I think you will likely know from my previous email that I must work at least this AM in order to finish up the last seven Psalms for the Psalter. However, I hope to have U Soe Myint take me to Dagon Centre this afternoon to do some shopping against the Sabbath. At that time I will go to Cafe Aroma and log into the sermonaudio account and try to send you an email from there as well.
My cough has been coming along as you might expect. No deep cough ever -- just a hack at first and now a "healthy" cough as my lungs rid themselves of excess mucus.
Last night U Khin and I went to the Royal Garden for supper. It is his favorite spot in all Yangon. Out the window was a beautiful scene across Kan Dawgyi. You may remember that is where we took Suan and they had the dances on the stage. They no longer have the dancers, but they still have good Singapore Chinese food. Since lemon chicken is U Khin's favorite, that is what we had. We also had some soup which the menu translated "watermelon" soup, but it was actually cucumber soup. U Khin told me that the Burmese also said "cucumber" so it was just a mistranslation.
I think I told you in my last email that Mercy Band is not coming today, but all the Saw brothers (Saw is the Karen equivalent of U) [which is "Mister"] will be there. That means the Karens will be there, including Saw Victory Moo. Saw Joe Joe (I thought his name was Kyaw Kyaw) said that Joe Joe is simply his "pen name," and his real name is Walter Myat. Since he has a very good sense of humor even in English, I'm never sure when to believe him. We "kid" each other a lot. He is a very kind man. He and Mahan Khun San write hundreds of songs together. I called them the Karen "Gilbert and Sullivan," but he corrected me, "no, Rogers and Hammerstein." You may recall that Karen (Kayin) is one of the seven national races of Myanmar, along with Burmese, Chin, Kachin, Rakhine, Shan, and Mon.
Well, I'd better get to the back building. They don't necessarily need me all the time, but they won't start without me.
All God's blessings, Richard Bacon GOLDEN GUEST INN Yangon, Myanmar
Email From Dr. Bacon: Saturday 2/25/06 Noon I talked with Joseph this morning and his mother is somewhat improved, but he still appreciates our prayers for her. He says that he will not be able to come down here on Monday so it is good that I went ahead and sent the Heidelberg Catechism book up there along with Shwekey. He hopes to be back in Yangon by Tuesday. He has a man with him who is a Korean from the UK who wants to talk with me in some detail (we won't have time for a LOT of detail) about the idea of having a world class international seminary in Yangon. I told him about Thang Bwee, how he studied in Korea, and has the vision of a three self church in Myanmar and he found that very exciting indeed. He says he has been trying to teach Shwekey the three self concept as well, but it comes hard to the Chin. The guys from the Aquila Project are going to the Shwedagon Pagoda later today. I told them I won't ever go until they let me visit with my shoes on. Of course that will never happen, but they don't understand that to take off one's shoes is a sign of respect. And of course so far am I from having respect for their idols, that I have contempt for them. Anyway, they also plan to go down to the Bogyoke market (Scott St. market). I thought I might do some shopping on Monday or Tuesday, but for today I just plan to get a couple of ready-made sandwiches for the Sabbath day.
U Soe Myint (you may remember him -- he is the older gentleman who takes care of their cars at the hotel) dropped me off here at Dagon Centre earlier and "somebody" will come by to pick me up later. I told them not to worry about me because I have enough Burmese language to get myself in trouble without any help at all. Soe Myint used to be in the military, but he is a good man. He is a gentle soul and not aggressive enough for the military so he is "retired." That means only that he is no longer in the military. Now he works for U Khin pretty much full-time (that means 12 hours a day and 7 days a week) and supports his widowed sister.
Richard Bacon, Skynet Cafe, Yangon I received your email this morning in which you said you have not received any from me. Sorry, because I have sent them. I think the problem is simply that they are slow in getting to you. Even when you thought before that I was not sending you emails, it was only because there is some sort of delay between us. You may tell [folks] that I've recorded the Psalms [being sung in Burmese] in previous trips and have them both as a tape and also have "ripped" one of the Psalms to an MP3. I'll send it along to [anyone] when I get back, and yes it would be QUITE appropriate for [anyone] to make a contribution toward getting the Psalter published. I hope to have some quotations on doing the work by the time I return. Right now the concentration is all on getting the revision done in time. It looks right now like we shall have to work on Saturday.
Yesterday, one of the men who is here with Jeff Easley gave me a "sample" of a diabetic cough syrup -- he actually gave me four of them. It seems to have worked. It knocked me out -- I told him this AM that I'm not really sure if I had actually swallowed all of it before I was asleep. And I pretty much slept the night thru. That helped a lot. So between vitamins and echinacea and drugs I'm doing much better today.
There is a "cheaper" international buffet over at the Inya Lake tonight, so I think I will go over there with the guys from The Aquila Project. Tomorrow night I have promised to take Suan and his new wife and daughter over to the Shan Kan 3. I don't think you have ever been to that one. Also, in my "missing" email I told you that Shweki is (temporarily) back in country from the UK. He has a pix of himself with Ian Paisley he wants me to see!
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