So , last time I wrote I told you about the situation of Burmese people in Thailand. I described the difficulties. This time I am going to describe a bit of what I do. Thank you for your comments and responses last time, it was nice to hear from you.
English Teaching
Three months have allowed me to have taken much work on. When I arrived here, I was eager to start to work and do things. Couple weeks in bed for couple food poisonings and a cold (!) kept me quiet and allowed me to take a rest!
But I soon started to volunteer teaching English because it is SO needed and wanted out here among the Burmese people since it is a key to opportunities in working with NGO and to enter Thai schools in English. Learning English is more appealing then learning Thai to them.
I also teach English for IRC. I took on this job to have a small revenue to live here in Thailand. It is taking a lot of time. I like that I can use creativity to develop activities to help them learn.
Dance Teaching
I also started teaching creative dance to children in migrant schools. This was a new experience and challenge. Children are used to be subdue to the teacher and to do what the teacher tells them to do; not the best background for creativity. Children were lost and would just copy every single movement I would do. When talking about creating a round shape with our bodies, I showed them an example, and asked them to find other ways. But they stayed still, repeating the same round shape I had shown to them. Thinking there might a translation problem I tried other things, but I soon had to conclude that the children were not used to do their own thing at school. Speaking with other western teachers, I learned that they realized the same lack of creativity at school just in assignments they gave. So teaching dance was a challenge also because children had poor coordination. Step, clap step clap was impossible for most of them. But we are now at a point where we are preparing a choreography to be performed for the closing ceremony. I am still not sure if all students like it, and I guess that for some it is like another school subject they have to take, but I see some others that really love the feel that their body can do new things and I see some practicing after the class some movement we did. To see that joy in a few students was really beautiful. It made me feel happy to see them happy to discover ways for their body to move.
Mental Health
On the mental health level, I am working on an activity book for Burmese HIV women to use to help their mental health. I am also starting a needs assessment for political Burmese prisoners that have been released and who come to Mae Sot, Thailand. I am also part of a team that meets once a month to gather local organizations that do mental health and that want to develop mental health activities. Also, here and there I am asked to do some workshops.
...and more to come?
Some other activities are at a gestation stage and not sure to fully develop such as teaching dance to teenagers and adults and to develop a center for the arts where visual and performance artists could have a place to practice and share their talents. We are researching the subject with Thelma Young whom many of you know.
Here is a little summary of my different activities on the Thai-Burmese border!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Landing in Asia
Last Saturday, I had to go to Burma to use my second entree visa: big realization: IT'S ALREADY BEEN 2 MONTHS I 'VE BEEN IN THAILAND.
I went to Thailand with a three entree tourist visa, each entree allowing me to stay 2 months in the country. However I need to go out every two months.
So little Update since I left the US: I left really fast. 5 days. I was not able to say by to many of you. Some of you still ignore why I left. Those who know you can skip this paragraph ;)
Leaving the US
So little Update since I left the US: I left really fast. 5 days. I was not able to say by to many of you. Some of you still ignore why I left. Those who know you can skip this paragraph ;)
I had been waiting for a US work permit since August. In October I learn that it was denied and had one day to decide to reapply or not. I needed to do the whole application process again and would only have been able to start in end-December. I really desired to travel for a long time and see the world. I really wanted to be in a developing country for a long time. It had been in my plan to work in the US from August till the spring to enjoy my “Utah family”, to save money and then move to new horizons for a little. The denial of my work permit precipitated everything. I left, but keeping in my heart that Utah had become my home. Some of you made me realize and allowed me to call Utah my home although I am a foreigner. It really feels like this to me.
Utah and the people I've have been surrounded by have participated to me becoming an adult and have been there supporting and believing in me; what a home should provide.I left knowing that I would be back some day. And I still see it as such.
Thailand
I arrived in Bangkok and joined Thelma who was attending a conference. I left for a developing country but arrive in a luxurious hotel, … and realized that this is very much part of developing countries and that if I wanted to see what the developing world was I needed to see all aspects of it and not only the aspects that I like.
