The situation in Myanmar is no better a week after Cyclone Nargis hit the country, with the government seizing U.N. food aid and most aid workers still unable to enter the country.
New reports suggest more destructive weather may be yet to come this season and water-borne disease is a growing concern.
In 2000, I went to Burma while living in the region. It’s hard to say what a beautiful and amazing visit it was without sounding trite, but it’s true. I hate to think of the damage and destruction there.
Here are a few pictures. (Click for a larger version.) Thinking of Burma, and wishing there was more we could do.
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The woman in this photo is wearing thanaka paste, made from ground wood and used as a cosmetic and sunscreen.
These people sold fruit to a riverboat on the Irrawaddy River, but further north than the worst of the cyclone hit. 
Finally, here's a photo from the Shwedagon Paya, an enormous and intricate Buddhist temple complex in the capital, Yangon. These are my notes from this photo: "Each person has a particular animal and a particular compass direction associated with the day of the week they were born. At the temple, there's a shrine for each and it's considered a good act to come to your shrine on your day of the week and pay appropriate respects. This is one of those shrines."
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