Some days, it feels like a pretty tough assignment out here. The rain is incessant at times with flooding in the roads, the fields, the walkways and houses and the skies are grey. The lives which many people lead are very challenging and they cannot look much further than the next day.

The township where I work has people living in the most basic of human conditions - the need for shelter is paramount. Nutrition is very poor and sanitation is compromised by heavily polluted waterways. This is seeing poverty in the raw and this is not the Myanmar of tourist hotels and spectacular pagodas in glossy brochures.

There are are numerous professional and personal frustrations for me too which I have to find a way of managing. So, all in all, a 'tough gig'. Tara, an Americal lawyer with whom I spent a very enjoyable leisurely lunch on Sunday, has lived in Afghanistan and Cambodia and reckons that if you can successfully volunteer here in Yangon, then you can do it anywhere.

Her comments are reassuring in that what I thought was tough is indeed tough!

But, I would not change one single second of this experience and I am immersing myself in this developing country's culture. I need to look for a few treats from time to time though to act as a counterbalance and hope to see a bit more of the country soon. Bago and the bizarre capital city Naypyidaw are on my list of places to see before too long.

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