Ox carts, Pagan

The catholic nuns from Mandalay took me out to Zawgee village ..where they had an orphanage. The van they hired raced dangerousely through the countryside. I was scared. They hung on and laughed.

Getting into the remote farm land we climbed onto a bullock cart and set of down the rutted track. The nuns grinned under their straw hats and the cart lumbered through the dust. They did their best for the abandoned children...small gifts sustained these children ....left in rubbish tips ...outside hospitals.

I climbed back onto the cart to leave...and a young nun ran behind the trundling bullock cart calling to me "you won't forget me?"...and I shouted back through the clouds of golden dust "how can ?..I you are Mary Magdalene after all!"....that was her name...

Our family evacuated to the village of Zawgee during the Japanese invaion and stayed there for about 18 months before eventually moving on to Maymyo. I can remember it being a Roman Catholic village with a Church and lay people. In fact there were a number of families who took shelter in this village as a refuge from the occupying Japanese. It was situated right by a river, probably a tributary of the Irriwady. My father was buried there after a severe attack of Malaria. I have never returned to see if the grave is still there or washed away with the monsoons. I often wonder if the village is still there and if there would be any one who could communicate with me. I have many wonderful memories of our stay there.