One Valley man’s journey

By Paul Pickrem

For The Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

Some say taking a trip is not about the destination, but about the journey. I can say that is true, for me.

After leaving Middleton, by car, in late September 2008 and spending three months in Florida with my Mother, Joan Dupree, I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, on January 8, 2009, looking for… I don’t know what, really.

The adventure I found and am living, however, has dwarfed any expectation I might have had.

After nine days in Bangkok, being overwhelmed by living in a sea of about 15 million people, I spent a few days in Chiang Mai City, northwestern Thailand, looking for a job.

Then, I travelled south to Mae Sot, Thailand, to visit two American photographers, living in Nova Scotia, whom I had written about previously in an arts column for a Nova Scotia newspaper. Susan and Nat Tileston, of Annapolis Royal, spend their winters in Mae Sot, teaching young Burmese migrants and refugees, from the Karen tribe, digital photography. They create a photo exhibit from their student’s work which is shown in the ARTsPLACE Gallery, Annapolis Royal every spring.

I intended to stay in Mae Sot a few days. But, I stayed for six months.

TAUGHT JOURNALISM

Before I arrived, I agreed to do a journalism workshop for Burmese students and journalists from several news organizations based in Thailand.

Over the coming weeks and months, that first one led to workshops in another migrant school, an adult vocational school, and a refugee camp. Then I agreed to stay in Mae Sot as a volunteer to develop and publish their school newspaper.

Many of those student’s parents were imprisoned pro-democracy and human rights activists inside Burma.

Soon, I volunteered to teach two levels of English at the school, after an Australian volunteer teacher returned home.

At the end of the school year, in early April, I volunteered to teach English to exiled Burmese monks who were waiting to be resettled to the USA.

During that time, quite by accident, I became involved in the development of a new school project which has amazed and inspired me.

A Dutch medical anthropologist, researching migrant worker’s health issues, introduced me to a Burmese community volunteer named Osy, in Su Bote Chan, on the outskirts of Mae Sot.

It is a community of 5,000 Burmese migrants living around and working in factories and warehouses on the Thai side of the Moei River, which forms a natural boundary between Thailand and Burma (otherwise known as Myanmar), at Mae Sot.

There are an estimated 1,500 children in the community. But, there was no school in Su Bote Chan itself. Some children travelled daily to outlying migrant schools or crossed the river everyday to Myawaddy, just meters away in Burma, to attend classes.

While touring the community, I was struck by the image of small children playing in the filthy, garbage- and chemical-laden water and decided we needed to find something else for them to do, even for a few hours a day.

SCHOOL NEEDED

Osy said he had been a teacher inside Burma and he wanted desperately to start a school in Su Bote Chan. The only qualification I had was a determination to see these children have a school of their own.

The next day I returned to the community to do a photo shoot so I could begin to show and tell as many people as possible about the horrid conditions these migrant children and their families were living in and how a school would improve their lives and the community itself.

The living conditions in Su Bote Chan are tantamount to a refugee camp. Many families live in tiny, one-room quarters, about the size of a small garden shed in Nova Scotia. They pay as much as 800 Thai Bhat (about $26.00 CDN, depending on exchange) in rent, per month.

But I am told many of the parents work in garment factories, sometimes 14 hours a day, seven days a week, when the factories are busy. They can make less than 3,000 Bhat (less than $100 CDN) a month for their labor.

SQUALID CONDITIONS

Often three generations are squeezed into these cramped spaces they call home. I’ve seen many that have no furniture. There simply isn’t room for the family members and any furniture. Many have a plastic bucket for garbage and a toilet.

Many buildings have leaky roofs, made of thatch or leaves, with only thin woven bamboo strips for walls. Rainy season is awful for them.

The conditions are overcrowded, squalid, and unsanitary.

There are upwards of four million Burmese migrants and refugees in Thailand and other countries in South East Asia and the Asian Sub-continent.

They are easily exploited as cheap labor, working very hard for far less wages than even the lowest paid native people.

But it is even more disheartening to consider that the conditions they left behind inside Burma are far worse. They fled to Su Bote Chan and the other migrant communities and refugee camps in which they now live, to improve their living conditions and find work.

That makes the living conditions at Su Bote Chan an improvement over those inside Burma.

The military government of Buma (which in 1987 arbitrarily changed the name of the country, which borders on India, Bangladesh, China, Laos, and Thailand, to the Union of Myanmar) is widely considered one of the most corrupt and brutal regimes on the planet.

