Village Initiative
Today rainy season offered us one those rare sunny days, and we decided to take full advantage of it.
U Zaw Win, the village chief of Lonsant, had recently contacted us to tell us that all trashcans had been completed and the signs we printed were posted around schools and central village roads. Excited about the news, Patrick and I wanted to see it all in person. We decided to drive two hours by motorbike through relentless rocky roads, mud pits, and rice paddy fields to our destination on the far opposite side of the lake.
With mudcaked longyis and proper sunburns, we rolled into Lonsant. Immediately to the left we saw a little snack store with one of our trashcans sitting outside. We stopped to take pictures and meet with U Zaw Win. Without a translator, things were a bit tricky but the essential information was exchanged as he showed us around the neighborhood. He also gave us some additional signs they had designed themselves and posted on the trashcans, which translate to, "Place trash here. Let's all work together for a clean village."
It was a successful meeting and we made plans to get some more trashcans and do some new projects in the next few weeks. After that, we braved the same road that brought us there hoping the afternoon sun that had scorched us had at least dried some of the mud a bit.