Bring Out the Ark

Mandalay is set in the dry zone of Burma. It is considered a semi-desert plains area which is characterized by hot, dry weather with little rainfall. It is the complete opposite of Yangon, which is hot and humid and rains like clockwork every afternoon.

Despite its aridness, there have been a few unexpected moments of torrential downpours in Myanmar's second capital. The first and worst came about 2 weeks ago and last for one day.

It began raining while we were volunteer teaching at a monastic school. We were lucky in that the skies waited to open up until we were safely in the buildings but we were unlucky in that the skies decided to stay open when we had to leave (on bike) for our next class. We arrived at our second class (at a different school) pretty wet but not completely soaked. The rain tricked us for a while as it subsided but in the middle of our lectures the rains came pouring down like I have never seen before. It was difficult to teach over the din of the downpour on the tin roof.

As we taught, we kept peering outside where we witnessed the steady rise of the water on the campus. At first there were just large puddles, but as our 2 hour class moved on, the people marching through the puddles began sinking deeper and deeper until many were calf deep. We also witnessed the water inch its way closer and closer to the classroom door. Within 20 minutes after our class ended, the room and flooded and people were walking their bikes around in knee deep water.

We patiently waited for almost an hour for the waters to subside once more or for a taxi to come rescue us. We weren't sure exactly how a beat up low-lying taxi would make it through the flood, but we were assured that one would save us. However, the longer we waited for a taxi the less likely one would be able to weather the rising waters and it was soon announced that a taxi was out of the question. We would have to walk home (biking was also out of the question).

We gathered our bikes and set off in the downpour, very quickly becoming soaked to the bone. Laura always picks the best timing to wear her jeans and so it was no surprise that today would be the only day she had brought them out of her bag. They quickly expanded with rain and floodwater. We hiked our pants up the best we could and joined the masses who were trying to break through the floodwaters toward higher ground.

The street in front of the school was particularly bad and we were forced to wade through thigh deep water. We could tell that people in Mandalay were no used to the rain. Many vehicles were trying desperately to putter through as their exhaust pipes filled with water which caused a horrible noise and terrible smelling black gas to exude from the pipes.

All but a few of the streets that were luckily built up at a higher elevation were saved from the flood. We heard stories of trishaw drivers charging 1000-2000 Kyat for a ride that is typically 200-300. I wondered how many people would come down with mysterious diseases in the next couple of days (little did I know I would be one of them). I cringed at the memory of a little boy squatting over the waste water canals (why can't i think of the name for them?) the day before and knowing that that water was now around my thighs. I did ask a few people if there were generally outbreaks after floods, but they all seemed to think that the Burmese were used to the nasties in the water and thus were unaffected by sewage all over their bodies.