Saying Goodbye

So, this is it. I’m sitting here trying to figure out how on earth to articulate how I feel about leaving and about everything that has happened in the last year.

I spent my last day in Mae Sot not in Mae Sot at all, but in Myawaddy, Burma (just across the border) with two of my good friends. It was amazing to see the National League for Democracy’s offices being open and publicly visible, and for people to be freely talking about Aung San Suu Kyi and politics and not fearing reprisals from the government, so different from the atmosphere when I was there in June 2011. On Sunday night, after a BBQ at some friends’ house, we all went and watched The Lady together at a bar run by and for Burmese ex-political prisoners. It was a wonderful way to end my time in Little Burma.

My last breakfast in Burma

There is so much I will miss from my strange little border town. From the yelling Tokay’s, to the old Thai ladies that practice their traditional dancing on my street at 6.30 every night. I will miss my bike (which I have given to one of the girls at work), my soi (street) dogs, and constantly eating mangoes. And on the topic of food, I will miss the incredible variety of Thai food on offer in Mae Sot, as well as the unique and delectable Burmese foods – so many different salads, breakfasts of curry and naan or rich noodle soup with coriander and onions. It’s all so amazing and so delicious. Of course, there are many things that I will not miss, vicious dogs chasing me on my bike, being hit by motorbikes, having to cover myself in deet to dissuade the ever-present mosquitoes, the smell of fish everywhere and the distinct possibility that anything I order that I don’t know exactly what it is will probably taste fishy (I really do not like fish). I will not miss the heat, but at the same time, I will miss it very much. I have not become acclimatised at all, 38 degrees for weeks in a row is too much but the thought of anything less than 25 makes me think cold thoughts. I will miss the freedom I feel living here, even though at times I feel trapped and isolated; this has been a wonderful place to simply be myself without anyone having any prior conceptions about me. 

One of the children on our Dry Food Programme

Of course, the things I will miss the most are my amazing job, my incredible family of friends, and my awe-inspiring Burmese colleagues. The work I have been involved in this past year has taught me more than I could have ever imagined, about everything. I now know far more about Burma than ever before, not to mention healthcare, which I previously knew nothing about. I know how to develop websites and write annual reports, design and implement self-income generation projects and improve local staff capacity. My inspiring colleagues have taught me about their lives, the struggles they face at home in Burma on a daily basis, and how to carry on in the face of brutal oppression. It has been an honour, and truly humbling to meet and work with each and every one of them. 

 

And my friends here in Mae Sot. Wow. What a fantastic bunch of human beings. Supportive, hilarious, inspiring, motivated, conscientious, party-fuelled, and insanely hard working people who I am so grateful to have met and to call my friends. Saying goodbye to them all last night was a lot harder than I had thought it was going to be. The past few weeks with them have been by far the best time I have had in Mae Sot, and I am so glad that I am leaving on a high note; I am already speculating on my return. 

Somtam and sticky rice

One of the main reasons the market stinks.

Vegetarian Laarb. Indescribably good.

This year has been one that I can never forget. Realising life-long dreams has only been a part of it. I have achieved so much more than I could have thought possible, in so many areas. Burma is changing, and I think it is still too early to speculate on what might happen there in the next few years, but one thing I know for sure is that I want to be a part of it. 

Tomorrow, I am off to Melbourne to seek my fortune, so if anyone hears of any jobs there, let me know! Also, if you are there, get in touch and let’s hang out. I am also very excited to tell you that last week I had a paper published in a German-based academic journal (the paper is in English), so if you are interested in brainwashing or cults, have a read.

And finally, I would like to say one more big thank you to all my friends and family. Without your continual support, the past year would not have been possible, and I will always be grateful for your help. As for the immediate future, this is the end of The Far Away Lands for now. If my life becomes terribly exciting in Melbourne, I may write from time to time, so check back every once in a while if you are interested. I hope to be living somewhere else exotic and interesting within a year at the most (very possibly back in Mae Sot), so this is definitely not the end. Thank you all for reading, and for all your lovely feedback. It’s been fun to share it with you.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: I love this town and I love these people. I have truly witnessed life here: birth, death and marriage; pain, suffering, oppression; hope, emancipation and joy. I will miss it all more than you can know.

