Children of Mae Ra Moe
photo: Dee Mu Wah
Class time
photo: Hsa K' Brew
Boxing boy
Checkers at Bible school
Roof leaves
MAE RA MOE
We found we were sleeping 9 and 10 hours every night; sleeping through roosters, cook coming in at 4 am, and various household members climbing the ladder to the 2nd floor. And always there was the murmur of people talking on the little front porch benches which opened directly on to the dirt road.
Up by 6:30 am, struggle into clothes under our blankets, get our 2 Chinese thermoses (thermii?) of boiling hot water for coffee and at 8 am sharp Hsa K' Bru calls: 'O me, O me', 'eat,eat', in Karen. Down we go to eat breakfast with our students; rice, noodle soup, chilies, whatever is left over from dinner the night before. The students eat enormous quantities of food, 'the better to walk through the jungle,' says Hsa Eh Htoo. Some mornings we opt for 'golowa' food: muesli and a banana if we can find one. It seems odd that in this lush country, vegetables and fruit are not easily available. The oranges we see are small and puckered, bananas have black spots. Watermelon seems to be available, though. Perhaps because everything must be trucked in over that painful road, things are expensive. We see many large trucks lumbering through with bags of charcoal, fish paste, rice, shoes; everything must be on site before the rainy season starts and the roads become impassable.
Our students are sitting on the floor upstairs, waiting to download photos, take notes, talk, and take more photos. This group is by far the most talkative we have ever had. They all have opinions and are not shy about expressing them. Sally Wah delivers some technical talk which is a boon. This in spite of the fact that she is getting married next month, here at Mae Ra Moe, and her mind is on things like how many kilos of potatoes and onions have to be bought. There is already a wedding pig fattening at her mother's house.
The workshop stops at 11 am, and at 11:30 we are eating again: rice, noodle soup, yellow beans, whatever didn't get consumed at breakfast. The students go off to do photo homework and Nat & I go up to our 'sleeping porch' to regroup, drink water, rest, prepare for afternoon session that starts at 1 pm. Nat lugs the generator outside and starts 'genny' up, always collecting a crowd. One of the guys at KYO erects a straw mat 'roof' for it. Then everyone plugs in their battery chargers, we plug in the computers and printer and away we go. By that time it is sweltering upstairs, so after a few days we move downstairs to the cooler kitchen area. This means we have a larger audience of curious lookers-on and passers-by, but never mind. We are supposed to finish at 3 pm but there are contact sheets to print, assignments to explain or mime ( Sally was sick for a day and a half ). Nat goes out to shut down 'genny' and put her to bed, i make notes for the next day, organize downloaded photos, and long for a bucket of cold water. We go up to our sleeping porch, get our shower stuff, and head for the river or a neighboring organization that has offered the use of their cold water shower. Heavenly! Bathing in the river involved wearing clothes ( wash yourself and them in one fell swoop) or a longyi, which,I was always in danger of parting company with! Plus we always had a wide-eyed audience, so the offer of a little privacy was irresistible. Dinner at 4 or 4:30 pm, then sit on the front benches and chat with the neighbors, watch kids play, enjoy the cool. The kids make airplanes out of leaves and sticks and stilts out of poles and pieces of bamboo for the foot rests. They're good on them! Sometimes kids follow us upstairs and watch us get ready for bed!
One day at about 7 am we hiked up to the Bible school, on top of the mountain directly opposite our house. About a zillion mud steps ( must be fun in rainy season) and suddenly we're at the top looking at this beautiful 'Jesus Garden', with roses, irises, gladioli etc. A man is strolling ahead of us listening to the BBC Burma service on his transistor radio. He's one of the pastors and welcomes us. There's a dormitory for students, many of whom are orphans, and a fish hatchery where catfish are raised during the rainy season. It's a busy place on Sundays, with three services, all of them well-attended. The choir practices on Fridays and Saturdays in a community center at the base of the hill, directly across from us. Lovely!
The second Sunday we were there Sally and her fiancee took all of us to Section 7, where his family live. We left at 8 am sharp and walked along the river for about an hour until we got to this scary high bridge. Very high, suspended from cables, and very mobile, this wasn't my idea of fun. 'We take boat,' says Sally as we scrambled down the bank and got into a long boat for the short pull across. Hsa Eh Htoo's family were waiting for us in an immaculate bamboo house. We were served yellow bean fritters with a chili sauce ( hot but not fiery), and rice wine in Sprite bottle. This at 10 am. After a glass of that, I had to lie down in a hammock for a little nap while everyone else carried on talking. About 10 minutes later, I look up, and Hsa Eh Htoo's brothers have rigged up a hammock for Nat. One of the advantages of being 'pee pee' and 'pho pho'! Next stop was lunch at the nursery school, where the teachers served us cookies, fruit, Fanta, and Coke. Then they presented us with Karen bags and thanked us for visiting. School was not in session, but we were told that there are 200 plus kids in this one room school.
By now it's 1 pm and time to head back. This time we cross over on the bridge...yikes! But Sally promises us that we can swim when we get to the other side so I manage it. Swimming in this river is a misnomer; the current is very strong, even now in dry season, so you wade out and cling to a rock on the bottom. It felt sooo good but we were dry by the time we got back on the road. At this point three of our students said good bye as they were walking another 3 hours to Mae La Oon, another refugee camp, that lies on the other side of a humongous mountain. They had friends and family there and wanted a visit. 'We'll be back tomorrow for class,' they sang. And they were! Tired, but on time.
Before we knew it, the workshop was almost over and it was time to plan the closing ceremony and party. Many meetings and lists were being passed around; also a lot of chopping of garlic and onions in the kitchen. Nat and I made certificates for the 'graduates' and waited to be told when we had to make a speech. Because you always have to make a speech. The final afternoon we packed into the upstairs room; quite a crowd; students, us, kids, neighbors, camp head man, president of KYO and her husband, the secretary of something or other. Everyone made a speech and again we were presented with beautifully wrapped gifts ( Karen shirts). Now it was time for a kazillion group pictures and then we trooped downstairs for the best kao soi (noodles w. curried chicken, cilantro, onions, garlic, tomatoes) I have ever had.
The next day we piled into the truck and headed for Mae Sot and some clean clothes. Joesphine and Paw Tha Shee returned with us, before going back to Karen State and No Poe Camp. Hsa K' Brew stayed in Mae Ra Mo; Mya Wi, Hsa Eh Htoo, Ku Lu Sein, and Hsa Law Eh returned to Mae La Oon, EI Htoo Htah (IDP camp inside the border) and Karen State.
NOTE: Photos on this post are by students and us.
