Each time im in Burma, it gets harder and harder to leave. I guess i've made some really cool friends there and i enjoy the work that i do. Not sure if i could live and work there like one of my friends, david klaus, but i dont think that it's not a possibility.
An update on the deep lift pump - we finished our test platform on the roof o the workshop (50ft above ground), and have been testing pump designs. We have been able to pump water to the top at a reasonable rate, but there is still lots of design changes to make to the pump, especially after having a chance to go tube well drilling. 1.5" tube wells are drilled 70 to 100 ft below ground by hand for household and farm use.It's pretty amazing to see how resilient people hit by the cyclone are. While purchasing power is almost gone and debt is high, people are good spirited and optimistic. They are grateful for the aid that is getting to them (i've seen lots of tarps, backpacks, and watertanks provided by foriegn aid as well as fertilizer, rice seed, and tillers provided by IDE), and are optimistic about their recovery (even though for many, it may take 8+ years to recover to pre-cyclone days).
Other little things:
* I found a favorite little burmese restaurant that i've gone to for lunch almost every day i was working on the deep lift pump in the industrial zone
* Last sunday, i went to an 11 match burmese boxing event. Burmese boxing is a lot like muai thai, but i'm not sure what the differences are. However, sitting in the third row does give you a lot of sound effects (lots of fists to face and knees to torso sounds as well as the annoying delayed "pow" and "bam" shouts into the microphone from the guy at ringside).
Who knows when I'll head back to burma... hopefully sometime soon (in the next year?)
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