The most beautiful Soi dog ever, the lovely Joon

My favorite food in Thailand: Noodle Soup! The best noodle shop in Mae Sot is at the end of my Soi.

Happy New Year!

There has been so much going on recently that the past few weeks have gone by in a blur, and now I have less than a week left here, which I am not very happy about at all.

Firstly, happy Songkran (from Thailand), and happy Thingyan (from Burma), or, in English, happy New Year! This last weekend marked the New Year here, and what a way to mark it. Both countries partake in the biggest, most elaborate nation-wide water fight you’ve ever seen in your life. It is difficult to accurately describe the mayhem that takes over Burma and Thailand during this incredible holiday. There is parting and dancing in the streets and water being thrown from passing pick-up trucks, as well as people roaming the streets with water guns and manning enormous barrels of water to throw at everyone and anyone.  Other than monks, very very young babies, some elderly people and street workers, absolutely no one is immune, and there is no mercy: if you are out in the streets, you will be saturated for the entire time you are outside. There is food and drinks being shared with everyone on the streets, and a paste made of talcum powder and water being lovingly smeared on everyone’s face.

Did I mention that this party goes on for more than four days? After day three I had blisters on my water gun trigger finger, and a developing ear infection from having so much water forced into it. This is seriously the absolute best national holiday I have ever had the pleasure to take part in. I really cannot think of a better way to celebrate anything. Everyone was so happy, Burmese, Thai and farang (foreign) people were dancing and celebrating exuberantly together, small children were elated over what was going on (really, some unbelievably joyous faces, it was beautiful to see), and the elderly, while taking on a much gentler water sprinkling technique, were also having the time of their lives drenching everyone and being drenched in return. 

Aside from wild water parties, in these past couple of weeks I’ve gone camping in a national park, gone back to Burma for the day, gone to Chiang Mai, and on Monday I spent the day visiting waterfalls with one of my local colleagues and her family. In between all this I have also been frantically trying to finish writing our 2011 Annual Report, and unfortunately I don’t think will be done before I go. It’s been a really fantastic few weeks, and I am now very unsure why on earth I am leaving, and the date is drawing rapidly nearer. 

My final week here will be filled with more frantic work, eating as much delicious food as possible, cheap haircuts, lots of cleaning of my house for my friend to move in, culling and packing, parting with all my amazing friends here, and most sadly, saying goodbye.

The world's best way to eat a potato?

Getting as good as I gave.

A Wolf in a Legitmate Governments' Clothing?

It’s an interesting time to be here. As you may or may not know, Burma held by-elections last Sunday, April 1st. These are the first elections since the General Election of November 2010, which marked the beginning of Burma’s current period of reform. The 2010 elections, however, have been widely regarded as a sham. The military junta that had ruled the country for nearly 50 years, ceded power to a new, nominally civilian government, that is full of retired, ex-military Generals. Hardly a significant power shift. The by-election earlier this month offered up 44 seats out of 600, a very small number, and not enough to hold much influence. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won 43 of these, and Daw Suu is due to take her seat in parliament for the first time on April 23rd. However, there are widespread reports of ballot fraud, for example, waxing voting papers so they couldn't be marked, peoples names mysteriously missing off electoral roles, and serious intimidation in the lead-up to election day.

There is no doubt that these elections are an incredible achievement for Burma, and a step towards democracy in a very big way. However, it is worrying that the international community is being so quick to reward the Burmese government by lifting sanctions, investing and so on. While there is no doubt that things are changing, Burma is still a heavily oppressed nation. The government still uses rape as a weapon of war, it still uses forced labour – it has said it will cease this practice by 2015, three years away – forced relocation is still a significant issue, ethnic conflicts continue to rage, and life in the border regions remains miserable for hundreds of thousands of people. The NLD, while an inspirational party, don’t represent all the people of Burma. Ethnic minorities are sorely misrepresented in the Party, which is primarily made up of ethnic Burmans. And it is these ethnic areas where human rights abuses are most flagrant. Freedom of speech is slowly improving, but it is still illegal to speak out openly against the government - Daw Suu’s victory speech was heavily censored. Landmines continue to be laid, and political prisoners continue to be arrested and have their rights violated. Take, for example, the most recent briefing from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, based here in Mae Sot:

Mahn Nyein Maung, an ethnic Karen leader, was sentenced to life plus three years this month for unlawful association and treason and released six days later. U Gambira, monk leader of the 2007 protests released as part of the January presidential order, was re-arrested for the second time since his release and was detained for a day and interrogated for hours. Such interrogation can have fatal consequences, as in the case of a 19 year old Shan woman, who fell to her death from a fifth story window after days of relentless interrogation and intimidation by the Bureau of Special Investigation (BSI).

