Bodies of Myanmar nationals who died when a Russian fishing trawler sank on April 2 are brought back on April 16. PHOTO/FREE FUNERAL SERVICEs SOCIETY
It’s no secret that Thingyan can get a little crazy. Few people are at work, the streets are taken over by partygoers, and alcohol can fuel tensions. Oh, and it lasts for like a week.
As a result, for the team at the Free Funeral Services Society, a nonprofit that plays the part of mortician to the poor in Myanmar, the festival was no picnic.
Besides funerals, FFSS provides emergency response services, and there were plenty of emergencies to respond to during last week’s festival in Yangon, which officially lasted from the 13th to the 16th in the city with separate celebrations all over the country.
“There were many fights during the festival,” Ye Lin Myint, a FFSS member, told Eleven Media Group. “People injured in fights outnumbered those from other accidents.”
On the final day of Thingyan, Ye Lin Myint said, FFSS sent the victims of a gas explosion on Kaba Aya Pagoda Road to the hospital.
In total, the nonprofit handled 154 “cases” during Thingyan last week, compared to 142 in the 2014 festival, Eleven Media reported.
Another FFSS member told the news outlet that revelers got in their way as they tried to work and thought it was funny.
“The difficulty we faced during rescuing in Thingyan was that drinkers barred our cars. Although they did it as a joke, it was bad for us,” she said.
FFSS also helped with the repatriation and funerals of five Myanmar nationals whose bodies were recovered from the sinking of the Russian fishing trawler Dalny Vostok on April 2 in Russia’s Far East. In total, 16 bodies were returned last week.
The 22 men who survived the disaster have already made the trip back to Yangon and are safe, if not sound.
On board the ship there were 42 Myanmar nationals out of a crew of 123. Four of their bodies were never recovered.
