtung and set up a leper colony out in the middle of the jungle. In fact, film producer Bill Deneen shot two incredibly beautiful films about this leper colony entitled, “The Happy City” and “The Touch of His Hand”. If you haven’t seen him, they REALLY are worth watching; here are the linkshttp://www.archive.org/details/touch_of_his_hand
Growing up through PIME formation I had always heard about this place and I had seen the films, but nothing prepared me for the impact it would have on me. The colony is still running pretty much like it was some 50 years ago. After watching the movies you will so that so much is exactly the same here! Here are the original Church and the original rectory/office that he built.
And this is the original hospital he built. It even still has a lot of his instruments and the operating table still inside! I should note that a lot of this hospital was built with donors from the United States, and this operating room was built with the help of a family from Detroit – the Bekolays.
We walked through the village, and many people came to their doors to see us, while same had the courage to come up and say hello. This part of the village was for those people who had families – back in those days the practice was to separate them from their families. But Fr. Cesare understood the depression that could come from that so he focused on keeping the family together and teaching them good hygiene so that they wouldn’t get infected.
We also visited the women’s section (for those without family) and the men’s section (for those without family). Notice in the women’s section that there are coffins already made and stored above the porch. 
And finally, this was (and still is) the children’s boarding section for those children with Hansen's Disease without families, or children left orphans because of the illness. (In the movie it shows Fr. Cesare sitting here with the children.)
And with that, our visit to the leper colony - begun with so much love so many years ago by Fr. Cesare Colombo - came to an end. 
After dinner back at the Bishop’s Residence, we PIME Missionaries were invited – along with some other invited guests – to a show of traditional (and modern) dancing. Traditional (and modern) singing. The Bishop gave a nice talk thanking PIME for all they’ve done and for what they are continuing to do.
This was the funnest – and maybe the funniest – part of the night. These little girls from one of the orphanages we had visited earlier in the day got up and did this great dance number. You have GOT to watch this clip!
Finally the night came to an end. The performance was just incredible, and I thoroughly enjpoed every minute of the evening. Finally, it was back to the hotel for our last night’s sleep in Myanmar. I wonder if my stuff will still be there when I get back to the room… or if they have gone through it.
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