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| Helping teach drums to kids in the Child Recreation Centre |
This past weekend was probably
the best one I’ve had in Mae Sot to date. A friend of mine here is going home
to the USA tomorrow (sob), so the weekend was basically just filled with
whatever she wanted to do. Highlights include a Cowboy and Indian themed Thai
restaurant, complete with a Saloon and horses, Bloody Mary’s, Margaritas and
whacking balls at the driving range. I couldn’t deal with going to the sauna
with the others, it was too hot, I needed it to have a/c, which would have
defeated the purpose I suppose.
There are photos of
aforementioned ball whacking, when I track them down I’ll post some here, so if me making a fool of myself is something that interests you, check back in a couple of days. As I usually assume when I try
something new, I thought I’d be an instant natural at golf; but as per usual, it
turns out I am very bad at it. And who knew how much physical exertion it takes
to whack tiny golf balls? Today I have sore muscles in some places I didn’t
even know existed. But don’t you worry, we are going to persevere with this
new-found fun, and next time you see me, I’ll be a golfing pro.
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| Clucking over an abandoned baby |
Right, it has come to my
attention that some of you imagine me to be living in a grass hut in the middle
of a paddy field, sharing a bed with refugees, with a war raging around me. So,
it’s time to squash some of these images, as this is not at all what my life is
like.
I live in a little two bedroom
apartment with an Australian woman. It’s a really nice house – I have a proper
bed, we have hot water, wireless internet, a TV and even a cleaning lady! Incidently, I do live right next door to a large rice paddy. As
far as the conflict situation goes, well, there is not fighting going on around
me. There is a lot of fighting going on inside Burma, up and down the border.
Since I’ve been here, the closest it’s gotten to me is 15kms from Myawaddy,
which is the Burmese town on the other side of the river to Mae Sot; Myawaddy
is around 5kms from my house. Occasionally some of the thunder is so epic that
I do a double take and have momentary thoughts of it being shelling.
In November last year, after the
“elections” held by the Burmese “government”, there was a lot of fighting in
the actual township of Myawaddy, and there were a couple of stray shells that
landed on the Thai side, around Mae Sot. Approximately 20,000 Burmese people
fled across the border into Thailand during the fighting, with the majority coming
to Mae Sot. The Clinic and our schools turned into make-shift refugee camps.
Most of those people have been able to return home to Burma, but there are
still around 7000 refugees from November in hiding up and down the border, that
we are supporting with rice etc. It is anticipated that there will be more
fighting at the end of the rainy season, which is just ending now (yay!), so who knows
what the next few months will bring.
As for the refugee situation in
town, well, the closest refugee camps are about an hour out of town, and
technically, all the registered refugees are meant to be in them at all times.
But in reality, this is not the case, although there is a bit of a crackdown
going on at the moment, so some people are finding it harder to get in and out. There
are Burmese people all over town, living, working and just going about their
daily business. Some of them are here legally; they might have a Burmese
passport and a legitimate Thai visa, some have no passport but have a work
permit to allow them to work in one of the many factories in town. Then there
are others who are just straight up illegal – they have
crossed the border illegally and may be working here or whatever, these people are particularly
prone to mistreatment by the police on a regular basis. There are also refugees
registered with the UN or IRC that are kicking about town, not living in a camp
at the moment, although they will be registered at one. Short of asking people
directly, however, there is no way of knowing anyone’s status in town. And
clearly, asking people is neither appropriate nor necessary.
There are checkpoints at on all
the roads to and from Mae Sot, with armed guards that check the people going
through them. They don’t care so much about people coming into Mae Sot, but
whenever I leave, the bus stops at about 4 checkpoints, particularly on the road
to Bangkok. Obviously, they are looking for illegal Burmese people. Often one
or two people are taken off the bus on a trip to Bangkok, it’s pretty sad. They
will generally be forced to pay a big bribe, or be imprisoned until someone can
pay for them to get out, and if they have no money whatsoever, they will
probably be sent back to Burma.
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| Swimming at the reservoir |
And finally, who are the people
that come into the clinic each day? Well, about 40-60% of them cross the border
illegally each day to get here. So they come from inside Burma. Often people
travel very long distances to get here, with the entire family in tow, in case
they cannot return home, or their village is attacked etc. and they get
separated. So they are not all from the Karen State, but from all over Burma.
Each refugee camp has its own basic medical facilities, so we don’t get that
many registered refugees, although we do still get quite a few. Many of our
patients are Internally Displaced People in Burma, which more or less means they
are refugees, except you cannot officially be a refugee if you still live inside
your country. The other half of the people that make up the caseload at the
Clinic are the Burmese workers that live in the Mae Sot area. They either
cannot afford or cannot access the Thai healthcare system due to their legal
status in Thailand. If you want to learn more about the Clinic,
check this out.
So there we have it. I don’t live
in the middle of a rice paddy in a hut, and there is not constant conflict
going on around me. Though I’ve yet to witness any conflict, and I hope for the
sake of everyone around me that I never do, it is quite strange to be living in
a place in which particularly loud thunder can be misconstrued as a bomb blast.
Occasionally I can hear gunshots at night, so it’s hard to know what’s going on
sometimes, but don’t worry about me! Even though the prospect of conflict is
real, I’ll be fine; the fighting doesn’t really come across the border!
PS: I got my enrolment confirmation
in the mail on Friday. I hope you took heed of
my rant the other day and enrolled! The
election is next month!
