The 'In-between' Phase

Well its been about 2 weeks since my last post....alot and yet nothing really big has happened in that amount of time.
Let's see, some adjectives to describe the last few weeks: frustrating, fun, enlightning, and somehow a bit of a roller coaster ride (as in up-and-down, up-and-down). Hmm so to explain why all this...
Getting back from my trip up to Lak Teng 2 weeks ago, I realized that I was actually quite tired, I think from putting in a lot of energy in trying to understand what's going on, in quickly trying to come up with good questions when an opportunity shows itself, and in just constantly moving around and readjusting. So although I had hoped to quickly head off to Mae Ai and visit some rural Shan migrant families, it didn't end up being a good time for them and I have to admit, I was quite relieved. Instead, I got to meet some random ppl here. Tuesday I was taken out for dinner with Bee and her godson and his friend, and got an impromptu interview on how the friend fled Burma and managed to get his Thai citizenship etc. He has a more unusual case, where he was recruited into the Shan resistance army at the age of 12, even said 'hello' to the infamous Khun Sa everyday during that time. Then he decided he wanted a better life and came via friends/family, a whole network of connections. Here he landed in a children's home, but he does seem to have more 'inside' connections into what is going on in Burma, his father having been in the SSA, and as he states himself, he only knows the top educated ppl in and from Burma. Well, there's a whole story there, but he certainly seemed to think the answer for the Shan was no longer in the resistance movement but rather in getting education etc. A really good interview for a change, so I was a happy girl! Then they took me for some karaoke, though i didn't end up singing a single line as it was all in quick, unintelligable Thai! But u know listening to songs like "Thai girls" and mournful Thai love songs can perhaps be considered cultural enlightenment in and of itself ;-).
Well, next I got to hear some fascinating stories about people living in the more oppressive areas of Burma, Laos and Yunnan province (yes, some might be surprised at this, but government censorship/control is no joke). And so stories of different ppl i've met goes on...Although I did get to visit some big park dedicated to the King and Queen here in Chiang Mai, got to wordlessly point out vegetables at the local market so I could finally cook my own food, etc., that week consisted of writing up notes, talking to different ppl, getting a few practical things done and mostly, of waiting. Yes lots of waiting.

This is because I planned to go up to Fang next, to a school for Shan migrant children. First came the calls of whether I could come up, when I could come up, and how I would get around. By tuesday, I found out I was welcome to come the next week, and although I would have to bring my own translator and get my own form of transportation, they were happy to have me there for a week even. So okay, on to finding a translator and transportation. By wednesday, I know the translator I have contact with won't be able to come (which btw was not easy piece of information to get out of her), and so I call another contact. By thursday...well not much really. By friday...hmm okay let's send a sms, maybe another call. Saturday, yes there is someone willing to come! BUT...he needs to check with his boss or whatever if its okay. Meanwhile, I've got a motorbike arranged for getting around. Sunday, things aren't looking good, and right before I get an sms that the translator isn't going to work out, I get a random call from Bee saying 'guess what?! her son's friend took a week off and is willing to drive us around'. oh okay. alright, well that may be just the opportunity i'm looking for, so i take it.

Sunday was a long day, i was packed and ready by 11, and ended up on the road by 6. the time in between was spent waiting for a call and hoping that someone would get back to me on what was going on and whether we could actually leave that day. luckily Bee is Singaporean, so she gave me a call, but I'd be willing to bet that had it been dependent on her godson and his friend, I would have heard nothing, and might have been lucky if they showed by 6 and I was still around! Thai's btw, are infamous for setting a time to meet, showing up nearly an hour late, and if something comes up, not calling or showing up at all. That same Sunday morning I was supposed to go to a local church where they hoped to introduce me to some more Shan families, but I was stood up the Thai way, haha! Anyways, it all worked out.

So here's the quick and short of it: I spend Sunday and Monday and Tuesday night in Lak Teng/Kae Noi, where I had been on my previous trip. Then Wednesday spent all of 2 hrs at the school in Fang, and was back in lovely, congested Chiang Mai by 6 pm that evening.

Sunday evening was a loud and tiring ride winding through the mountains, loud bc of consistent Thai/Chinese music playing, sometimes Aussie, and tiring bc this guy drove at rather harsh speeds through blind curves in the night while I was sitting on the hard back seat - or bench rather- of his pick-up. Okay so that was my more grumpy, frustrating point of these past 2 wks, as you can tell.