The capital
People everywhere. Roads everywhere. Passageways everywhere. I though I had seen the biggest shopping malls in the US. Well no. Bankoke 's malls beat the US ones. The city is dirty. There are many poor people on the streets. It is really hot and humid.
Chang Mai
Right after, I went to Chang Mai for couple days. My friend needed to rest from a really stressful week. There I discovered Monasteries and Buddhist temples; respectively these being places of peace and places of insane tourism where the religiosity and sacredness of the temple seems violated. Clashing juxtaposition of beautiful works dedicated to the gods and tourists looking at it like a entertainment and keeping the same behavior as if they were in a shopping mall. At the monasteries I learned about Buddhist social work and this topic remains till today a subject of study for me. Buddhist monks have started providing social work services in Burma because the government does not provide for these. Their approach is based on religious concepts and principles. I will share more about it when I'll have a better picture of the whole.
MAE SOT
Thai Police and Burmese people.
The trip to Mae Sot was a bit intimidating. There were 4 police check points to get to the city. The Thai police does that to prevent Burmese people to migrate inside the country illegally. Papers are checked. When illegal Burmese people are found, they are arrested, and then sent back to Burma. However, in Mae Sot... one can hear the rate of Burmese migrant people to be anything between 65% and 90% of the population. I would easily say 80%. Burmese people who have a passport can buy for 4500baht per year a work permit that allows them to stay in Mae Sot, which is reasonable price (a lower class person usually spends 6 000baht per months to live total). However, to live in the city they need identification papers, which most Burmese people do not have when they flee their country. Most Burmese people do not have passports. Only rich people can afford them and people who have no political involvement. If one applies for a passport and the regime has doubts about the reasons to apply for a passport, investigations will be undertaken. Many Burmese had to flee, leaving their family behind, when they learned that the police was looking for them and came to Mae Sot illegally. They are now stuck in Mae Sot: without paper they can not go anywhere and they can not go to Burma to get a passport. They also live constantly running away from the police who has check points in the city also.
The People
Burmese people love to sing. It is said of them that they are passionate lovers. Many have long distance relationships that holds for years when one is in prison for 2-6 years or when they flee their country. There is a saying that says that if Burmese people would fight the way they love Burma would already be free. It is said that Burmese people work towards their freedom, but not hard enough and not well enough. Thai people when looking at the 2007 event said from the beginning that they Burmese people would loose against the militaries because they were not organized well enough and had not plan. The question is not to research who is right or wrong. I am just trying to give you perspectives that I meet here around. You can decide then what you think. The military regime in Burma has arrested and continues to arrests thousands of people who are politically active and belonging to a party that does not like the military regime. Burmese use of internet is limited. There are spyse everywhere and even here in Mae Sot because the militaries know that anti-government activities are growing here. There is the need to send Burmese people inside to help after having organized things outside. So people, when in Mae Sot, use wrong names on internet which they use a lot to get organized. I will tell you more when I come back.
OK I have a lot more to tell you, but I think it is more pleasurable to receive news fdrom time to time, then a brick to ingurgitate at one time. So I will write sooner next time and give you more news.
Now that I have settled down I am a bit more organized, and not biking all around all the time to discover things!!
I love you all and miss you, really. I remember talking and laughing with you. Mhm.
Atali
I went to Thailand with a three entree tourist visa, each entree allowing me to stay 2 months in the country. However I need to go out every two months.
So little Update since I left the US: I left really fast. 5 days. I was not able to say by to many of you. Some of you still ignore why I left. Those who know you can skip this paragraph ;)
Leaving the US
So little Update since I left the US: I left really fast. 5 days. I was not able to say by to many of you. Some of you still ignore why I left. Those who know you can skip this paragraph ;)
I had been waiting for a US work permit since August. In October I learn that it was denied and had one day to decide to reapply or not. I needed to do the whole application process again and would only have been able to start in end-December. I really desired to travel for a long time and see the world. I really wanted to be in a developing country for a long time. It had been in my plan to work in the US from August till the spring to enjoy my “Utah family”, to save money and then move to new horizons for a little. The denial of my work permit precipitated everything. I left, but keeping in my heart that Utah had become my home. Some of you made me realize and allowed me to call Utah my home although I am a foreigner. It really feels like this to me.
