Working working...

I thought I should take advantage of this moment when my keyboard is functioning fully. It seems that all I need is for someone to get inside the laptop and re-seat a cable attachment...I just have to find time to do it. The chaos of last weekend has subsided, and things are going as well as would be expected. It's frustrating now to see the survey in progress and understand all the things I should have done differently. Having never done anything like this, I couldn't have known going in, but if I had it to do over again things would be much better. I still think that we will get some meaningful data out of it, even if a few questions don't work out.

I think I've confused many of my friends here -- I've gone from working very lazily, a mix of not knowing what I should be doing and waiting for information from other people to working a lot. I think one of the biggest problems was in now knowing how much direction to give. A goal of this is for the community organizations to have a sense of ownership, so I really just left a lot to them. I think that if I were to do it again I could offer more focused guidance in some areas and leave them more free in others. Anyway, I'm now working a lot. My mornings are often running errands for the people giving the survey, then I spend the rest of the day and a few hours in the evening trying to get the database set up for data entry. The lack of certain keys has slowed this down. It's been stressful, but I think I'm on top of things. Now that things are almost all within my control, I know that when I get finished, I'm finished. That makes it easier to work the long hours. And the time is flying by.

There have been lots of interesting events. My Burmese studies are coming along fairly well, and I'm learning a few words in Thai. It's amazing that it just takes a little bit of knowledge to improve communication greatly. Thai immigration is apparently cracking down a little bit which is making my surveying of the outlying areas difficult. I've said over and over that I don't want anyone to take risks to do the survey, but I found out today that one of my guys spend a few hours hiding in a pile of corn stalks the other day to avoid the authorities. I guess I need to be more clear. Tomorrow I am going to a migrant school to observe the survey administration, and Saturday I think I am going to one of the factories. Monday and Tuesday I think I will be in a farming area about an hour from here where we are focusing.

I still don't understand the logistics involved with undocumented people. It's definitely true that you have to pay bribes to move around, but it's a little more complicated. It seems more than certain people pay the bribe so that their car is allowed to pass unchecked by the police. They then have a very nice business transporting undocumented people from one established area to another. To get the car for an hour trip is about $30 US, which is very expensive for here.

I went on a longer bike ride the other day on my single-speed cruiser. It is a road that follows the river that separates Thailand and Burma. On this side is mostly farms, and across are mountains. There are checkpoints every so often, and a military camp, but no one seems very concerned about people traveling. There is also a ferry across the river that is officially illegal but seems to operate with tacit approval. I ride by where people come up from the river, but haven't been down to the ferry.

The other night we were sitting in a fine establishment run by a Canadian fellow. He often has the BBC on, and I saw the intro to a segment called "Nurses on the Frontline." I couldn't hear, but when I saw the people they were talking to, I pointed everyone's attention there. While we couldn't see, we could quickly tell by the attire that they were in the Karen state in Burma, right across the river from where I am. They followed a group of...I don't even know what to call them. They aren't really rebels. There was a united Karen resistance in the past, but it seems to have splintered.

Anyway, these guys hang around in the jungle using some guerrilla tactics when necessary, but mostly just wait for the SPDC (basically the burmese army operating within Burma against the countries own people) to burn a village and then help sort out the aftermath. I've heard it described first hand at the clinic, that the people find out that the SPDC are coming and they flee to a nearby cave they have dug out and then I guess disguise the entrance (which probably isn't difficult in the jungle). Outside, the SPDC destroy everything, maybe shoot some people, and then seem to like leaving a few landmines around just for good measure. The people come out, then this group takes care of the injured and helps them get to a more secure area, it seemed typically into a more stable, Karen controlled area.

With my job being office-based, it's easy to ignore the fact that the people I'm seeing post amputation at the clinic are all victims of land mines, and all the (occasionally dying) malnourished kids are a direct result of these activities. It's funny the things that really impact me, but as they were hiking through the jungle, one of the soldiers had a pair of sandals that were the same make and color as a communal pair in the bathroom of my office (more on weird foot/shoe customs later). It's really just right over there.

The strange thing is that I saw this after days of frustrating meetings. On one hand, I think "working with these people is impossible" and on the other I think "they've been through so much, I shouldn't get frustrated." Where the balance is, I don't know. They have been through a lot, but they aren't in a position to be pitied. Even though they are relatively safe here in Thailand, they still have to work hard.

I was at an award ceremony today and they honored (among others) a woman from Australia who has done a lot with local groups. I wish I could paraphrase what she said. It was the best statement I've heard of what is needed in areas like this. Basically that the people don't need charity, then need education and resources so they can address their difficult situation. I've always thought about refugees in an abstract sense, but here I am among many of them. Their lives need to continue, and the standard treatment of refugees doesn't allow that. It's simply a way to get them out of the way and marginally taken care of. They are an international problem, and putting them in camps is a way of fixing it, but the people are still there. Little focus seems to be on helping them. Burma is their home, and they want to go back, but they are stuck here.

That's easy enough to say, but it's hard to know what to do. On one hand is broad international work to find some sort of resolution in Burma. On the other is just teaching them the life skills they will need in their new situation, whether that is living illegally in Thailand or being relocated to another country.

So who knows.