Recapitulation II

There is another thing about food. There are periods for various subjects at this university excluding lunchtime break and afternoon break. I could often see young teachers having meals always although it was not lunchtime. I thought that they dared to do so because three meals are designated here in Myanmar.

There are large and small buildings in Mandalay. But, there are not lifts at high-rise building except from hotels. The highest buildings are five or six storeyed-ones, which are not built with reinforced concrete. But, most of them are built with the steel beams put in them. Houses range from iron sheet roofed ones, bamboo roofed ones, small and big ones to various kinds of design. We could see houses like stable of horse and cow here and there although they are not houses of farmers.

It is common to build houses of bamboo, thatch, and wood except for the houses in places like busy downtown areas. In some places, numerous such houses are built very closely together. They seem to be destroyed even by outbreak of a weak fire. As you go into south village area, the design of houses changes. High floors are regular and roofs are made of thatch. When I looked at them from a distant place it was dark and could not see any electric lights. There was electricity black out in downtown area very often. It will take a long time to have electricity the whole night.

The last thing is about character of Myanmar people. To put in a nutshell, there are many memorable things, which are the same with Japanese people, I think. Especially, there are many same facts and common points in pre-war community and social life of farming villages. We could probably tell Myanmar society is rumour one. People mainly talk about bad part of rumour. They are very successful in gossiping and full of thinking power to the thought to do so. They almost do not have jealousy, selfishness, praising others and etc. They are only people under the sun in the matter of having no respect for punctuality. Speaking of having no respect for time, I would tell you my experience when I went to China. Having no respect for punctuality is just an ordinary matter in the world. Japanese people think it is a strange one when they come across such matters because they are used to being punctual. It is natural for Japanese people to have respect for being punctual in Japan. But, I think it is a bit inharmonious to practise this habit in other countries. It might be in 40 or 50 years ago when people paid respects to punctuality. Values change in accord with changes in the world and every thing has their own value. For business work from a specific point of view, international standard is needed. But in daily activities, the standard used in Japan cannot be applied here in this country because values are not the same with each other in different countries. I might be a bit diverged from the main theme, I am worried about of Japan expect for good facts that giving no trouble to others, having sympathy and etc.

A young female teacher who helped a higher rank female teacher who was in the hospital was bitten by a dog recently. The young teacher had to take a rest at her hostel. Another female teacher who was free and two young students sent food to both of the two teachers__ one at the hospital and one at the hostel. I was surprised at goodness to take trouble like that. Although talking about rumour that I had written earlier and such dutifulness are not in accord, I think giving help with heart and soul is expressing original spirit of Myanmar people no matter how much they hate someone. Let me conclude the last article here.