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March 28, 2005

Mae Ra Moe Refugee Camp

We spent a week in Mae Ra Moe, the ‘Club Med’ of the Karen refugee camps. The location is breathtaking; it’s in the middle of the jungle with a river through the middle of it and, compared to the other camps, pretty spacious. We were there with the Karen Education Partnership, a group of teachers who come out to Thailand every year from Newcastle to deliver a week’s teacher training programme. This year, Abby was teaching community development in a women’s school in a different section of the camp. This meant walking up there every morning, an amazing journey along the side of the river and over a ‘suspension bridge’ of sorts that we were surprised to see was actually still there each morning. The journey back was by boat as it was too hot too walk.

The week flew past – teaching, swimming, and playing with the children. It was a bit disturbing to see how much the kids had been influenced by the fighting going on around them. When they were drawing, most of the boys drew guns, bombs and soldiers in accurate detail – it’s maybe inevitable in this sort of situation but still hard to handle. The general atmosphere is immensely positive though and we were made to feel very welcome.

On the last day of teaching we had a party for the students. It was excellent, though a word of warning when planning party games in flimsy bamboo huts – don’t try anything that involves jumping around with balloons between your knees.

Related links
karen womens organization
Inside Burma with the Karen - from BBC
UNHCR
UK Refugee council

Posted by jon jack at 7:09 AM

March 19, 2005

Mae La Oon Camp

This last week, we were apart for the first time since leaving home. Jon stayed in Mae Sariang to box and work and Abby went into one of the refugee camps to carry on teaching students who’d had to return to camp to be counted by the UNCHR.

I had a great time in camp as usual. I’d been to a different camp a couple of times before in previous years but this camp, Mae La Oon, is only a year old. It was interesting to see how much had been established in just a year. The site’s a pretty bad one – incredibly beautiful but impossibly impractical. It’s situated on a river with steep, densly-jungled sides. At first, huts were slipping into the river and still do during the rainy season. They’ve managed to build houses, schools, hospitals and clinics and are building and developing further.

This time, I was the only Westerner in camp which was quite a different experience from before. It meant that the students loved to parade me around the camp, to be seen with the ‘gollowah’, and were keen to show me absolutely everything. It was great as I got to see around but had to learn to curb my enthusiasm about visiting every single place they suggested as most ‘points of interest’ seemed to be at the top of a hill and the temperature was pushing forty degrees. I did want to see the Karen Buddhist temple though and was taken there (forgetting that like most Buddhist temples, it too would be at the top of a mountain). They have three monks, one of whom greeted me with betelnut, a kind of local drug which has a similar effect to a strong cup of coffee. He was intrigued to see whether I noticed any effect. Well, I could feel my heart pounding, was dripping with sweat, felt a little dizzy and my breathing was shallow – impossible to tell if that was from the betelnut or the combined effects of the altitude and the climb in the heat.

It was good to see the students in camp and fascinating to see them using skills I didn’t know they had – lighting fires, building rafts, fishing with spears. They looked after me really well. I had to get used to odd situations. On the last morning, one of my students burst into my hut whilst I was getting dressed and said “teacher, now we will go to visit the goats.” There’s never a possibility of hesitation so the next thing I knew I was on a bamboo raft before breakfast being paddled across the river to, sure enough, visit the goats, several chickens and the old man who looks after them. I wasn’t quite what to say but made some appropriately enthusiastic comments and was then taken back across the river.

Posted by jon jack at 4:39 PM

March 15, 2005

Carabao Concert

Carabao are the biggest thing in Thai music since, hmmm well since hmmm, anywayyy. Was quite a big deal for these guys to come and play in Mae Sariang. Carabao are the one of the most popular bands in Thailand - they’ve been on the go for around twenty years.

We heard reports that the kids can go a bit crazy at Carabao concerts, maybe something to do with the fact that they are sponsored by Chang Beer. Was good fun, the only worrying thing was kids wandering around carrying huge water buffalo skulls. It's the band's logo I think. We were well looked after though, it felt like we had our own police guard; one of ninety police officers there took it upon himself to follow us around and the Thai army were also standing by. I’m not sure what they were expecting. By all accounts this is the first big concert that’s been held here in Mae Sariang certainly the first carabao concert, and there looked to be around four thousand people. Not sure though. Was a good night, drank way too much beer Chang, singing along in Thai, oh dear.

Click to have a listen (to Carabao not me singing in Thai).

Posted by jon jack at 7:20 AM

March 9, 2005

Thai boxing Update

“Small, small,” the Muay Thai trainer says to me while gesturing wildly and pointing at my beer belly. The why or how are not important but somehow I’ve managed to sign up for a month of Muay Thai training, 5 days a week. So I’ve just finished my first week and have bruised shins, bruised knees, bruised elbows, cut hands, blistered feet - in fact it would be easier to list the parts of me that are not injured. It’s not so bad though. It’s one-on-one training for one hour, then sparring and lifting weights for another hour.

It’s tough as the trainer and the rest of the students don’t really speak English so well and my Thai is, well, pretty ropey if you don’t count ordering beers and counting to ten. Most of what is taught is demonstrated. Injuries and throwing up from over-exertion aside, it’s great. It’s interesting to spend time with local Thai people; Muay Thai is predominantly practiced by I guess less ‘well off’ kids. But they are so respectful of their trainer and me and of Abby if she comes along at the end. There’s a very strong bond between boxer and trainer in Muay Thai and a lot of respect.

Related links
Muay Thai News
World Muay Thai Council
Fairtex site - lots of good info
Muay Thai (Thai boxing)

Posted by jon jack at 2:05 PM | Comments (1)