Many families live on the banks of the Irrawaddy River, which for eight months of the year provides fertile land for crops and animals to forage, while the other four months there is a raging torrent as the river swells with the rains.
The river is their life blood. They wash themselves and their clothes, use the water to irrigate the land for crops, they fish, swim, work and play. Their crops were growing well when I was there in January, but when the rains come they dismantle their bamboo and thatch homes and move elsewhere temporarily. They have no running water or electricity and live a very simple life. But everyone I saw looked healthy and well fed and happy and there seemed to be a real community spirit.
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