Monday I was in a better mood, and met a few people in Lak Teng that I'd met before, and also met a new girl that had recently come from Burma. Yay, info for me! Also stopped by the Shan Women's Action Network office in Lak Teng, which offers medical aid (among other things) to the Shan ppl. The woman quickly sent the only English speaking worker away, and then refused to say anything about who they train and help exactly. She directed me to talk to the head office in Chiang Mai. Hmmm....questions questions questions

Also another rather shady thing going on while i was there, is that there were some plans being made to get an illegal who had just come from Burma into the village past the checkpoints so he could apply for a 'white paper', something equivalent to an asylum-seeker status, that is given out only by that provincial office, through some 'connections' (don't ask too much they told me, you better not know too much). one evening the guy wasn't there, the next he was walking around. everyone knew, but if asked no one would have known anything.

Now 'the boys', as I call them, got it into their heads that they had to stay for a football (as in soccer for all u Americans) game on Tuesday, and also there was a high school graduation to attend of one of the orphans Bee had taken under her wing. Luckily I couldn't come up to Fang on Tuesday anyways for some reason, so we aimed for wednesday and thursday in Fang. Tuesday morning I literally sat for 2-3 hrs not understanding a single word while Bee had breakfast with (consisting of stomach-lurching leftovers from the previous night which i simply could not get down that early in the morning) and visited a local family. then all of a sudden, her godson thinks to take me to visit a local waterfall! yay, something to do, but well.. it didn't happen. by the time things were figured out, we decided to go to the graduation first, which ended up being delayed by an hour and then was surprisingly long. there didn't seem to much interest in the graduation btw, with us and only 2 other families there, and kids talking loudly etc. just different ways of doing things i guess. what i do remember is that it rained quite generously that afternoon and evening, and it was so refreshing and surprising bc its not supposed to rain here until the end of May. i was taken on a short moto-cy (motorcycle) ride, i think to give me some entertainment, in the early evening and that was quite nice with the cool air and the misty mountains.

Well anyways, Wednesday up early and off for a 3 hr ride to Fang. Beautiful landscape too, and the Shan school when we got there was a surprise. Very simple, in the midst of a random plot of land surrounded by trees, with about 50 students age 4- 14, in 4 bamboo class rooms. They take care of these kids all day while the parents work in the orange groves, and though the school is not official, it gives them literacy training in Thai and Shan, and some math, and provides lunch in the afternoon. There are about 6 workers, with low pay, working more on volunteer basis. The kids of course were absolutely excited to see us, and adorable. The problem is that these kids will sometimes be pulled out of school by their parents to join in work on the orange groves, and even if they finish the program, they will most likely end up working in the orange groves anyways, with no paper to show that they have any kind of schooling. I got one short interview with one of the younger teachers that had fled Burma, but most of the kids were too young to answer our questions, not to mention we only had the lunch break to try to talk to them. Yet most kids were not afraid of saying they were Shan, and all spoke Shan, and when asked if they want to be Shan or Thai, they wanted to be Shan. This was an interesting contrast to the kids in Na Wai. But when asked where they were from, where they were born, again there was a little bit of doubt on how to answer. One 9 yr old girl shushed the other one when she said she was from Burma, while she herself said she was born in Thailand. Also the teachers questioned Bee thoroughly as to who I was with, what I was doing there etc., before releasing any information. Okay, so it was what it was. The boys quickly decided that there wasn't much more to see there and that they preferred to go to Chiang Mai that evening, and I had to agree that the situation of all of us with these kids during brief lunch breaks just wasn't going to get me more information.

We went to a 'Shan museum' next, which was a basement room under a Shan temple in Mae Ai, with old photographs, traditional clothing and instruments, and old scripts. Interesting, but certainly meager. I wonder how many kids even know any of the Shan history (when I ask most will not know anything), and if this is one of the few places to see it, it certainly isn't much.
We also talked to an old lady, her back bent from an old accident and worsened from sitting bent over her weaving day in day out, that served Khun Sa and was in the SSA along with her husband for years. Surprising was how easily she talked of crossing in and out of Burma during those years, and how the King had given this village for several families to stay in, basically granting them asylum, but she wouldn't really reveal much information.

Well so that was the extent of my trip. I'm back in Chiang Mai, and yesterday got another good interview with a young man living here in Chiang Mai, attending a school that takes in those without papers, giving them a student pass. But well, he is graduating soon, after which he has to return to the border village where he came from, as that is the only place he has a right to stay. His story was quite hard, talking of walking 10 days night and day to reach the border, then being turned away at the border, having his father die at this time, and then him living in the hills in hiding for years, everyone in the group that fled with him dying. On top of that, no one would help him, or give him work bc they said he was cursed bc everyone around him was dying. He finally ended up in a children's home, but was already around 15 yrs old by that time.

