Today was an "all - dayer “ at a primary school in the morning(this site used to be a helicopter landing pad. Billion dollar views) and the Church Kindy in the afternoon. For lunch the pilgrims were the invited guests of a couple (married just that morning) in the groom's parent’s home. Because of the unrest in the north of the country, the bride’s parents were not allowed to travel to attend the wedding. (Pictures to come)

In the afternoon, some tired pilgrims found themselves waiting for the Kindy children to wake up. What a terrifying sight for these littlies, awaking to a room full of green, blue-eyed and pale skinned strangers

Tahlia tells us that today was a challenge.

Today I had lots of nerves rushing through my body as we were going to a primary school, we were told to expect sixty children in each class so obviously I would be a bit worried. As my partner and I prepared for a large class of young student we were very surprised when we entered a class with only fifteen year seven students. Nerves were still rushing around as we hadn’t planned what to do with older kids so we needed help from a teacher. After figuring out what to do it was all so exciting and started to feel unreal, talking to kids around our age was amazing and getting to know them and their life was even better. When we visited the kindy later this afternoon I was so tired and just wanted to go to bed. When we got there they were all still in the middle of a nap so when we walked in it was so adorable seeing forty young children sleeping, as they woke up they came over and a few of them cuddled us and it just made this trip worthwhile. Seeing there adorable smiles when they see us and when we try to talk and play with them is just incredible it just lights up your day.

Christopher Collier

Today was possibly my favourite day so far. We had a nice lay in this morning with a wake-up call at 7:00, although we were all still very tired as the week’s adventures have been exhausting but definitely worth it. We had a bumpy ride in a 'trucknee’ up the mountain to a primary school this morning and were welcomed with all 300 students of the school singing the national anthem of Myanmar, the Lord’s Prayer, and their school song. Last night we were informed that we could expect classes of up to 60 children with an age range of 5 to 13 years, working in pairs to teach and play with the kids for two and a half hours. For some that was the case and a couple of the pilgrims ended up working with 60 kindy kids for the morning, but for myself and most of the others we had a class of less than 50. I myself had about 40 year 5’s with my partner. It went a lot better than I had perhaps expected and the children loved every minute of it. We taught them a lot of English and maths as well as singing songs and playing games in class, and finished off by taking them outside for some games for the last half hour. When it was time to leave we had a whole school photo and then hopped back in the truckney to have lunch with a young bride and groom that will marry tomorrow. The food here is really, really good. A lot of the pilgrims aren’t so fond of the unfamiliar foods as it is very different, but personally I love the new experience and trying all of these new and exciting meals. After lunch we went to a kindy with 60 kids who were in the middle of their nap time. One by one they woke up and were surprised to see a bunch of foreign teenagers eagerly waiting to play with them. They soon warmed up to us despite the majority being very sleepy and a bit shy at first. There were two groups of kids – the 4-5 year olds running around, playing games and singing songs upstairs, and the 3-4 year olds quietly reading stories and cuddling the pilgrims downstairs. They were very cute and even though every one of us was exhausted from a busy morning, we all had a really special time with the kids. The morning at the primary was a good example of how well our previous night’s planning worked and how effective good structure can be, but we also saw the complete contrast with the kindy kids as no one had any real plan of action and we all “went with the flow" and took the circumstances as they were, which also went very well and smoothly. Being able to share this amount of joy and smiles with all these children from completely different parts of the world is such a special feeling, and it is just amazing to receive the welcome that we do from everyone we meet on this journey.

Leigh Blagden

Today was a late start, at 7. The German people came over for breakfast which was a surprise, they looked like teenagers but were 26 and 30. After breakfast there was a primary school that we went to. I was to teach the Year 6 class with Caleb, ages ranged from 11 to 15. Trying to get the class to interact was a bit hard but eventually they started singing "Home among the gum trees. "After they got going the class was very responsive and worked fairly well. We showed them a map and lots of them said that they wanted to go to America, some said that they wanted to go to Australia (they were the better students) and Caleb said he wanted to go to Japan, which I thought wasn’t the best idea considering Japan occupied Myanmar for a while but no one seemed to mind, which was nice.
For lunch we were at a wedding feast, but it was in a house and the bride and groom only appeared midway through then left, which was a bit odd.
 In the afternoon we were at a kindy. When we got there we realised that the kids were asleep, so we waited for them to wake up which was nice. After they woke up I tried to speak with a few of them but they weren’t really into it, so eventually I got out a little white board and had the kids draw, learn parts of the body and some English. They seemed to be having fun with that. Later some of the other pilgrims started blowing bubbles outside, I got some of my kids to go but I was told that one couldn’t walk, so I carried her outside and she had fun trying to pop the bubbles, even if she couldn’t walk. I caught a truckney back to the retreat house but some of the other pilgrims walked. When Caleb came back he had brought a plastic cane ball. Cane ball is like soccer mixed with volley ball. I was kind of jealous but also kind of happy. Later Chris fell asleep in a funny position and Caleb took a photo of him.