Every day is a day of discovery. Today we discovered that a Burmese understanding of time and distance was not ours. So on the only part of the pilgrimage that Helen and I had not "test run" we, as staff with Andrew and Diane, found ourselves in a challenging position. (Fr. Philip recognised this afterwards and was most apologetic). For you see, logically, nothing seemed to make sense….the longer we walked, the time of arrival kept advancing further away. So when we had reached the “two hour” jungle walk time frame we had been given, we were told there was still up to three hours to go. An hour later a crunch time came at a “path-side” café (in the middle of the jungle), and as a staff we decided that we would split the group. Those going onto the village with two staff and those who had chosen to return to return to Thandaung Gyi, with two staff

Tough decision but both groups benefitted.

The group who arrived at the village were welcomed by people garbed in Karen national gear, and a band. We processed down a welcoming line of all the villagers, were adorned with tinsel necklaces and presented flowers. We were then sung songs of welcome in beautiful Polynesian- style harmonies, to which our hastily put together, “Home among the gum trees,” while done well paled into insignificance. After a glorious lunch, we trekked through the village and onto a waterfall which gave us a welcome refreshing stop amidst the beauty of this place. This waterfall powers the hydro-electric generators for the village. And then after but a brief time we had to get back before dark. We were facing at least 4 hours. We decided to accept the offer to ferry us slowly to the midway point(Another interesting Burmese principle for it still meant we had three hours from there. We knew the track completely and by making the decision for the group's well-being we would allow a slow ferrying of students to the “path-side’ café, as this part of the track was far better than the first section. This operation was led by Father Hezro. Successfully there, we slowly, made our way back to TDG. What a day and an adventure….. and Fr. Hezro had gone before us to arrange a pick up on the outskirts of town in cars and a truckney.

One hour earlier our other group had been welcomed in a similar fashion. The four girls in that group had been fantastic in supporting both Mr. Pennycott and Diane.

This day highlighted for all of us the difficulties and isolation of the villagers. Fr. Philip told us that they hope to upgrade the road eventually and the Government pushes to make TDG a commercial centre. At the moment, landslides and imperfect road base count against this.

For the pilgrims it highlighted the love and care that the people of TDG have for us.

I’ll let Tahla, Katie and Jazmin give their reflections on the day

Tahla Semmler

Today was a very exhausting and challenging day for all of us as we had a 2 hour walk(4 hours both ways) that turned out to be a 7.5 hr walk round trip to home. Starting the day we were all tired but excited that we get to see the jungle around us, but after 2 hours we all started to realise that the walk was longer than what we all expected. We started to get exhausted and frustrated that we had to walk until we reached the village. We stopped at the 3 ½ hour mark at a shop to find out that we still had ages to go. So we split off into two different groups with one group continuing to the village and another returning back to TDG. I was in the group that went back, which included; Mr and Mrs Pennycott, Amy, Bayley and Tahlia. While walking back to the village, we were constantly stopping in the shade due to walking back during the hottest part of the day. Once we had arrived back at Retreat House, we were all extremely happy that we had finally finished and didn’t have to walk any longer. Today was a very interesting day but I just know that I will never do anything like that again.

How did Katie see the day?

Today was a day I have never experienced before! We woke up at 6:30 for breakfast and left for our 2 hour hike at 8. Little did we know that during our walk the 10:00 arrival time suddenly turned to 11, then 12, then 1 and then night, with the hike consisting of so many hills I lost count! After the staff decided that some of the group decided to head back to the retreat house, the rest headed on and after 4 hours we arrived in the village to be greeted by a band playing some amazing music. Then we were welcomed by a line of young children holding flowers and tinsel necklaces as a gift to us. We then were given a quick tour of the village and visited a waterfall just a few minutes away from the centre of the village. At the waterfall there were children playing and splashing in the cool, refreshing water. After taking a few photos we were ferried slowly back to the café where we had decided to split the group. We started to walk the rest of the way. During our walk back the heat started making me feel weak, and finally seeing civilisation was the best feeling in the world! After this eventful day I am definitely feeling lethargic yet excited for church tomorrow and what the rest of the trip brings!

Jazmin about this memorable day!

Today was a very interesting and tiring day. We woke up at 6:30 for breakfast and left for our adventurous hike through the jungle of Thandaung Gyi at 8:00. Our walk to the nearest village was supposedly 2 hours away but 2 hours later we were no were near the nearest village and were starting to get worried, tired and sore. Our tour lady Zaveria told us not to worry, we were only 45 minutes away, but 45 mins later we were still in the middle of nowhere and were starting to wonder if we were ever going to arrive. At this point some of us were too tired to carry on and were now told by Zaveria that we were 1 and a half hours away. So the staff decided to take back four of the pilgrims. 9 other pilgrimages and I decided to carry on to the village with Father Noel and Helen. We finally arrived at the village around 12:00 and were welcomed with a band playing traditional music, tinsel, array of flowers and greeting songs from the village people. It was extraordinary to see how many people were waiting for us to greet us to their town that only one other group of foreigners had ever been to. After being welcomed we had lunch then left to look around the town and went to their local shower/waterfall. The water fall was really pretty and was very refreshing to cool down in after our long walk. Even though the walk was very challenging at the time, by the end of it I was so happy to go all the way to the village to see all the amazing people who welcome us so enthusiastically into their homes. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s adventure and to experience new things and to meet new people.