Interesting to note here, we had to ask for him to be completely honest about his story and to tell him that I was not there to threaten anyone or give away confidential information, before he told his story. And not surprisingly, I got a lot more information this time around.

Now on a side note, I met a team that comes twice a year to give medical aid in the rural villages of Northern Thailand. The doctor I talked to, who has been doing this for 10 yrs now, said that the Shan people show signs not only of malnourishment in the form of stunted growth etc., but they show signs of psychological stress, with random aches, headaches and among women especially, a enlarged thyroid/goiter. He says he came across villages where the Shan were especially afraid of coming out to receive medical aid, and once when there was news that the Burmese had launched an offensive, the community immediately became more paranoid.

Well, that about covers that last few weeks. I actually didn't mind going back to the same place I was before, it was nice to recognize people, to get a few more stories (some of which i just don't have room to write here), and to experience yet other sides of life there. Communication was by far the most frustrating, from silent car rides, to not knowing the conversation around the dinner table, to not being able to even talk to the little kids at the school in Fang on my own bc i needed a translator. I now really regret not learning more Thai before I came, or when I came, but at the same time, they speak a lot of Shan and Chinese and not even that much Thai in the villages. I'm all confused with all the languages i hear, haha! I've realized too, that I've become so focused on immersing myself in the local culture here, that when I meet other farang I don't know how to react anymore. Last night with the Singaporean medical team, I was able to speak english (although i didn't quite get to saying 'okay la' ;-)) and just shake hands, laugh more loudly, etc. But i somehow forgot what it was like to be able to actually partake in a conversation, and not just listen like a dumb ox. I also at first didn't even shake hands, just bowing my head a bit keeping my hands to myself, almost wanting to form them into a wai. Haha, now i know a bit of what awaits when i get home!
*I've put in just a few pics, but I actually didn't really take many, i kept forgetting I had a camera. I will get more pics from Bee's cam soon. Also, note that I don't put names of people in here, and so sometimes the story might be confusing. This is because I've been asked to keep information confidential, and I'm not at this point creative enough to give them all different names, so I automatically omit them.

A Good Week!

Here I sit, back in the comforts of urban Thailand, with a/c, internet, and a normal, flushing toilet! This past week holds many new stories and experiences, most of which I won't be able to post here. But it was a good week indeed!
I met the team I was going up with on friday evening over dinner at a food stall. They were 3 older ladies, 'near retirement age' as my contact Hong called them, from Canada coming for 3 weeks of Southeast Asia and visiting various projects of OMF.

Saturday morning was bright and early for me. I checked out of my guesthouse and lugged my heavy bag across town, getting slightly lost. I of course, was late, b/c time here as slowed me down even more than usual (though I still feel as bad as any westerner would at being late)! We hopped in a yellow songthaew, rented out esp. for this trip through the hills of northern Thailand.

Our first stop was at an organic farm of an older gentleman from Quebec, who decided to test out his homeopathic techniques here in Thailand. Who would have thought I'd be touring a farm, hearing how pigs are being fed and kept so as not to smell as much etc etc. It was interesting. Most of the workers on his farm incidently were Shan or Lisu (a hill tribe).

We hopped back in (well perhaps not all of us quite hopped), but you get the picture. We briefly stopped in Na Wai, where the team would be staying the latter half of the week. Then on up into the real hills, or rather mountains, of northern Thailand. Now this was the part I enjoyed, taking in the beautiful scenery, feeling the air get a little cooler...but perhaps winding through the mountains in a yellow songthaew with an open back and 2 hard benches wasn't the most ideal way of doing this :-).

But we made it just fine, having gone through 3 army checkpoints without a hitch, and first went to see a well being dug and then on to the simple rented house we would stay in.

To save some space and boring details, let me highlight what i got to see up in Lak Teng, the village we stayed in. On sunday I had the opportunity to visit a refugee camp (set up that way but not officially one), and spoke with the chairman of the camp. There are some 600 ppl living in this camp, and it is a fairly new camp, only 6 yrs old. It is basically a 2 roads of bamboo huts, 3 km from the border with Burma. The children there receive some basic education at a local NGO school, but don't get any papers recognizing that they received any schooling. The men and women all work temporary jobs, whenever there is a big harvest, some construction work to be done etc. It is all illegal. The children, after they have finished primary 5, will try to find some work, but also a lot of them will attempt to run away from the camp to the city, hoping to change their futures.

