Splashing through thick reddish mud, and roaring up steep rocky hills, we had to shout over the roar of the engine (and the constant whine of a rock wedged into the axle).
“How are we doing?” I asked. K’nyaw Say, senior medic of Laytongku Health Center, craned to check our load of medicine and food.
“Nothing’s fallen out – yet.” He smiled.
K’nyaw Say started out as a timid soft spoken young man, someone I’ve trained for the past 6 years. He has grown and matured as a medic and a leader of health development. He now leads a volunteer troop of 11 village-based birth attendants, in addition to his clinic work.
“One birth attendant is really working hard.” He said. “She gets her women to take prenatal vitamins, eat well and lets me know about complications. I was able to emergency refer a woman with retained placenta.”
“Wow, that’s great!” I mentally noted that this was the third major complication K’nyaw Say has managed in the past quarter. Three lives he has saved.
“She asked me for help.” He went on. “She’s very poor and needs to buy thatch to reroof her house.” He quoted a price that was half his monthly salary.
I opened my mouth to offer to pay, but he went on.
“I’ve been saving up to buy a motorbike. But I’ve also been saving for a ‘mercy tithe’.” He smiled with pride. “I can pay for her roof with the tithe money. And I’m two months away from getting the motorbike.”
“Good job!” I praised him. I thought back to the day of K’nyaw Say’s baptism, and how he said that what drew him to the church was how the Christians treated him. He said that because we valued him, he realized that God wanted him too. Here was a young man that some people wanted to write off, but God had made a leader out of him.
“You are doing such good work, K’nyaw Say, and showing a good example for your community.”
“No,” he shyly looked out the window at the jungle mountain road flew by. “I may not always know exactly what to do, but I will stick with this community and keep learning. Thank you for helping us, and for believing in me.”
Tears sprang to my eyes, but this was not the road to get misty-eyed while driving!
To see someone you’ve trained grow in maturity and take on more responsibility is the most gratifying thing for a leader. I know that he needs my input so much less now. Instead, I get the privilege to see the investment I put in him get multiplied forward to others. Pass on one torch that lights 11 more. We are brightening up this remote corner of Burma.
“Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say 'We have done this ourselves.’”
― Lao Tzu
Marci lives with her husband and children in Mae Sot. She coordinates many healthcare projects for the Partners team.
