A teacher has shared how he survived after being buried alive for five days under the rubble of a hotel in Myanmar. 47-year-old Tin Maung Htwe, a headmaster of a school, was on a training course in Sagaing, the closest place to the epicenter of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake.
As the entire hotel collapsed and he was covered in debris, Tin Maung Htwe remembered a lesson from his school that said to hide under the bed when the earthquake started. "When I got under the bed, the entire hotel collapsed and blocked my way. All I could say was 'Save me,'" he said.
The Swal Taw Nann guesthouse where Tin Maung Htwe was staying was reduced to pieces of stone and metal. His room was buried in the rubble of the building's top floor. "I feel like I'm in hell," he said softly, with an oxygen tube in his nose and intravenous drips in his body.
While many were losing hope, Tin Maung Htwe survived and received help from a rescue team from Malaysia. His sister, Nan Yone, was beside the rubble, in disbelief at seeing him alive. "I can't explain it," she said, "I was dancing, crying, and beating my chest with joy."
When Tin Maung Htwe arrived at the hospital in Sagaing, he raised his hand and gave Nan Yone a thumbs-up. "Sister, I'm okay," he said. As nurses treated him, he said he wanted to return to teaching, but he was also thinking of becoming a Buddhist monk in gratitude for his second life.
