Just Focus On Trying To Breathe

Umpiem on fire

This has been a smoky week. On Thursday last week one of the nine refugee camps along the border caught fire. It’s home to close to 20,000 displaced people, and it’s just 87kms from Mae Sot. It’s currently the dry season here, so the simple wood, bamboo and thatch huts were no match for this raging inferno. Around one quarter of the camp was destroyed with over 4000 people being left homeless. By some amazing stroke of luck, no one died in the fire and only a small handful of people received serious burns. Needless to say, everyone here was on high alert for casualties and injuries, but thankfully we weren’t needed. Our Emergency Response Team raced down there as soon as we got the news, to help out in any way they could. It has been incredibly inspiring seeing the response of the community, both Thai and Expat, to the fire. Over 40,000 baht (over NZD$1600), was raised by our community within the first few hours of the emergency, and supplies and donations continue to trickle in. I've driven by this camp several times,  and some of my friends work in it, so it's really sad to know what's going on there at the moment.

The aftermath

But my reason for mentioning this is to add to the general air of this post. Mae Sot has been under a blanket of smoke for the past week or so. It’s ‘burn season’ here at the moment, so farmers are burning off their fields in preparation for new planting, a fine layer of the resulting ash coats everything outside. Added to this is the fact that there is an enormous forest fire raging somewhere nearby on the border. The Thai government is allegedly trying to blame this smoke extravaganza on both Burma (apparently the fire is slightly more on the Burmese side of the border) and on climate change. Either way, this is a horrible and uncomfortable place to be at the moment. 

Usual visiblity in Mae Sot

Current visibility in Mae Sot

There is no escape from the smoke, not even inside my house, as we have screens on the windows and don’t/can’t close the actual glass on the windows. Everyone is struggling to breathe, dry throats and coughs abound. And itchy, sore red eyes are everywhere. It’s a bit rubbish really. Two days ago the Bangkok Post stated “Smoke from wildfires has reduced air quality and visibility on the Thai-Myanmar border in Tak's Mae Sot district to the point of a crisis as dust particles are almost exceeding safe levels”. I’m not sure what’s meant to happen when safe levels are exceeded, but I’d say they have well and truly exceeded them now. The tiny airport here has been closed for the past 4 days or so due to visibility issues, although the smoke did clear up enough yesterday afternoon for a small window, so the one-flight-every-second-day that comes in here was able to land. 

 Last night as I was trying to sleep, my room was full of smoke, everything is dusty and I feel grimy all the time. A while back I said that sometimes it’s like cycling into a hairdryer here. Well, currently it’s like cycling into a hairdryer that is also loaded with dust. Here’s hoping the smoke clears soon, at the moment I’ll just focus on trying to breathe.

The Things You Remember

 I’m lying here on my floor trying to think of what to write. It’s the hottest part of the day, so not entirely conducive to thinking or writing, but I’m trying anyway. It’s been at least 35 degrees minimum since I got back here, with crazy amounts of humidity. My perm has never looked better. I don't know what I will do when hot season begins in a couple of weeks. If this isn’t hot, I really don’t know what is. The upside is that this season seems to coincide with mango season, so I’m eating pretty wild amounts of them.

So what to write about? Well, what have I been up to? Um, not much really aside from working and watching lots of tv shows and doing pilates – I’ve hurt by back a bit, again. The upside of this is that I’ve been able to justify getting a couple of Thai massages in the last wee while.

And now I am reminded of a memory from my trip to Burma last year...

At the jetty

We’d met these two lovely guys in Rangoon on our first day there, so when we returned a week later, we called and met up with one of them again. We went for a bit of a walk and sat at the main jetty of the Irawaddy River watching people and boats come and go, and couples stealing private moments together under cosy umbrellas. It was a particularly beautiful sunset and a wonderful way to spend our final evening in Burma, I can remember it vividly. After a while, our friend received a phone call from his friend, the other guy we’d met, asking if all of us (three in total) wanted to come and meet him for a massage. My friend and I looked at each other and thought, why not eh? So we packed into a beaten up old shit box of a taxi and raced through the crumbling city. We pulled up outside this decrepit wooden building, its facade was a rotting, disintegrating mess, it was at least four stories high and looked like it was about to fall down. By this time it was dark. Our friend pointed to the door and said, “It’s just in here”. Um, ok, not quite what we were expecting, but, I suppose this is ok. Maybe? My friend and I stepped inside. It was pitch black and there was an overwhelming stench of mould in the air; there was a steep, wide flight of stairs in front of us. We tentatively started up them, the damp floorboards creaking under our weight, with our new friend following us up. About half way up we exchanged glances that said “Oh no. What have we gotten ourselves into?” No one else in the world knew where we were, not even us, we spoke minimal Burmese, didn’t really know this guy, although did seem to be genuinely nice, and this building would have been well and truly condemned anywhere else in the world. Had we just made a totally rookie decision and were about to meet some horrible fate? There was not much we could do at this point other than keep going and see what happened. As we got to the top of the stairs, my heart was in my throat, I was thinking “well, I’ve really messed it up this time”.