Meanwhile, the situation in Kachin State has not improved, as reports of forced labour, abductions and other human rights abuses continue to come out. The sentencing of a farmer to 3 months of hard labour for refusing to move from their land to make way for a state development project is further evidence that protecting the rights of citizens is secondary to the interests of the state.

It’s strange being here right now: learning about these things first hand from the people that are suffering through them, while the rest of the world looks on with approving nods at the alleged changes being made. The government had absolutely nothing to lose in these elections, 44 seats is not enough to effect any change, but it undoubtedly improves the international community’s view of the country. A pretty ingenious move if you ask me. Burma was ruled by a vicious military junta for 50 years. It takes more than just 16 months to undo all that.

The struggle here is still so strong, yet international NGOs are pulling funding on the border all over the show, in favour of aid inside Burma. While this is also needed, there needs to be a transition period; the border and the few hundred thousand displaced people that live here are still suffering unimaginable hardships. International attention is shifting away from the very real needs here, and is instead favouring the new, exciting and somewhat deceptive developments inside. I went to Burma again for a few hours last Wednesday to do a visa run, to the town of Myawaddy just over the border (the border only opened up in December last year, after nearly two years of being closed). It was inspiring to see the NLD HQ in town, and it made me very sad to think about leaving. I have just two weeks left here before moving on to Melbourne and (hopefully) a paid job for a while, and while I am really excited to be going somewhere new, there is still so much to stay for.

Here is an article from the Washington Post discussing some of the things that are happening in Kachin State right now, and why lifting sanctions and international pressure is a terrible idea.

Tokay Ok!

This is a crazy busy week full of exciting adventure, new postcard coming on Monday I promise! In the meantime, here is a photo of the amazing Tokay that's been living outside my bedroom for a year. He chose my birthday to finally reveal himself to me, a pretty great present from mother nature if you ask me!

The Miracle of Birth

Not yesterdays newborn, but a glorious one nonetheless

Today I’m going to talk to you about the miracle of birth. Well, I don’t actually believe in miracles, but I do think that human reproduction is pretty spectacular. Yesterday I was lucky enough (right choice of words?) to watch a woman here at the Clinic give birth. This is the first (human) birth I’ve seen and it was rather incredible. I did watch a dog squeeze out 11 puppies on my door step last year, but that's not quite the same. I’m so amazed by the concept of reproduction at all that I have to say a big kudos to evolution for sorting out our bodies to enable us to not only grow another human being inside our bellies, but then to squeeze it out as well. And the fact that we are so well evolved that, if needs be, we can do the whole birthing thing on our own, wow. Just wow.

Now, I’m sure I don’t need to go into details here, it was a pretty gross experience, but nowhere near as messy as I had expected, and I have to admit, I was surprised by one or two of the routine things that happen, I thought I knew all about what goes on, but it turns out you learn something new everyday. The mama was a 21 year old Burmese woman, and this was her second child (a little girl by the way, with lots of hair). Anyways, it's been about 9 years since there was a time when someone I know wasn't preggas, and I now have a whole new level of respect for all my amazing friends that have had kids. You guys did good. Real good. 

I am currently writing the 2011 Annual Report for the Clinic, so I thought I’d share some interesting information about our incredible Reproductive Health department here:

Maternal mortality rates are over 1,000 per 100,000 live births in the Eastern Burma conflict zones. This compares to 360 in the rest of Burma and 44 per 100,000 live births in Thailand. This demonstrates the huge need for the safe, free services provided by the MTC reproductive health department.

