Place

U Pein Bridge (1): What Does a Bridge Mean to a Community?

I want to maintain this bridge as our daily wage depends on this,” told to me (Khin Khin Nyein) by one of the women vendors. We observed that she was chewing the beetle leaves and we asked, “where do you spit the beetle juice?” She replied immediately, “[o]n the ground” with a shy laugh. I think the reason why she laughed was because she recognised that she herself did something which made the bridge dirty. 

Fostering Waste Management in the Community (3)

In this picture, we can see that a person understood how to correctly the bucket. Most people did not have any problem in using the basket for dry waste. They understood that clearly. But we were facing problems in making people understand how to use the bucket for wet waste correctly.  I was glad that this person had a clearer the idea what we had said. Fortunately many others also understood the right way to use the bucket eventually. 

Fostering Waste Management in the Community (2)

Some people were not clear how the plastic bucket was to be used. Actually, this bucket is for wet waste and the plastic bag should be put in it first before putting trash in.

They used the bucket in wrong way as shown in the photos. We reminded them again, “the basket made with palm raffia is for dry waste and the bucket is for wet." We encouraged them to use it the correct way. 

Fostering Waste Management in the Community (1)

“In the past, we would pack the trash in a big bag and threw it into the lake at night. When the flood would come, all of the trash would come back out with the water,” she said laughing.

We asked her then, “Did any of the elders (your parents, the governor of the quarter, etc.) say anything about it?" 

She answered, “at that time, all people in the village did like that. We didn’t really care as other people did the same thing that I did.”

What Is the Most Beautiful Place in Taungthaman: From Children's Memories

What is the most beautiful thing or place in your village? The question asked was to the young school children from Taungthaman Village.

The first drawing is of U Pain Bridge and the second one of Taung Tha Man Thitsar.Many children also drew pictures of their grandparents, Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda, Taung Tha Man Lake.

We asked them to explain their drawings - what they know about the particular place or thing -  the dos and dont's.

Grassroot Pan Africanism

 Since 2007, I have been assisting Kojo Opoku Aidoo of Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, to develop a humanistic Syllabus on ‘Mobilities of Grassroots Pan Africanism’as part of the Humanities  across Borders Program.  The project attempts to contextualize the praxis of mobilities as a grassroots pan Africanism issue in its multiple manifestations and nuanced dialectics. It also examines the tensions and contradictions of the academy and the community dialectic, bringing up questions of social mobilities and intellectual inquiry.

The Impact of Urban Life: Interactions from the Field

The school children of the Htantaw village in the Taungthaman Village Tract were asked – What is the most beautiful place in Taungthaman? They could either draw pictures or describe in words. The children drew from their imagination and showed it to the students.

Snacks are important part of a community’s cultural heritage. We included this in our session and served traditional snacks like noe-hta-min or rice mixed with milk.

A Man for Peace: Reverend Dr Wati Aier

"I think we were too fast with it all. Perhaps it was World War II that shaped the Naga soul. People come of age or in the process of coming of age, I think, in many ways we have been too idealistic. Instead of trying to work towards national construction, we were caught up in idealistic nationalism and I think traces of that idealistic mission still linger on today especially among the older generations... but the younger minds are beginning to be very critical and analytical at the same time, so I wish that the Naga movement began today.

Place-based pedagogies, University of Mandalay (4)

In order to link the classroom with the real world for the course of Urban Anthropology, our department decided to interact with the community elders to find out about the Taunghtaman Village Tract. 

Our group met the village head and community elders of Taunghtaman Village in the village administrator’s office. The elders shared that nowadays most school children who grow up in Taungthaman do not know much about their home village and don't cherish it; and because of this, they are forgetting their cultural heritage.

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