A generous monk who shared relief supplies with his entire region stands in front of the village's damaged monastery photo: © Beyond Rangoon Project, May 17, 2008

It has been more than 20 days since the cyclone hit the city of Rangoon (also known as Yangon), and on the surface everything looks like it is going back to normal.

However, in areas outside the city, such as the Irrawaddy division and the Southern Rangoon division, people are still suffering greatly. Last Friday, May 23, Project Beyond Rangoon, with the help of many volunteers and donors, brought another relief convoy to villages along the road to the town of Letkokkon, in Southern Rangoon division.

We left Rangoon at 7:30 am with two trucks and two SUV's, along with 18 volunteers. We passed through towns such as Kawhmu and Kungyangon, which have been receiving more relief supplies and assistance than the rural areas.

There are now no longer children and women on the streets begging for donations, but we attribute this more to the fact that the government has told them that they must go back to their homes and villages. We fear that this will cut off their access to food and supplies that they've been receiving from private donors who drive out from Rangoon. 

As we passed into the rural areas past Kungyangon, we were disappointed to find out that after more than three weeks the villages along the way to Letkokkon have not received any aid besides what we have provided on previous trips. The condition of the road from Kungyangon to Letkokkon is still [difficult], but it turns even worse the closer that you get to of Letkokkon. After four hours of driving we arrived at a small village called Hmawbi.

Villagers Shared Rice with other Villages -- who had Even Less

We stopped to talk to the head monk -- the same one who has helped us on our previous trips. We first encountered him on our sixth trip when he was walking back from Kungyangon, where he had gone to plead for food for the people of his village. All they had given him was a small bottle of oil. We ended up leaving supplies with him for his village. When we returned on trip number seven, and were able to make it to villages farther down the road, we found that he had shared the rice for his village with all the surrounding villages, which had received no aid and were starving. 

We continued until we reached a village called Pi Taw Tar, where we provided enough rice to feed the whole village for at least 15 days, in addition to other supplies such as detergent, soaps, clothing, and beans. The leader seemed to be a little confused and surprised to see us, because they did not expect anybody to go and help them. After more than 2 weeks they had lost hope of receiving help. They have little left after the cyclone. They have lost most of their livestock and many houses have been destroyed. They are trying to use the debris and remnants to build new homes.

It had been more than eight hours since we left Rangoon and the conditions of the road started to get worse. We had not gone past this point on previous trips because the road was washed out, but now it was repaired just enough so that we could pass.

Living on a Bridge

Further down, we encountered a group of people seated along a small bridge. We thought at the beginning that they were waiting for a bus. Then we realized that they were living on the bridge, since it was the highest point around and hadn't been flooded. The leader in charge of Poe Laung village told us that they were waiting for help. They used to be a village of 27 families with 30 houses, but now only four houses remained. They were staying close to the bridge waiting for help, but unfortunately nobody had been there -- except the head monk of Hmawbi who had shared some sacks of rice and other supplies with them.

Suddenly, this same monk appeared in front of us in a boat, on his way to help another, more remote village. In any event, we gave pens, crayons, and paper to the villagers of Poe Laung so they could sit down and began to draw their experiences from the cyclone. This served as both a therapeutic activity and something fun for their children. We have put some of the drawings on our Flickr site.

We also provided supplies to two villages which were in bad condition, but nothing compared to the almost total loss we witnessed at Poe Laung. Later, we reached a couple of towns near Letkokkon where we found the leaders carrying satellite phones. These towns were much bigger than the villages we had just visited and contained maybe three to four thousand people. Although they told us that they needed help, we could see that the government has been providing them with rice and other donations.

Later we learned from some of the local residents that many people in these two villages were not happy with the distribution system, as the town leaders were not giving out supplies fairly. We did not provide them with any aid because we did not have enough supplies for all of them and because we knew that they were getting some help from the Burmese government.

At this point, it was almost 6:00 pm and we were just 10 miles from the main town of Letkokkon. This area of road had just recently opened up and we could still see lots of dead cow carcasses and rice fields flooded with sea water. We stopped in a town with more than one thousand people.

Burmese Army Thwarts Delivery

Here we encountered a Burmese Army Captain. He was very friendly but told us politely that in order for us to continue with our trip we needed to have authorization from the Burmese Government. He proceeded to call his superiors in Rangoon and Kungyangon but he could not reach them, so were forced to wait. Finally, after about a half hour, we decided that we could not wait any longer, as it was almost 7:00 pm and we needed to get back to Yangon.

Our trucks at this point were half empty, but still carried at least 50 to 60 sacks of rice and many other supplies. We decided to go back to Hmawbi and leave the rest of the supplies to the head monk, as we knew that he would distribute the supplies fairly to the other villages in need. On the way back, we encountered him again, this time on a bicycle traveling to yet another village! We finally got back to Rangoon around 11:30 pm that night.

Some of the relief items delivered on this trip: 120 50-kilo bags of rice; two 60-kilo bags of garlic; two 60-bags of potatoes; six 60-kilo sacks of beans; 150 1-litre bottles of oil; 160 kilos of dried fish; 300 bars of soap; 100 boxes of mosquito coils; 100 cans of tuna; 30 mosquito nets; 500 packages of dried noodles; 10 rain-catchers for fresh water; 30 tarps; 80 cans of condensed milk; 300 bottles of water; donated clothes and shoes; 400 packages of biscuits; 100 ponchos; 100 lighters; cooking utensils; medical supplies (paracetamol, Oral Rehydration Solution), 500 candles, 100 flashlights; 300 blankets; 100 towels; and a half sack of fish paste powder (for seasoning).