Tilting her head back to see better with one eye, she explained why emergency care was out of reach: "I have no money," she said, and she laughed along with dozens of others who had taken refuge on the rain-soaked teak floor of the monastery.
The only treatment Kyaw Win received for his raw, red leg wound, which throbs with pain, was a few dabs of rubbing alcohol to clean out some of the dirt in the torn flesh.
The village nurse also gave him a few tablets of what he called metro, short for the antibiotic metronidazole. Hling described the drug as a painkiller. Actually, it's meant to treat ailments such as dysentery, vaginitis and several other infections, as well as acute gum disease. It was the only medicine he received in emergency aid from Myanmar's military: two boxes of metronidazole, a total of 4,600 tablets. They're all gone.
Hling gave the pills to people with infected wounds, deep cuts from corrugated metal sheets and other flying debris, broken bones that hadn't been set properly, bumps as big as golf balls.
Villagers in one devastated area said they had seen local officials hoarding packages of instant noodles and other supplies for themselves.
Elsewhere, survivors said they hadn't seen any foreign aid at all, such as the World Food Program energy biscuits that were flown in by the ton. Instead, they said, the military has given them small rations, mainly wet, rotting rice.
Healthcare and living standards were low in the impoverished Irrawaddy delta before the cyclone struck, so many survivors were already undernourished and weak after making it through the 12-hour storm.
The cyclone surge sent waves from the Andaman Sea into Kyaw Win's village, 30 miles away. As the water rose in his house, which he shared with other fishermen, he piled one table on top of another, until soon his head was touching the ceiling and the water was still rising.
The fisherman, who is about 6 feet tall, said the water level reached three times his height. All he could see in the darkness and driving rain were the tops of the coconut trees, and a fishing boat being tossed in the waves.
He and four friends swam toward the boat, and Kyaw Win exhausted much of his strength trying to tie it to a coconut tree. He was no match for the relentless waves and wind, and had to let go.
The craft capsized, and as Kyaw Win held on to the tree, he saw two of his friends disappear.
Days later, the weary fisherman is alone in a battle with his own body to survive.
