The residents of Nupho - of all ages - are huge fans of Celine Dion, Justin Bieber, Scorpion, the Eagles (every Burmese boy with a guitar can play "Hotel California"), Boy bands, all things Korean (i.e. movies, soap operas and boy bands), horrid Burmese soap operas, Avril LaVigne, and life-sized posters of puppies and babies to decorate their homes.
You will often see men here taking care of their children, at least the ones under five. In Mali/Tanzania, it was rare to see a man holding a child, never mind traveling with one on his own. However, it is common to see men carrying, traveling with, and being generally affectionate with their children.
It is customary to remove your shoes before entering anyone's house. It is also customary in offices, at school, and often in many shops as well. It is disrespectful to ignore this custom.
I teach my classes barefoot.
People use umbrellas more often to protect themselves from the sun than from the rain.
If you invite your students to lunch, breakfast, or even just for tea, they will inevitably insist on paying for you, despite the fact that you invited them. Being crippled by a lack of understanding of the language doesn't help when attempting to ensure that the tea shop owner will take your money, instead of theirs.
Anything but Burmese traditional music is copied from someone, somewhere. Currently, I am listening to the World Cup song made famous by Shakira being sung in Burmese. Surely they don't have a copyright for that...
You cannot be Burmese without loving tea leaf salad (http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJAF3DYJp4xYpp55fznJ9v7dc0GJgGowZGyV4ut5HnIl3RsGsPbw)
They chew beetel nut and still manage to procreate - (http://www.yachtaragorn.com/photos/Gallery/SumbaBetelNutManAndKids.jpg) - the beetel nut: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areca_nut).
All of their "coffee" is in packets and consists of 40-60% sugar and less than 10% coffee.
If you order tea, a quarter of your cup with consist of sugary condensed milk.
None of the residents of Nupho understand how you cannot eat copious amounts of rice at EVERY meal.
They all love Aung San Suu Kyi.
They pronounce "Kyi" like the letter "G." Apparently, when the British transcribed the language into our alphabet that sound got lost in translation.
They are former photo-journalists, farmers, tour guides, truck drivers, teachers, government workers, etc...
They love their country and their culture, but none that I have talked to plan to return to Burma.
It is rarely quiet - pigs squeal; the church band plays - at concert level volume, especially when it is just a practice session; 5+ rooms of 40+ students scream their lessons, in unison, at the top of their lungs, from the school next door; monasteries are blasting prayers at any and all points during the day; children squeal; drunk men gather after their one beer puts them in a stupor (Burmese men cannot hold their liquor); someone is seemingly always testing a microphone, saying approximately 20+ times (in English) "hello? hello. hello! hello, hello, hello,"; the cat whines, though not often and not loudly - but still...; radios, videos, and REALLY bad kareoke cannot be listened to at anything but full volume; guitars everywhere, and they aren't afraid to play them - or even a mandolin.
Prayer call from the mosque is the quietest thing in Nupho, except for my students when they are asked to speak or read aloud in class. They speak at inaudible levels, except maybe when I make them stand at the front of the room and speak or read aloud. Then they are wicked excited and speak at a level slightly louder than a mute.
Phone conversations overheard at the internet shop can almost entirely consist of the word "ok" repeated over and over and over and over again, in a rushed manner that indicates they are about to hang-up, but go on for 20+ minutes..."ok, ok, ok, ok.ok? ok! ok! ok, ok, ok....ok....ok, ok....ok" - 20 minutes later (click).
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