Downtown Rangoon

Slowly, the sliding doors in front of us began to open letting out a slice of golden light. As they opened, they revealed the total opposite of whatever it was we were expecting: behind the doors was a beautiful, clean, brand spanking new waiting area. The couches were soft and plush, there was steaming green tea and tiny cups waiting for us on the ornate coffee table, and the reception desk shone with a gleaming golden finish, matching the golden walls and sumptuous carpet, and the beautifully dressed staff were attentive to our every need. We both let out a huge sigh of relief. After our tea, the three of us were ushered into a small room. Our other friend was already in there waiting for us. The room itself was rather unremarkable, but maintained the same welcoming feeling of the waiting area, it had the obligatory floor mattresses all massage places here have, and a gigantic flat screen tv on the wall, which most places don’t have. After some more tea and idle chat, in came four Burmese girls and the massage commenced. I can’t really remember much about the actual massage, other than that my girl kept burping and my friend kept giggling as she was so ticklish, and that we got pretty into trying to figure out what was going on in the soap opera that was being played on the tv (this was an ongoing game with us, Burmese and Thai soaps are so dramatic). 

After the massage and more tea, we tried to pay but were told under no uncertain terms that this was their treat and we were not to pay a cent. We headed back down the stairs which, this time, didn’t seem so dark, didn’t seem to creak and, strangely, the smell seemed to have disappeared. We clambered into another dilapidated taxi and the four of us headed to dinner. On the way, we asked what was with the whole dodgy-building thing, considering the inside was so beautiful. Turns out massage of any kind (sassy or no) was illegal in Burma, but our friends were important guys who were “in the know”. Why this is, I still haven’t been able to figure out. But I sure am glad I didn’t die in there.

Back to reality, I guess.

I got to meet little Micah

So, I’ve been getting a few emails and messages from people enquiring when I’m going to get this bad boy back up and running. Here goes I guess.

I had an amazing trip home to Aotearoa, but I’m happy to be home in Mae Sot. My visit to NZ was a fairly spectacular friendship extravaganza and, as my best friend put it the week after her amazing wedding when we’d all gone home, I’m now having a pretty serious friend come-down. But that’s ok because now I get to hang out with all my great friends here. 

I know I’ve said it several times already, but once again, thank you so much to those of you that have helped me out. I have been truly humbled by the generosity and support of my community. I quite literally could not have made it back here without your help. From selling pakoras at markets for me, to buying my t-shirts, buying me a drink so I could save my pennies, to slipping me little envelopes and just generally giving me words of wisdom and encouragement, every little bit has helped, and you are all welcome at my place anytime! I’ll even take you on a guided tour around town and buy you a bowl of delicious mohinga.

 

At this stage, things are very up in the air regarding how long I will be here for this time – there are many, many factors to be considered before any concrete decisions about anything can be made. But for now, here I am. I’d kinda forgotten how insane this place is. Everything has changed in the month I’ve been away, yet at the same time, somehow everything is still the same. The babies are still screaming on immunisation day, and the fathers are still grinning in anticipation as they rub their wives backs while they’re in labour. The days are still scorchingly hot (minimum 37 degrees all week, no clouds and currently 24% humidity to be precise), the nights and mornings are wonderful and cool; but not for long, I can feel the hot season encroaching upon us at an ever increasing rate. This is liberal chap-stick application territory – the occasional breeze brings no respite from the heat, instead making you feel like you are cycling straight into a hair dryer. One thing that is noticeably different however, is the abundance of mosquitoes around at the moment. They are eating me alive. Here’s hoping I don’t get dengue or malaria I suppose. 

Christmas at the beach

As for work, it’s pretty much the same as always. Once again, I’d forgotten how much there is to do here, constantly. I’ve worked more in the past three days than the past 5 weeks. Not surprising really when you consider the fact that I was on holiday for those weeks, but still. I’m right back into the delicious food over here, although, I was a bit bummed out to find a big black bug in my noodle soup today; it’s from my favourite place that’s usually so reliable! Oh well, no health regulations over here. For all the good food here though, I was pretty happy to eat obscene amounts of cheese when in NZ. Oh cheese, how I miss you. 

Anyways, I hope those of you who have had summer holidays have had a wonderful break – I know the weather in NZ has been pretty hit and miss this summer. And for my dear Northern Hemisphere friends, well, it sucks to be you in the cold I guess. But I hope you’ve managed to roast a few chestnuts on the fire or whatever it is you do in Northern Hemisphere winters. 

For those I saw – I love your faces! For those I didn’t see, I still love your faces, but they might be a bit blurry in the ole memory so here’s hoping we catch up next time I’m home. It’s always just grand indeed to hear back from you, so do be in touch eh. I’m off to eat a mango. Ka kite.