We got up At 5:30am this morning, celebrated Mass, had a quick cup of coffee and then we were off. Have you ever been to a walk-across border? Not me. Do you know there is actually a part in the middle that is called “no-man’s land” and it is not under the jurisdiction of either country? Wow. Anyway, we walked across the bridge towards Myanmar, and once we got to immigration there the 45-minute entry process began. I’ll be honest, I had been afraid of what they might do, but it really wasn’t that bad. They just had us fill in some documents, took our picture, had us go from one office to the next for more bureaucratic stuff, took away our passports (which they promised to give back when we will leave the country), and we were done.
Luckily our Myanmar contact – Fr. Angelo Saipiain – had arranged to have a driver for us to take us on the three-hour drive to Kengtung (o Chiayang Thung… or any of the other 30 different ways of writing it). His name was Sai. Lucky for us Sai spoke some English and very good Thai (so he could communicate with Fr. Claudio when we weren’t connecting in English). Also, he had a lot of “friends” along the way, so our passage to Kengtung really went off without a hitch. You have to understand, Myanmar is a quite corrupt country. I thought it was communist but I was corrected – it is a socialist state. What is the difference you might ask? (I did.) Dictators. Anyway, Sai knew exactly who to pay bribes to along the way so that we wouldn’t get held up or “overly inspected” in any of the 5 checkpoints. No, it’s not a problem. That’s just how “the system” works here.
Like in northern Thailand, Myanmar is comprised of many different cultures, especially hill people of the Lahu, Wa, and Akha tribes. The majority in this part of Myanmar are Shan people.
On our way to Kengtung, we stopped off in Mong Lin. This was one place that Frs. Claudio, Sergio and I had been hoping to be able to visit, but many times the government has the area closed off “for your safety”. Lucky for us, today it was not. This place is very special because one of PIME’s mythical missionaries, Fr. Clemente Vismara, started this mission some 90 years ago. Fr. Clemente wrote many interesting letters, and you can read some of them by going to PIME’s website (below). Anyway, when he arrived Fr. Clemente was looking for land to start a mission complex and this land – which at the time was in the middle of virgin forest land – was given to him by the tribal people because it was believed to be inhabited by the spirits. They figured that the spirits would kill him off. (Which, of course, they didn’t.) He also built a boarding house for abandoned boys here. In fact, many times he would go around the village and BUY the children that parents were trying to sell. They were selling their children to buy more opium. Well, eventually the rumor started that maybe he was eating the children. So when the parents would ask him about this, he would look them squarely in the face and say, “Yes, and then I’m coming back to eat you, too!” This is the original house he built as well as the original Church. Also, notice the beautiful mural with the traditional tribal people from within the Church.
Here I am in front of something that I thought was only a legend… yet here it is. Fr. Clemente didn’t want to be a bother to the people upon his death by forcing them to build a coffin for him (since he was taller than their usual size). So… he built his own! In fact, a couple of times Italian PIME priests would die, so he would give his casket to be used for their burial and build himself another one! This is one of the remaining ones that he built which, obviously, wasn’t used.
Then we went across the compound (about 300 yards I would say) and we came to the compound where the girls stay. It was a welcome fit for a king and I felt quite overwhelmed. As usual, they sang some songs for us.
By the way, the nun on the right in the picture above held my hand and was just so happy that we had “finally come to visit them after all these years”. She was one of the little children of Fr. Vismara who also worked closely with him while she was a nun. In fact, Fr. Vismara died in her very hands. She was just so overjoyed to see us, and oh, the stories she told us. (By the way, I forgot to mention that so many people still speak at least broken English in Myanmar so it was pretty easy for us to communicate.) At any rate, when we were leaving she told me, “I am in paradise to know that you young fathers all knew of Fr. Vismara, and that even with our country being closed for all those years you still love him.”After quite a long and enjoyable visit, we were once again off to the next parish. You know, one of the things I should mention is that we really only saw another car about every half-hour or so on this long trek; there just aren't that many here... they are either very old or just for the rich! Anyway, we arrived in Mong Phyak, another mission founded by Fr. Vismara. Here the people are mostly Lahu in this area. Again we were greeted with so many smiling children (most of whom are adopted through PIME’s Foster Parent’s Mission Club program), another nice song, and some tasty food.
http://www.pimeusa.org/gettinginvolved.html
Finally we were off once again. We had just a couple of more checkpoints to go through to make it to the once grand kingdom city of Kengtung. We passed quite a few rice fields along the way, as well as water buffalo, goats, dogs, farmers returning from the paddies, and so much beautiful countryside. A lot of scooters, and every now and then a car or a truck.
