On February 11th, the neighbors watched on as work began on the first concrete road to connect many households directly with the lakefront.

As we all know, things in Myanmar have become increasingly unstable and unpredictable. Countless lives and positive community work have been disrupted or put on hold for the foreseeable future. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. And the way we see it, it’s even more important now than before to continue working with local residents to build more resilient and self-sustaining communities.

Starting on February 9th, Indawgyi Town’s oldest neighborhood and village leader agreed to use the Pink Headed Duck Cafe’s 25% community fund to help pave the first-ever concrete road that connects directly to the lakefront. This is important because the lakefront is the most central meeting point for the neighborhood. Families rely on it for everything—to collect water, go fishing, bathe, wash clothes and, of course, socialize. Kids play in the lake and along the water’s edge from sun-up to sun-down. Parents talk and joke in the mornings and evenings as they prepare their fishing nets and shrimp traps. Having a paved road here is especially vital during rainy season when dirt roads turn to thick mud and the lake water rises, making it ever-more difficult for families to access their daily activities. So for the upcoming rainy season and years to come, we wanted to make sure there’s a safe and easy access point to the lake for everyone.

With the additional funding provided by Blue Temple architecture firm in Yangon, we bought all the 50kg concrete bags needed, 250 in total, for the first section of the road. All the neighbors pitched in by donating gravel for the concrete mix, food to feed workers, and eight full days of exhausting manual labor. It was a community-wide event. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were masterfully prepared by a team of cooks in large pots to feed anyone who participated. Pouring the concrete started every day at 8am until 12pm, with a one-hour break for lunch, and continued until 4pm before repeating the same sequence the next day. There was a natural communication and collaboration between everyone involved, and this was the essential piece to keep us motivated until the end.

It goes without saying that none of us would have lasted without the daily preparations of fresh food, snacks and tea. With the sun shining throughout the day, everyone was encouraged to work hard and rest often. We’d often frequent the snack table situated near the concrete-pouring area, drinking bottomless water and hot green tea supplied by the team of cooks. There we could also find plates of homemade jaggery, peanut brittle and tea-leaf salad. For breakfast, lunch and dinner, we’d all migrate to a nearby house and sit down as endless plates of rice and Shan-ni curries, made with local vegetables and freshly-caught fish and shrimp, ballooned in our hungry bellies. And everyone made sure to eat as much as possible because we knew we’d need every bit of it to continue working.

These amazing cooks, mostly aunties and women from the neighboring houses, made the eight days of continuous labor work like a finely-tuned machine. Despite our increasingly soar muscles, they made sure everyone was happy and healthy. And often, being the bold women that they are, they’d go back and forth from working in the kitchen to working on the concrete road. They are the indisputable heroes of this project.

One of the most exciting things to come out of our first community-fund project was a safe road for kids to learn new activities. And one in particular we’ve been focused on at Face of Indawgyi is the introduction of skateboarding.

At Indawgyi Lake, there is not a lot of choice for recreational activity outside of football or bicycling. But with more paved roads, there are fresh opportunities for the youth — and that’s why we’re working together with Myanmar Skate Association and Pushing Myanmar to provide free skateboard classes in our neighborhood. Using the donated skateboards they sent from Yangon, our first class on the newly-paved road had over 25 students ranging from 7-27 years old. Both girls and boys were ready to learn. To say that it was a hit and they are motivated would be an understatement, and we now have classes every other day for three hours each. This is why we will continue to provide more resources and training to support our growing skater community, with eventual plans to build the first community skatepark for Kachin State.

Since completing the first section, we’ve come a very long way—1,120 feet (341m) to be exact. We paved the second section in March and, on May 25th, we finished the third and final section. The concrete road now connects the lakefront all the way to the main highway and village monastery, making it a vital artery for all of Indawgyi Town. And with rainy season fast approaching, we’re happy to say we finished right on time.

All of this, from the year-round lakefront access point to the skate classes, is exactly what the community fund is about. With local families collectively making all final decisions, the 25% from our community fund acts as a foundation for much-needed village projects that otherwise would not be possible. It allows for more village-level independence from outside forces, and this is something we are committed to keep building on in the coming years.

New Roads: the First Community Fund Project