Sitagu Sayadaw's prison donations

This short account of a donation by Sitagu Sayadaw to prisoners in Insein Prison comes from 7 Day News Journal, August 26th 2010, vol. 9. No. 23, p. 3.

Vocabulary:

ဦးဆောင် ။ to lead
နပ် ။ particle used as numerical classifier for meals
အသုံးအဆောင် ။ utensils; articles for use; paraphernalia
ကိုယ်တိုင်ကိုယ်ကျ ။ personally
ကျွေးမွေး ။ to feed
ပြစ်မှု ။ crime, offence
မဲနှိုက် ။ to draw lots

Translation:

Sitagu Sayadaw and donators making donations in Insein Prison

Yangon, August 21

In the prison, Sitagu Sayadaw while taking the lead fed two meals and donated other paraphernalia worth approximately 60,000,000 kyat [about 60,000 US$] to more than 9,000 prisoners who are imprisoned in Insein prison.

This was the fourth donation in the prison led by Sitagu Sayadaw Dr. Nyanissara and all of the female and male prisoners, and female and male detainees received a donation, said an official from the head prison department.

“About 500 [prisoners] got permission to listen to the Sayadaw’s Dhamma [discourse]. [The prisoners were made to] draw lots in order for all to be able to attend in accordance with the [available] rooms, [and] in accordance with the punishments. They were fed biryani for lunch. [For] dinner [they were fed] rice and fried chicken. And other paraphernalia was donated,” said a senior official. Sayadaw Ashin Nyanissara and [his] supporters made donations in 2002, 2003 [and] 2004 and now the donation in 2010 is the fourth time.