The department delivers between 3 – 15 babies every day, with the average usually being 7. We offer comprehensive short and long term contraception options for women, including condoms, oral contraceptives, hormonal injections, 3-year hormonal implants, IUD’s and referrals to Mae Sot Hospital for tubal ligation procedures. Our data illustrates that we are now seeing a decrease in the ratio of post-abortion care patients : deliveries. We believe this is a result of our contraception programmes – when given the choice about when and if to have children, women often choose to prevent pregnancies. As a result, fewer unplanned and unwanted pregnancies reduce the incidence of unsafe abortion.

There are many challenges in the RH departments, including an increasing number of premature and low birth weight babies being born. This, in turn, puts pressure on our neonatal unit, which only has the capacity to appropriately care for a small number of premature babies; closely related to this issue is the fact that these babies need to be admitted to the neonatal unit for significant periods of time, hindering the availability of space for new arrivals. The equipment available in the neonatal unit is severely lacking: the department only has two incubators for premature infants; however there are always more than two premature or low birth weight babies at the same time. Four RH-IPD staff have been trained as ultrasound technicians and are able to provide more accurate assessments for women during pregnancy and labour, thus being able to diagnose and reduce many risks faced by a large number of women.

I've seen this every day for a year and I still don't really get the message - use a new one every day, or wash after use so you can use them again next week?

This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the department goes, we also do a lot to combat the spread of HIV from mother to child for example. So if you’re interested in learning more, check out our RH webpage.

Yay for mama's!

The little things

I’ve been sick this past week. I’ve had the dreaded dengue fever which, as I’m sure you can imagine, is not ideal in this heat. I’m well over the worst now and am currently just suffering from extreme tiredness. I’ve spent the past week in bed, watching tv and movies on my laptop (it’s come to my attention that Carmella Soprano and Dana Scully have awful fashion sense, despite the exciting lives they lead. Such awful unflattering man-ish pants and oversized, shoulder-padded suit jackets, and Carmella, what's with the hair? Dana - you should totally pash up Mulder while you can, don't worry, the truth is out there). Now, let me tell you, sweating through a fever in 38 degree weather, alone and bored is a poor substitute for inhabiting a big comfy couch, a pair of 3XL mens track pants (grey of course) and a million blankets and pillows, and watching Jeremy Kyle and Ricky Lake re-runs. Needless to say it’s been a bit tough not being nursed back to health by someone resembling a mother, who will bring you all kinds of treats and prizes along with significant amounts of sympathy no matter how much of a complaining baby you’re being. However, it’s been really great to see how wonderful my friends are over here, two in particular have been bringing me lots of meals and fruit and generally looking after me. So it hasn’t been all bad. Spending lots of time at home and by myself has led me to think about all the little things that I look forward to having back in my life soon. Side note: I am leaving the border at the end of April and will go and seek my fortune in Melbourne for a time, more on that later. So, in no particular order, here are a few of the things that I have longed for this week:

1. Carpet – a strange thing to desire, it’s true. But lying down on the floor because you got a bit tired standing up isn’t the same when it’s hard shiny tiles, not lush, cosy carpet. 

Creepy outdoor sink

2. Being able to drink the tap water – this has been a big one this week as my kitchen is downstairs and my bedroom is upstairs, so in order to keep sufficiently hydrated (one of the biggest things with dengue) I have to go downstairs all the time to get more of the good stuff, I can’t just drink from the bathroom tap that is a mere 1m from my room.

3. A washing machine – no one here has a washing machine. This means that even doing my washing this week has been a gigantic hassle so I just haven’t done it. Usually I hand wash small things and just take sheets and towels to the laundry lady, but this week, no hand washing or laundry lady, far too much effort. If only I could chuck everything in a machine and press go...

4. Having a functional kitchen – this is a big one. My kitchen consists of one gas ring, my sink is outside in a mosquito infested concrete box (probably where I got the dengue from to begin with). I love to cook, but this past year has been the least cooky of my life and I miss it. Plus, being sick, it’s meant that people have had to bring me pretty much all my meals. No one here really cooks, it’s far cheaper to eat out, which is a lot less glamorous than you think. 

Low grade kitchen

5. Having clean feet – this issue closely relates to point one, above. I’ve been doing a lot of lying in bed. Having tiles through the whole house and incessant dust coming in through the permanently-open windows means that no matter how much you sweep or mop, your feet are always dirty when you walk around the house (fyi – wearing socks is not an option). This dirt is then transferred into your bed pretty quickly, gross.