Just as we were coming over the top of the last mountaintop before descending into the valley of Kengtung, our driver nervously said something to Fr. Claudio in Thai. We were running a bit late and we only had 15 minutes to get to the last checkpoint in order to get our documents stamped and only 25 minutes to get to the police station in Kengtung; the last checkpoint closes at 6pm and nobody is allowed into or out of the city “for your protection”. Luckily, we made it to the last checkpoint with 5 minutes to spare. Unfortunately we were five minutes late to the police station, but no worry – Sai has friends there, too, and with a little “friendship” we were able to make it through ok.
My friends, all this talk about checkpoints and immigration and police stations is really interesting and I’ll have to explain it better one of these days. It is all a mind-control game to scare the people and make them feel unfree. (Socialism!)
We arrived at the bishop’s residence, had a bite to eat with the bishop and the other priests, and then – finally – we arrived at our hotel: The Princess Hotel. Since we are foreigners we are not allowed to stay in any residence, even the Bishop’s; we MUST stay at one of the two hotels in town. There were more bureaucratic mind games there (with control by the government, of course… but I’ll explain that later). But who cares – we were finally in Kengtung, we were able to get a nice hot shower, and our rooms even had air-conditioning! It was time for a good night’s rest.
Before I end for today, I just wanted to explain something. Did you by chance notice in the other pictures that some of the women and children have this yellow “stuff” on their face? It is something that comes from some kind of tree and it supposedly is to give them nicer skin. But sometimes they apply it carefully so that it becomes a thing of beauty. If it is in a circle then you are meant to notice it as something beautiful. I did not see this outside of Myanmar. Interesting tradition.
Finally we were off once again. We had just a couple of more checkpoints to go through to make it to the once grand kingdom city of Kengtung. We passed quite a few rice fields along the way, as well as water buffalo, goats, dogs, farmers returning from the paddies, and so much beautiful countryside. A lot of scooters, and every now and then a car or a truck.
Just as we were coming over the top of the last mountaintop before descending into the valley of Kengtung, our driver nervously said something to Fr. Claudio in Thai. We were running a bit late and we only had 15 minutes to get to the last checkpoint in order to get our documents stamped and only 25 minutes to get to the police station in Kengtung; the last checkpoint closes at 6pm and nobody is allowed into or out of the city “for your protection”. Luckily, we made it to the last checkpoint with 5 minutes to spare. Unfortunately we were five minutes late to the police station, but no worry – Sai has friends there, too, and with a little “friendship” we were able to make it through ok.
My friends, all this talk about checkpoints and immigration and police stations is really interesting and I’ll have to explain it better one of these days. It is all a mind-control game to scare the people and make them feel unfree. (Socialism!)
We arrived at the bishop’s residence, had a bite to eat with the bishop and the other priests, and then – finally – we arrived at our hotel: The Princess Hotel. Since we are foreigners we are not allowed to stay in any residence, even the Bishop’s; we MUST stay at one of the two hotels in town. There were more bureaucratic mind games there (with control by the government, of course… but I’ll explain that later). But who cares – we were finally in Kengtung, we were able to get a nice hot shower, and our rooms even had air-conditioning! It was time for a good night’s rest.
Before I end for today, I just wanted to explain something. Did you by chance notice in the other pictures that some of the women and children have this yellow “stuff” on their face? It is something that comes from some kind of tree and it supposedly is to give them nicer skin. But sometimes they apply it carefully so that it becomes a thing of beauty. If it is in a circle then you are meant to notice it as something beautiful. I did not see this outside of Myanmar. Interesting tradition.
recepteur iptv
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