KAWHMU (Myanmar): Teacher Hlang Thein gently admonishes a group of primary school children to carefully repeat the alphabet after her so they can wrap up the lesson before the heavy rains drench them again.

Hlang Thein, in her immaculate white teacher’s blouse, is trying to bring some semblance of normality back to the children in her community.

Many remain traumatised after Cyclone Nargis flattened the impoverished farming village of Mawin, which is in Kawhmu township in a remote corner of the Irrawaddy Delta only accessible by a small motorized boat.

“But how can they not remember? We are studying in a house without a roof and walls and every time the rain comes, they get wet,” Hlang Thein said.

“Our books and notepads are still damp.” The children sit on the wooden floor, and while some have managed to save their green and white uniforms when the cyclone struck in early May, many are wearing clothes donated by private relief agencies.Hlang Thein said she has to be very patient with her pupils. Many of them do not want to study until the school house is rebuilt and that will take time.

Building materials are difficult to come by. All of the 275 houses clustered in this village were blown away, except Hlang Thein’s. It is, however, heavily damaged, and only the wooden frame and floor were left behind.

It is here where she has decided to teach the children.

“I do not want them to miss any lessons, even under these conditions,” she said.

The village’s brick schoolhouse was destroyed by Nargis, and a broken blackboard and a tiny Buddha statue are the only reminders that the rubble was once classrooms.—AFP