Removing Privilege

In our house we sit by candlelight and we wonder about the impact in
the approaching weeks and months. I keep thinking of Bangladesh and
the effect the tidal surge had in the Sundabun region – I wonder what
happened to the delta region?



We have been trying to get a boat down to Bogalay - the state paper is reporting 10,000 dead there. The boats in the harbour are damaged - just as we were about to board a boat yesterday they turned us away - it is too dangerous for foreigners to use the boats they told us. We watched from the rivers edge as two hundred people climbed
aboard - apparently it is not too dangerous for Burmese people to risk their
lives.

Today we will try a local bus - we leave at 6am. It will be filled with people ready to look for what we can only assume will be missing relatives. We are starting to hear stories of whole villages wiped out.



It is something very personal if you are living here. Our candle
supplies go down – as do our rice stocks. Our water will last us
another day. It is funny to see the UN people with their generator – I
lust after electricity. I pine for it. It is funny to be like most
other people in Yangon – the privilege of white skin and wealth
removed. So, as thousands of people do every day in this country – we
are desperately trying to make do – no cell phone between us – and no
real sense of what is going on other than my static radio. No
electricity. No water. No means of communication.