Thirty years ago, Swe thought she was heading into the good life as the wife of a successful civil servant in Burma. Her husband's membership in the ruling Burmese socialist party seemed to guarantee them and their seven children a bright future.
They owned a duplex in suburban Yangon, and when her husband took early retirement in 1983 because of a hearing problem, his pension of 1,100 kyats a month seemed enough to keep them going. "Fried eggs were just a side dish at that time," said her husband Win. But after years of rampant inflation and economic mismanagement by Myanmar's military government, his monthly pension is worth less than one dollar and eggs are a luxury.
Their struggles are becoming typical for many in Myanmar. The difficulties were heightened last week when the government doubled key fuel prices, leaving many workers unable to even afford bus fare to their jobs.
The fuel prices hike has sent hundreds of people into the streets in protest this week -- a brazen act unheard of in a country where the regime tolerates no dissent. Win, 73, is no longer able to work and just finding enough to eat has become a daily challenge. When Win retired, the then-dictator Ne Win ruled the country with an iron fist and chaotic economic policies. Ne Win had largely sealed off Burma from the rest of the world. His government dealt with financial problems by demonetising bank notes.
In 1985, the kyat notes in 20, 50 and 100 denominations were made worthless, and replaced with new notes in the peculiar units of 25, 35 and 75. Two years later, those notes were scrapped and replaced with equally unexpected denominations of 15, 45 and 90. That change made three fourths of the currency in circulation worthless.
It was also one of the underlying causes behind a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 that was crushed when the military opened fire on student protesters, killing hundreds -- and maybe thousands.
Although the military has opened up the country to investment, the economy remains crippled by mismanagement and western sanctions over the detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The United Nations ranks Myanmar among the world's 20 poorest countries, and the World Food Programme said in a report last year that food security is a year-round problem here. "A large segment of the population faces difficult socio-economic conditions with an increasing number living in acute poverty," it said. The government claims that the economy grew by over 12 percent last year, but private estimates put the growth at 1.8 percent.
About one-third of the nation's children are malnourished, according to the UN food agency. With inflation at more than 30 percent, life in Yangon has become increasingly difficult for the poor. For Swe and Win's family, the nation's economic woes mean her sons have never found regular work. Two of her sons began injecting drugs and caught HIV, either sharing needles or from unsafe sex. It's impossible to know for certain, she says.
Swe watched both of them die seven years ago, powerless to get them any treatment. Her youngest son is now suffering the same fate. At first the family coped with Myanmar's economic decline by renting out their apartment and building themselves a lean-to next to the house.
Desperate for cash, they finally sold the apartment and still live in their shack with a leaky fiberglass covering next door to the now-dilapidated home that once held Swe's dreams.
Her emaciated 28-year-old son with HIV stays in one corner of their shanty. He has scabs on his hands, and aside from fighting AIDS he has been diagnosed with a liver problem for which he could find no treatment.
The entire family suffers bouts of tuberculosis, jaundice and other diseases, which spread easily among them because they are forced by desperation to share clothes, shoes, bedding and food.
A nearby hospital provides free treatment for her son's chronic TB, Swe says. "Urging him to take his TB medicine regularly is the only thing I can do for him," she says. For all their problems, Swe says their greatest concern is food. Working odd jobs and seeking help from relatives and neighbours earns the family enough to buy about three kilos of rice each day. They economise by cooking only rice, and eating the rest of their food raw.
They can rarely afford meats, so they usually eat tea leaf salad, a dish made with fermented tea leaves. "We eat rice with salad, so there's no need to cook. That way we don't use any electricity," Swe explained.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner long ago lost their distinctions in a household that can serve only one or two meals a day. "Life has been like this for many years. If my sons have no job, there is no income, and then we have no food," Swe said.