 

That’s about it. The top five things I’ve been longing for this week (couch, daytime tv, track pants and comfort food aside of course, those ones are the most important, oh except perhaps cheese rolls. Man, I want a million cheese rolls so bad). Hopefully I shall have all these things again soon enough (except perhaps the ever-longed for cheese roll as it is endemic to the lower South Island of NZ)

PS. There are orchids flowering in my garden. I think that's pretty good stuff.

 

 

Living Inside a Heater

For those of you that know me well, you will be aware of the fact that I much prefer wearing no clothes to wearing any clothes. For those that don’t know me that well, this may be a new revelation to you, but don’t go getting any weird ideas, it’s just a well known fact that not wearing clothes is exponentially superior to wearing clothes. The purpose of this little gem of information will become clear soon. 

Depending on your level of knowing me personally, you may also know that I like to complain about things. And the weather seems to be a big point of complaint here in Mae Sot at the moment amongst many people, so I feel it’s only appropriate that I jump on this bandwagon. In the past few weeks, the weather here has changed significantly. When I first got back, it was dry, searingly hot and, as I said back then, like cycling into a hairdryer on full. It then became smoky. Oh so smoky. And the hairdryer became filled with ash and dust, ensuring that any venturing outside that was done left one covered in a fine layer of dusty, ashy grime, itchy eyes and a severly deminished ability to breathe. Then this weekend it rained. For the first time since October. Rain here is not just a casual shower. It’s all or nothing. And the weather has really put on a show in the past few days. There’s been thunder, particularly impressive lightening, and monsoon rain with big, fat, instantly saturating raindrops. This rain solidified my decision to get out of this place before rainy season (more on that another day), I just can’t do it again. 

You may think that with this rain would come some respite from the oppressive heat. Not so my friends; not so. Instead, the thick, wet air has upped the heat index significantly. Now, I have always been particularly interested in weather and temperatures and barometers and such. Thus, I shall tell you about the heat index (courtesy of our good friend wikipedia):

“The heat index or humiture is an index that combines air temperature and relative humidity in an attempt to determine the human-perceived equivalent temperature — how hot it feels. The result is also known as the "felt air temperature" or "apparent temperature". For example, when the temperature is 32 °C (90 °F) with very high humidity, the heat index can be about 41 °C (105 °F).

The human body normally cools itself by perspiration, or sweating, which evaporates and carries heat away from the body. However, when the relative humidity is high, the evaporation rate is reduced, so heat is removed from the body at a lower rate, causing it to retain more heat than it would in dry air.”

Exhibit A

So. This week, we have daily forecasted temperatures of 35-38°C, scattered thunderstorms, and a corresponding heat index of 48 degrees Celsius. Forty-eight. That is a mere two degrees short of 50, and as I am sure you are aware, 50 degrees is half way to boiling point. All this science talk aside, this means that it is real super heaps hot x1,000,000 here. The hair dryer is now on at full blast with a boiling (well, 50% boiling) kettle blowing its steam into the funnel of aforementioned dryer. Hopefully this doesn't cause pulmonary edema or some such.

This brings us full circle. As mentioned above, I am a no-clothes enthusiast. The nights don't even provide an escape from the heat anymore - imagine my dismay when I wake up every morning in my 30ish degree room (yes, I have a thermometer on the wall) and am forced to put on clothes. Well, this dismay would happen anywhere in the world for me, but what makes it most painful here is that I must put on conservative clothing. I refer you to Exhibit A, a photo of me dressed for work this morning. Note the long skirt (side note: this is my amazing Kansas skirt – it is the Sunflower State after all), and the t-shirt (pretty risqué today actually – you can see a lot of chest). Needless to say, these are hot items of clothing to be wearing in nearly 50 degree heat. 

 

It has come to my attention that the hottest places in the world also seem to be the most conservative, demanding the highest fabric:skin ratio. While Thailand itself ins't so conservative, Burma most certainly is. And here in little Burma, shoulders are scandalous, as are legs. Thus, singlets are out, as is anything above the knee. 

I'm too hot to think of a good way to finish this. So I'll just leave you with this: it’s real hot.

Living in the end times