Its policies have savagely abused its people, creating political, social and economic hardships that have forced millions to flee to neighboring border areas, especially Thailand, India and Bangladesh.

Mae Sot is often referred to as “Little Myanmar”, because there are said to be more Burmese living there illegally, than Thais.

RECRUITED VOLUNTEERS

Osy and I managed to recruit the services of a few more volunteers from the community and set about trying to find a space suitable for a school.

I knew it would be my job to tell as many people as possible about the project, so we could raise enough money to make a start.

That was the first week of June.

In the coming weeks the team managed to convince a Thai businessman and his family, (he is married to a Burmese woman), to build a small bamboo building with a tea leaf roof on a concrete slab, which we could rent for 1,500 Bhat ($49.00 CDN), per month.

I told as many people as possible in Mae Sot about the project, touring several people around the community. As well, I used my Facebook profile to show photos of the school to people around the world and to blog about it.

A friend, from Annapolis Royal, generously gave a donation to cover the rent for the 10-month school year.

SCHOOL OPENS

On June 29, despite many challenges, the Su Bote Chan School opened, with 20 children registering for the first class on July 1.

Since then, there is an average of 25 students, between four and 13 years old. The migrant nature of the population of Su Bote Chan means some families move away to refugee camps or to find work elsewhere. But there always seems to be new families arriving as well.

Unfortunately, Osy disappeared back inside Burma, which happens often. So, my friend and musical colleague, Win Cho, of Mae Sot, has taken over as head teacher.

He is a gifted man, who teaches in Burmese, Karen, Thai, and English. He also develops the curriculum and supervises a young Burmese woman, Way Way, who is new to classroom teaching.

MANY CHILDREN SICK

We soon realized many children were missing school because of sickness, especially during the rainy season (from May to October).

It didn’t take long to realize poor diet was a major factor in that.

So for the last three months the children have been fed a nutritious meal, by Burmese standards, Monday through Friday. It is prepared by family members and volunteers.

After visiting some of the homes and becoming apprised of the poverty in the community, it is apparent to me, the most nutritious meal these kids eat each day, they eat at school.

We have noticed a major improvement in the health, alertness and attitude of the children. It has been an indescribable joy to see them become healthier in mind and body.

PLAYGROUND

Another, major development has been the construction of a playground beside the school, by a volunteer organization called The Playground People, with the financial support of donors from California, who visited the school several times.

The playground has become a major attraction, in a community with virtually no service.

I have been amazed by how this simple grassroots project has sprouted and grown into a vital, living organism. It has taken on a life of its own. That, despite having no steady funding or NGO support.

It has been fed and nurtured by loving and generous individuals from Nova Scotia, California, England, Ireland, and Holland.

INSPIRED BY CHILDREN

I have been inspired by countless Burmese, I am honored to know, who have decided democracy and human rights are such a treasure that they will sacrifice life itself to secure it for the people they love.

And, these small children and their families inspire me.

My little friend Thu Ra U, is an example. He is a very bright six year old boy, who shoulders even heavier burdens than having to grow up in an awful place like Su Bote Chan.

He was born with severe birth defects because of a dietary deficiency when his mother was pregnant. Some of his spinal tissue was on the outside of his body and his feet and ankles were horribly deformed.

Life saving surgery, at three months, has left him with no sensation or control over his bladder or bowel. That’s hard for a young boy who is becoming aware of how different he is.

And, it’s hard for the other children, who love him, but, the smell can be overwhelming when his body releases urine and feces with no warning.

His mother, Mu Seit, can’t work to add to the family’s meager income, because she has to change Thu Ra U several times a day and wash his clothes. That’s even more difficult during the rainy season because she can’t hang the clothes out to dry.

But on good days, Thu Ra U, seems determined to face it all with strength and dignity. He hobbles enthusiastically on his deformed feet to keep up in the playground and happily wears diapers to make the school day bearable -- for him and everyone.

He is my teacher.

Many of these children have taught me so much, by their example, about the struggle for happiness and contentment when life’s circumstances are working hard against you.

Sometimes, people ask me when this trip will end. I don’t know about the trip, but, the journey is just beginning.

CONTACT PICKREM

More information on the Su Bote Chan School Project is available by email at pspickrem@hotmail.com or by logging on to my Facebook page.

I hope to share with you about my journey to a refugee camp in Bangladesh in a future article.

PAUL PICKREM, of Middleton, is an award-winning journalist who has worked in television and print media. He worked for this paper as a freelance writer and a staff member several years ago.

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