An email sent to friends on November 21, 2006:
Back to the Burmese students. There were 19 students and we were to offer encouragement as they send off their early decision apps, answer questions about college life in the US, etc. My student, Mai, is applying to a school in North Carolina. When I get home I can heartily write a letter of support to the admissions office, as well as contact an old friend on the faculty. The parents of a student currently attending my alma mater were at a potluck the students hosted for us. Each student took us on a walking/taxi trip in Rangoon to a place we wouldn’t ordinarily see. Mai took me to the Mercury Tea House, which is described in the current book, finding George Orwell in Burma. What I didn’t know is that this is the one place is the city where artists, writers and poets gathered on Fridays, from 11:00-12: 00. One man gave me a book of poems he had translated into English and the group had self-published. One of the artists gave me a flyer about an art exhibit they hoped we could attend. The interpreter was an amazing young man, age 26. He later joined us at lunch, which the other professor had set up buffet style at a hotel, so we wouldn’t have servers listening in our conversations, and the students could speak freely. It reminded me of the visit Mary and I had in 1961 to some students’ home in Moscow.
I don’t know the man’s name, but he is both a sports writer and music writer and expressed his great frustration about the state of journalism in Burma. The government does not allow writers to write anything negative or interview athletes or musicians. Musicians are extremely tormented by limitations imposed by the government. I had a lot of opportunity to assess his strengths and talked to him about the Fulbright program. When I got to the embassy, I told several folks I thought this young man would be a perfect candidate. When I got back to Rangoon, several days later, I met an educational leader of some sort who had been at the tea house with us. He said he had heard of my recommendation about the Fulbright and would encourage the young man to apply for next year.
