People keep asking me how my last trip to Myanmar was and I say it was great! But fail to give more info because I am so lazy and honestly, if they were really interested, they’d be asking me more, not just how it was for the courtesy of asking how it was. People do that, yeah?
Here’s the low down….
We went to Myanmar to touch-base with the kids and to attend a motivational workshop presented by Carol Consults. Eileen (my friend’s friend in Myanmar who sacrifices her time every weekend to teach the kids) had invited some leaders to come share their stories with the kids too with an inherent message – it doesn’t matter where you came from, it’s where you want to go that matters.
The leaders comprised:-
1. The President of the Myanmar Lethwei Association and his team of fighters
2. A Famous Myanmar pop group called Nine-Nine
3. A Myanmar Entrepreneur who’s lived all his life in the UK from Goldman Sachs and now has returned to help his country. He brought along a financial expert from Hong Kong and his relative who’s had it tough from Myanmar. Two very different backgrounds, but both successful in their own right.
It was a very powerful and impactful weekend filled with so much love and I would be surprised if none of these kids don’t become somebody some day.
Each morning, we started with some warm up activities outdoors…..
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Followed by the teachings……….
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It was rainy season in Myanmar and the wind was extremely strong so we had to hold down the projector screen with chairs. The wind did cause quite a bit of havoc to various parts of our workshop!
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Then some meaningful activities……
They had to draw their dreams out, draw who they were. Think about how they would contribute to the world. Think about where they wanted to be. And later, they had to present their ideas to the entire audience.
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During their break times, T1 would follow them out to the playground outside and I was shocked that these teenagers had so much fun playing with T1 in the playground. Then I realised why. They are cooped up in their orphanage every day and the only out they see is school and back. So this was fun!!!
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The kids were given more activities such as straws to build a tall tower. They were grouped into teams and not taught how to build the tower so a lot of thinking and team work was involved. At the beginning, they were all looking at other teams wondering what the hell to do. This boy below here, is Jesse (who emails me sometimes), who was the first person in the entire hall who came up with ideas on how to join the straws to make a tower and he was so smart that he hid his straw joints under his file so that the other teams couldn’t copy him. I thought that was so cute.
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The kids progressing with their towers….
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Then they had to present their towers………
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The tallest tower got the most points. T1’s team was an all girl team for some reason! She joined the all boys teams initially then slowly made her way to the all girls team. Of which there was only one!!! Most teams had 1-2 girls and majority were all boys teams.
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That’s the Lethwei President spreading their fighting leadership to the kids…….
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The pop band and Eileen, rapping away in her sunnies…….
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And the entrepreneur with his two associates from very different backgrounds. Their stories were interesting. One came from a well to do background, one came from the opposite. Both had struggles, both had drive. Both have succeeded.
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After the professional sharings by the leaders, the kids got to ask them questions. I am so proud to say that they were full of questions and confident enough to stand and ask questions.
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During another break, the kids had a chance to play with giant bubbles!!! It is so damn fun, these giant bubbles!!!
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Then, we had to of course, thank our main sponsors, 100-Plus. Thank you so much!!!
T1 says she likes Myanmar because she can drink 100-Plus. I refuse to buy it for her in KL.
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Whilst waiting for the judges to tabulate their scores, the kids mucked about.
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One of the most beautiful things I had to do over the two days was to write special notes to all the kids secretly in their post boxes which were those envelopes hung up high behind. Each one had a name, and everyone was supposed to write a special note to anyone or several friends that they wanted to say something special to. Because we didn’t want anyone to go home without any notes, I had to make sure that I wrote notes to everyone. Something special, something unique, for each and every kid who attended the workshop. Only poor T1 didn’t have a post box because she wasn’t part of the Children of Myanmar but I’m sure she would have loved to have one too. I didn’t think of it then because we were so busy but on hindsight, I should have asked for one for her too, even if it is perceived that she is already 100 times more privileged than them.
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Finally, the results were out and the winners were………..*drum beats*………….the all girls team!!! T1 refused to accept the prizes because she felt that they were for the Children of Myanmar and she didn’t want to be a part of the prizes but they urged her to receive her prize as she was a part of their team.
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In the end though, she did leave it for the kids as she did not need the prizes at all.
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Once the day was over, we took some photos and said our farewells…….
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The kids suddenly came up to me with their notebooks and pieces of paper asking me for my autograph! I must have written ANOTHER several dozen personalised notes for them and man, my hand was numb by the end of the evening!!!
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T1 really does have a special bond with these kids. One of them gave her a gold ring to wear and said to return it when she came back next. Such trust. And the ring meant so much to T1. She kept asking me weeks after our trip, “Mom, where is the ring? Have you kept it safe?”
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We love the Children of Myanmar.
If ever you want to be a part of this project, please feel free to contact me.
**************************************************************************Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin spent 7 years in London committing crimes to gain her Bartlett degree in Architecture. She then spent 7 years as a Stay At Home Mom raising her children as documented in this blog of over 15 years thereafter returning to the Corporate World stronger than ever as the Country Director of a British Multinational. She sets out to prove to all, that you can have anything and everything that you want; if you have that fire of desire burning within and the drive to work hard. Even better with much love.
Mamapumpkin has not only grown corporate businesses successfully in the past but has grown not one but TWO network marketing businesses in the notorious MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) industry, achieving success in under 2 years. She believes in the MLM business model but realises the DRASTIC PITFALLS and great stigma attached to it, understanding EXACTLY WHY the majority would shy away (or RUN for their lives) from ANY MLM business. But open your eyes and take time to understand it intellectually, remove your hang-ups, confirm your research, and you may just want to seize an opportunity. She did. And no, she never went about chasing people for sales. She had a sophisticated system work for her through technology and a smartphone.
She now impacts lives authentically with proven strategies amassed through the last decade of her own transformation offering online coaching programmes and always supports the underprivileged. She believes that we can all have a life of our own desires to enable real contribution into the world. But first, one needs to understand what this all means.
A beautiful life without limits.
If you wish to learn some tools to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave enough to make contact as her life's purpose is to build people. She operates through a discovery call after which she will commit to helping you. Or not.
Most lose out on an opportunity because they are afraid they would be sold to, conned or whatever fear resides in their brain without even trying. And that's on them.
Mamapumpkin is a living testimony that women really can have a lot. Being financially and time free has enabled her to travel the world anytime, anywhere, doing anything, and she spends most of her days with her children, having fun, and supporting others wherever she can. Also having fun.