We also visited the border, where you can see the Burmese army and the Thai one, just across from each other on a hill. Next to the two outposts is a temple. The Burmese army is known to shoot at those who try to cross illegally, but once they are over the border, the Shan can seek shelter in the temple where the Thai police/army cannot touch them. The lady who took us on this whole trip, Hong, said she knows some young people that crossed at this very point on the border (i might be able to interview them as well).

Bc the team I went up with was a missionary team, we visited the local church (where 2 orphans live) and the team also held a baking demonstration there on how to make "fiiddel diidels" as the Shan pronounced them(fiddle diddles), a yummy chocolate-peanut cookie. I was more than happy to taste these!

We also got a chance to visit people in their bamboo homes, and heard various stories. I got to hear the story of an ex-general in the SSA, the resistance army, and also saw for example how one lady's sister had gone to Bangkok and left her daughter, not having been in contact since and leaving her to take of 3 children. I also got to talk to a girl who had recently fled Burma, and was studying in the village until she got her papers (she had money to buy papers). Here, children will often lie about their age so that they can either stay in school or go to work.
In this way, there are many stories to tell. Monday, I was faced with the decision to stay with the team and go to the next village, and perhaps learn some Shan/Thai and visit a few more people...or I could go back to Chiang Mai and figure out what next. So I opted to stay, and we headed down the mountains a bit to a place called Na Wai.

This village was completely Shan (the previous one was a mix of Shan, Chinese, and Thai), and about 2x the size. Most of the people here work on the local farms, planting and harvesting garlic, corn and rice throughout the year. In the afternoons, the team would teach english to the local school children, about 12 would show up between 4-6. Although I didn't really learn much Shan during my stay, again it was a good way to meet locals, hear some of the stories, and also to get in touch with a few more Shan kids. One couple was facing hardship because they were too poor to keep their 4 children at home and had sent them to a children's home. But now they wanted to get them to come back home again, meanwhile they themselves skipping meals during the day. Another lady, expecting her 2nd child anytime, had her husband working in Bangkok, while she had to stay in the village bc she couldn't get good papers.

With the children, I couldn't really communicate very well, and there was no consistent translation available. But I did try out the 'historical narrative' technique, where you get them to draw their past, present and future, how they perceive it and with the most memorable events. But well, it didn't quite work out. They were told to draw where they were born, and where they live now and what they want to be in the future, ha! But it was a good trial, for a better next time. 3 girls and 2 boys came from Burma, or 'a foreign land' as they called it, and 2 girls drew separate plates of food indicating the importance (and probably lack of) food during their time there and during their flight (this was what was told to me by the translator). What was perhaps most interesting, is that when some of the kids from Burma said, 'oh, I came from Burma' and 'we walked a very very long time', the other kids hushed them saying that they weren't supposed to say they were from Burma or talk about it, instead they are just Thai and were born here. These kids are taught early on (they were all below the age of 12), to lie about where they come from.

Unlike in the refugee camp, children in the villages don't really speak Shan much anymore, and certainly don't know about the history. They are taught to become completely Thai.
The children however, can go maximum to grade 9 in Na Wai, and if they have money can go to the next village and further their education. Otherwise they too will start working. Many of the children in the village wander around till late in the evening, and when I asked one girl who spoke a bit of english if she was going home for dinner, she indicated that there was nothing at home and that she was just going to hang around. We brought one girl home one evening, not even a far walk, but the drinking the went on in the evenings around the village made it unsafe.

Hong explained to me that the only way people make money in these villages is by sending their children, their daughters, to the city to work, often in prostitution, or by one of their children smuggling drugs. Apparently the prostitution street here in Chiang Mai is filled with mostly Shan women. Hong also explained that if a local family wants to buy an expensive home in the area they are automatically suspected of doing something illegal, bc that is they only way to get wealth, and so only foreigners can buy up a big piece of land or large homes. In this way Hong and her co-workers managed to buy a 1.6 million baht home for only 600,000 bc no one else would buy it.

Besides all of these stories and details it was good, as I said, to be out of Chiang Mai. I slept on the floor the whole week, and the nights were very cool. The food was delicious, and I just soaked up pieces of the lives of the Shan migrants during my stay. I enjoyed the opportunity! Who knows what the next one's will be like...I will leave again either tomorrow or wednesday, and will find out by the end of today where exactly that will be. Either to visit more Shan families or to visit a school set up for the Shan migrant children.

-->I've included some pics of Lak Teng, the border, Na Wai and the children