November 26 - Anne McNish
Anne gave us an overview of her time in Myanmar (Burma). Anne thought she would die in a taxi the first few months she was there, but thankfully, managed to survive. She taught 1st graders at the Brainworks International School. The school had a strong academic and extra curricular focus She thought she would be teaching English as a second language only to find that most of her young students had already had a couple of years of English instruction. In grade one they sit 1-1/2 hour exams over the course of a number of days, four times a year.
There are more than 135 ethnic groups in Myanmar and 80% of the population are Buddhist. The economy is agriculture (rice) and jewels - sapphires, pearls and rubies. In fact we learned that 90% of the world's rubies come from here.