Burmese teens drawn to crew

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Updated: May 30, 2010, 12:22 am / 0 comments Published: May 30, 2010, 6:41 am Story tools: LargerSmallerSave Print Email Get Alerts Newsletters NEWShare this story: Buzz up! None of the four teens stands significantly more than 5 feet tall. None has been in America for more than a year or two. They don't speak a lot of English, either. What the four boys — Pray Reh, Nga Reh, Thy Reh and Win Htoo — do possess is a desire to keep going. They keep showing up four days a week at the West Side Rowing Club for two-hour practices. And they keep their coach, Dennis Call, coming back for each practice. "I'm not really sure how much they understand me, but they've caught on. They caught on to the basics quickly," Call said of the four teens from Burma. "It's a different kind of sport. It's a kind of sport that someone with no athletic talent can flourish at." The boys are part of a crew team made up of 14 students drawn from all over the Buffalo School District. The team began practicing in March. And on Monday, the four boys and the rest of the team will have their first and only race of the season at the rowing club. For the four boys from Burma, crew has turned out to be their thing, a way of getting used to life in America, something to do after school each day. It's hard work, and it's demanding, but they keep going. For Call and the other coaches of the team, it's been a challenge to get the team up and running, but they are hopeful, buoyed by the eagerness of the four boys and others like them. Like the other three boys, Pray Reh's family fled Burma to come to the U.S., following rule by a military government that many see as oppressive. Buffalo is now home to roughly 2,000 Burmese, who have settled primarily on the city's West Side. Pray Reh's family arrived in America six months ago, after fleeing to Thailand. Pray Reh's and the other boys' adjustment to America has been slow but steady. They all understand English, while they still struggle with speaking it. Thy Reh wears a black, white and yellow Yankees baseball hat, even though he doesn't watch or even like baseball. Rowing at the club has given the four boys something to do together. "I like the rowing, but I can't explain why. I simply like it," Pray Reh said through an interpreter. "I don't know what else to do." The coaches treat the boys like any other novice rowers. Practices last about two hours and begin with the boys carrying the boat they'll practice in down to the Black Rock Channel. They spend time on the water, learning the techniques. They might spend a little time in the tank, a pool with a stationary boat, or in the erg room, a long hallway with each wall lined with rowing machines. They might end with a little weightlifting — Pray Reh wants six-pack abs anyways. Despite whatever is lost in translation and any physical disadvantages, the boys have shown promise, Call said. "That little guy there with the hat?" Call points to Thy Reh. "Whether he realizes it or not, or whether he grasps the idea of power application, he rows like someone who is 5-9." Even with the work and the practices, the boys keep coming. At the Dr. Antonia Pantoja Community School, Pray Reh frequently turns up several times a day in the room of his coach and teacher, Bill Laurie, to ask if Laurie will take him to practice that day. "Mister, mister, we go today?" Pray Reh asks Laurie. Laurie laughs. "Yes, we go today," Laurie says. For the coaches of the four boys, it has taken a collective effort to get the team under way. Three years ago, Call began coaching the public school team at the club, after his wife pushed him to start coaching again. That first year was rough. The kids were unpredictable. "One day they'd come down, and they be calm. And the next day, they'd be wound up," Call said. Call struggled to keep the kids interested beyond pastone season. To help his recruitment problems, he went to guidance counselors. He went to school principals. He even went to the cheerleading coaches, telling them that he would take those who didn't make their squad. This season, Call has seen more dedication from his recruits, including Pray Reh and the other three boys. The recruits spent the winter inside, working out in the tank with its stationary boats. For Monday's race, Call, Laurie and others spent time coaching, stopping when the boys couldn't understand their instructions. Brunie Valez, a teacher at Pantoja School, gave rides to and from practice. And one rowing club member, Sharon Courtin, found rowing shorts for the team. "The funny thing is that I'd go, "Did you like it?' They'd go, "Yes,' " Call said. "Did you have fun? "No.' " "They didn't know what fun was," Call said. "They just didn't understand the word." abrown@buffnews.com

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Myanmar opposition victory

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08:06 PDT YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- The party of detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi quietly commemorated the anniversary Thursday of its victory in elections 20 years ago and stood by its decision not to register for new polls to be held later this year. A faction of the party, however, has split off to participate in the balloting. About 70 party members gathered at the residence of party Vice Chairman Tin Oo to celebrate the party's 1990 victory. "We will continue our struggle for democracy and we will continue to carry out our political activities," Tin Win, a senior National League for Democracy leader, said at the quiet celebration. The NLD cannot officially hold gatherings at its headquarters since it was disbanded for refusing to register as a political party. It won Myanmar's last elections in 1990, but the military junta never allowed it to take power. It declined to re-register for elections planned for this year as stipulated by new election laws. The NLD says the new laws are unfair and undemocratic because Suu Kyi and other people convicted of political offenses are barred from taking part in the vote. But a faction of Suu Kyi's party applied Thursday for party registration with the Election Commission, said Than Nyein, a former senior NLD member who is expected to serve as the new party's chairman. The faction calls itself the National Democratic Force. Through her lawyer, Nyan Win, Suu Kyi expressed dissatisfaction with the new group's decision to register. The exact date of the elections has not been announced. Critics say the elections will be engineered so that military officers, many of whom have already shed their uniforms to enter politics, would be assured of victory. Read more:

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Myanmar urges vigilance after

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AFP) – Myanmar state media urged revellers at annual water festivities to be on guard Friday after bomb blasts killed eight people at a park in the military-ruled country's biggest city. People should "remain vigilant against potential atrocities" and inform the authorities if they see anything suspicious, the English-language New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. Officials had initially reported that nine people died Thursday in three explosions near Kandawgyi Lake in the former capital Yangon,
but later said they had miscounted the number of fatalities. State media said 170 people were wounded in the park, where thousands of people were gathered for water-throwing festivities to mark the Buddhist New Year. It was the worst bomb attack in Yangon since a series of blasts in May 2005 at two supermarkets and a convention centre killed 23 people. The junta blamed those explosions on exile groups. Thursday's blasts came as the country prepares for elections planned for this year that critics have dismissed as a sham due to the effective barring of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi because she is a serving prisoner. The United States condemned Thursday's attacks and said it was unsure about the motivation. "We condemn any kind of violence that victimises innocent civilians," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who were the victims of this bombing," he said. Washington maintains sanctions on the regime but initiated a cautious dialogue with the junta last year, concluding that the previous US policy of trying to isolate the regime had failed. Hundreds of revellers returned to the same park Friday on the final day of the Thingyan New Year festival, watched by dozens of police officers. State television said late Thursday that an investigation had begun to find the "destructionists" behind the explosions. Myanmar has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years, which the junta has blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, partly justifying its grip on power by the need to fend off ethnic rebellions that have plagued remote border areas for decades. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta never allowed it to take office. The Nobel peace laureate, who advocates non-violent resistance, has been under house arrest almost constantly since. Armed minorities in Karen and Shan states continue to fight the government along the country's eastern border, alleging they are subject to neglect and mistreatment. The regime recently stepped up its decades-long campaign against the rebels in an apparent attempt to crush them before the polls, expected before early November this year.

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