Umpiem, Umphang, and Tee La Su

[as usual, I've been completely unable to choose where the pictures go]
You have to love Thai names... This was a busy weekend. My friend Caroline and I began Friday by heading up to Umpiem, home to around 20,000 Burmese Refugees. Her friend teaches at a school there that is for the most advanced students. The system here seems to go for ten years, and then you can do a post-ten program. Those graduates can apply to this, a post-post-ten program. The staff is half past graduates and half westerners. English is the only language to be spoken on the compound. The students are very eager to learn, and the teachers to the best they can with limited resources to give them things to study and think about. One of the coolest things I saw was that over their summer break, those who could not leave (most of them I think) worked on planting vegetables on all the unused land in the compound. In the camps, people live on monthly rations of rice, fish paste, garlic, salt, and peppers. This garden, in addition to giving them something to do (which is desperately needed in the camps), will give them some nutrition they are lacking.

Anyway, we were there to teach a first aid class. It was a lot of fun. We did basic would care, splinting, and addressed some common health problems in the camp. It really was a great application of all my wilderness medicine training. They have very little there, but in a way it makes it easier to teach because you know you only have a certain number of things to use. We taught for about two hours and really had a great time. If I would have thought about it, I would have tried to do classes like this periodically the entire time I've been here.

The camp is... it's a lot of things. In a way it's a really beautiful combination of brown huts dotting the green hillsides. It's also like a giant slip-and-slide -- lots of muddy trails up and down the mountains. Mostly it's a place where way too many people are stuck in a very small space with absolutely nothing to do. It's just not healthy, and not a solution to much of anything. Access is limited -- we had to have prior approval, and I don't think anyone from inside can leave. It's sad to see so many people who are so talented and engaged in learning with a) so few materials to study and b) very little chance of getting outside where they can really apply themselves.

I was amazed to find that the SPDC had shelled the camp several (maybe ten?) years ago and everyone left. The camp was mostly destroyed. Later people moved back. I can't believe that the Thai government would allow an attack like that on their soil.

From there we, Caroline, myself, and our teacher friend, hitched a ride up to Umphang, a very small town at the end of a very windy road. The road was barely on the hillsides at some point, and apparently a few years ago a bridge washed out and the people (less than 10k?) were left with no connection to the outside world for two months. We thought we would experience the nightlife and ended up sitting outside the mini-mart drinking really bad wine coolers and eating cookies. An AMI truck passed by and stopped, being driven by two acquaintances of mine. Since the town is half-way between two big refugee camps, a handful of NGO's use it as their base. I mentioned that when people complained about being in Umphang, I hadn't really believed it could be that bad. One of them replied with a French accent, "no, it is no myth that there is nothing to do in Umphang." She went on to describe how the owner of the store whose stoop we were perched was a very nice man, and that his brother owned a somewhat nicer store down the street. It's definitely a small town.

The next morning we left early to begin our two day trip. We rafted from just outside the town for about four hours, about half in the rain, before stopping for lunch and heading out on foot. While on the rafts, we passed several small falls, lots of cliffs, and even saw a monkey swinging around above us. We then walked about 6 miles of steep road that is currently closed because of the rainy season. In more temperate weather, this trip can be made in a vehicle, but I've heard there isn't as much water coming over the falls. It was very much a catered trip, but I think that's the only way it can be done.

We arrived in the evening and set up camp (rather had it set up for us, then had dinner cooked for us etc). We walked up the river a bit towards the falls and stopped to swim in the cold water. When people design jungle-themed pools at resorts, I think this river is what they had in mind. That night the mosquitos were horrendous, but we all had a good layer of deet built up by then.

The next day we headed for the falls, and it was amazing. It's the largest waterfall in SE Asia, and the sixth tallest in the world (I think). We were able to swim in a pool below one of the lowest tiers, and even sit in the fall, and go back behind it. It was definitely cold, but great.

We then walked back out, and rafted further down the other river to the next town. There were the three of us in the raft with two guides paddling. We picked up a second raft with only one person steering it. I waited for a bit and watched her struggle to make a corner before volunteering to help. I'm not sure if ended up helping or not -- it seems like she did everything backwards from the way I would have, and sitting in the back I had to figure out how to follow her lead. In any two person boat, communication is important, and we had very little means to do that. In the beginning I felt like we were fighting each other, but by the end were working pretty well. I think I wish I would have just stayed in my boat, but oh well.

Then came the 4 hour ride in the covered back of a truck through some twisty mountain roads. We started at around 6:30. We had premedicated with dramamine (about 20 cents for 12 pills!). For a while it was beautiful, climbing out of the valley at sunset, but also very cold and a bit rainy. I passed out at some point in the bed and remembered very little until being woken up in Mae Sot. I think I remember swerving around some cows, and I remembered when we made it out of the mountains and the speed quadrupled and the air felt 30 degrees warmer. That was about it.

I got home exhausted but having had a great time. I'm starting to wrap up at work. It looks like the data entry won't be done before I leave, but we are making plans to get that done. I'm going to try to write every type of report and summary I can think of, just leaving the data tables and conclusions blank. I feel pretty good about the work I've done.

I think I will leave Mae Sot in about a week and spend some time in South East Thailand, partly on the Cambodian border and partly in the Thai Gulf. I'm not really sure what I'll do there, but it will be a nice break. Maybe just sleep, read, and walk around some.