Utah and the people I've have been surrounded by have participated to me becoming an adult and have been there supporting and believing in me; what a home should provide.I left knowing that I would be back some day. And I still see it as such.
Thailand
I arrived in Bangkok and joined Thelma who was attending a conference. I left for a developing country but arrive in a luxurious hotel, … and realized that this is very much part of developing countries and that if I wanted to see what the developing world was I needed to see all aspects of it and not only the aspects that I like.
The capital
People everywhere. Roads everywhere. Passageways everywhere. I though I had seen the biggest shopping malls in the US. Well no. Bankoke 's malls beat the US ones. The city is dirty. There are many poor people on the streets. It is really hot and humid.
Chang Mai
Right after, I went to Chang Mai for couple days. My friend needed to rest from a really stressful week. There I discovered Monasteries and Buddhist temples; respectively these being places of peace and places of insane tourism where the religiosity and sacredness of the temple seems violated. Clashing juxtaposition of beautiful works dedicated to the gods and tourists looking at it like a entertainment and keeping the same behavior as if they were in a shopping mall. At the monasteries I learned about Buddhist social work and this topic remains till today a subject of study for me. Buddhist monks have started providing social work services in Burma because the government does not provide for these. Their approach is based on religious concepts and principles. I will share more about it when I'll have a better picture of the whole.
MAE SOT
Thai Police and Burmese people.
The trip to Mae Sot was a bit intimidating. There were 4 police check points to get to the city. The Thai police does that to prevent Burmese people to migrate inside the country illegally. Papers are checked. When illegal Burmese people are found, they are arrested, and then sent back to Burma. However, in Mae Sot... one can hear the rate of Burmese migrant people to be anything between 65% and 90% of the population. I would easily say 80%. Burmese people who have a passport can buy for 4500baht per year a work permit that allows them to stay in Mae Sot, which is reasonable price (a lower class person usually spends 6 000baht per months to live total). However, to live in the city they need identification papers, which most Burmese people do not have when they flee their country. Most Burmese people do not have passports. Only rich people can afford them and people who have no political involvement. If one applies for a passport and the regime has doubts about the reasons to apply for a passport, investigations will be undertaken. Many Burmese had to flee, leaving their family behind, when they learned that the police was looking for them and came to Mae Sot illegally. They are now stuck in Mae Sot: without paper they can not go anywhere and they can not go to Burma to get a passport. They also live constantly running away from the police who has check points in the city also.
The People
Burmese people love to sing. It is said of them that they are passionate lovers. Many have long distance relationships that holds for years when one is in prison for 2-6 years or when they flee their country. There is a saying that says that if Burmese people would fight the way they love Burma would already be free. It is said that Burmese people work towards their freedom, but not hard enough and not well enough. Thai people when looking at the 2007 event said from the beginning that they Burmese people would loose against the militaries because they were not organized well enough and had not plan. The question is not to research who is right or wrong. I am just trying to give you perspectives that I meet here around. You can decide then what you think. The military regime in Burma has arrested and continues to arrests thousands of people who are politically active and belonging to a party that does not like the military regime. Burmese use of internet is limited. There are spyse everywhere and even here in Mae Sot because the militaries know that anti-government activities are growing here. There is the need to send Burmese people inside to help after having organized things outside. So people, when in Mae Sot, use wrong names on internet which they use a lot to get organized. I will tell you more when I come back.
OK I have a lot more to tell you, but I think it is more pleasurable to receive news fdrom time to time, then a brick to ingurgitate at one time. So I will write sooner next time and give you more news.
Now that I have settled down I am a bit more organized, and not biking all around all the time to discover things!!
I love you all and miss you, really. I remember talking and laughing with you. Mhm.
Atali
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