my story photo project

MY STORY photo project 3 goes to camp /part 2

2008-03-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

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.

MY STORY photo project 3 goes to camp /part 1

2008-03-23T02:42:00.000-07:00

Cool guy / photo: Eh Ku Thaw

Happy kid

See that icon?

KP duty

Ready, aim, shoot

Our home at Mae Ra Moe

Ready to roll

Are we ready yet?

5 am.
Ready to roll.

Our room with a view.

Broom guy.

The long road home.

Mae Ra Moe Refugee Camp

12 days at Mae Ra Moe sounded like a great way to slow down, do some training with a new group of students, and generally unwind. We knew the truck ride north would be rough and dusty once we left the pavement, about 4 hours into the 6 + hour trip, but, hey, we're tough!

Our translator and assistant Sally arranged to pick us up at 5 am on Saturday, March 8. We'd have Sunday to settle in and start the training on Monday. 5 am came and went. We napped, checked that we had the peanut butter, toilet paper, coffee, cameras, printer, generator, ink cartridges, paper, markers, gifts for guards, bottled water ... 7 am arrived along with Sally, Kaw Dow, expert truck driver. First stop is Mae Pa where we pick up 4 women, 3 of whom will be students, one of whom is a mystery guest. Next stop is KEWU, where Ywa Hay attempts to load 4 mattresses onto the back of truck. The mattresses get one, but then there is no room for passengers. Off come the mattresses, 4 women climb back in, Ywa Hay, Sally, and I get in back seat of truck, Nat boards the front ( one of the advantages of having long 'golowa' legs. After a brief stop to fill up the petrol jugs ( for genny) we're off. Ywa Hay, whose glass is always half full, told the following riddle: What does a poor person have, a rich person doesn't, and if you eat it you will die? NOTHING!

After a lunch stop, the road starts to climb and twist, green, lush, not a guard rail in sight. Sally is looking a little green, but the rest of us are fine. When we leave the pavement, there is no more possibility of dozing because we are hanging on for dear life. Nat's head looks like one of those bobble dolls! Stop in the middle of nowhere for pee/water break and then it's on to Mae Ra Moe, where our passes are carefully checked before the pole barrier is raised.

Our home is the KYO office in section 5B of the camp. The bamboo house is shoe horned in between the Mae Ra Moe river and the dirt road. Directly across from KYO is a community center and a long dirt path going up to the Bible school. 'Closer to God,' I say. No one laughs but me. We will sleep on the upstairs porch, on our foam mats with bed net. KYO has no power as it costs 300 baht/month to hook up to someone's generator for 3 hours /night. But they do have lots of candles that are left burning all over the place. Is bamboo not very flammable? Downstairs there is a kitchen area and toilet, with bucket shower, and a common area. It's cool down here because of the concrete floor. Something we will come to appreciate soon. Most of the cooking is done outside on a ledge above the river. Everyone has many bags of charcoal for fuel. This, fish paste, rice, oil, and bamboo poles for house construction are supplied by UNHCR and other NGO's. ZOA provides funding for schools, and COERR provides for the many healthy garden plots we saw. At the camp office we see a map with the various sections that lie along the Mae Ra Moe and Mae Sariang rivers that form a T. Population as of Jan/08 was approximately 16, 500. And growing; babies, more refugees. There is also a brand new clock on a high stainless steel pole, powered by a solar panel and donated by Seiko. But in case you can't see the clock, there are local watchmen who bang out the hour on a bamboo pole; 24/7.

Sally goes off to her family's home (they live in Mae Ra Moe) after scheduling a meeting with our students for 5 pm. Hsa K' Brew and her fiancee are KYO staff members who also live at the office and are in charge os us. Since they speak Karen and we speak English, communication is halting at first, but after a few days, we figure each other out; hot water for coffee, time to eat, go to the river for a bath.

At 5 we meet our 7 students, 4 women ( 3 we brought from Mae Pa, although they had come from inside Karen State ) plus Hsa K' Brew) and 3 guys, from an IDP camp just inside the border and from nearby Mae La Oon. The students will eat here but sleep at another office, as there are already an indeterminate number of people sleeping at KYO. Somewhere between 4 and 6; it varied from day to day.

Because the camp is situated in a steep narrow valley, dark comes early and so does bedtime. We were usually in bed by 8 pm, reading with our headlamps. Breakfast was at 8 am, although the cook started the fire at about 4 am, lunch was 11:30 am, after the morning session, and dinner was at 4 pm. Lots of rice, yellow bean soup, unidentified greens, some fish, chicken once, some pork, wonderful fried potatoes, and of course bowls and bowls of chilies. The camp has many little shops that sell watermelon, eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, onions, bananas, small bags of 4 cookies, penny candy, pop, betel nut, cheroots, soap, washing powder, etc. There is a market of sorts with clothes, cooking pots, plastic containers, and a zillion plastic bags that are used and then seem never to disappear.

Training took place upstairs in the main room; wonderfully cool in the morning, but very warm in the afternoon. Training sessions had various 'drop in' observers, including a quiet young man who turned out to be the KYO secretary and who wrote down everything we put on the board ( turns out he understood some English, but was too shy to speak), and a 9 year old whose family lived next door, but who seemed to be a go-fer for KYO and slept there as well. Towards the end of the 9 day workshop we moved downstairs for the afternoon. For 2 days we also found a source of ICE! Someone with a generator in Section 7 would make it, and sell it to other sections every once in a while.

MY STORY photo project 3/ 2008: Mae Tao clinic gang of 10 (or so)

2008-02-26T06:48:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Our 10 students at Mae Tao Clinic come from various departments; reproductive health, in-patient, center for child development, blood donor clinic, eye clinic. Only 2 females, alas. But lots of photos being taken; we say take 6, they come back with 20 or 30! Oh for faster computers... Today they read their artist statements, some in English, some in Burmese, and some of the titles for their images. Because the workshop theme is 'Celebrating 20 years of the Mae Tao Clinic work in the Thai-Burma community', we are seeing quite a few images from inside this amazing place. They will have 24 hours of training and they have chosen to meet on Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday. Attendance over the past three sessions has been episodic, due to funerals, wakes, and other training. We breathe deeply and look at the images they are making. It all works out in the end.

The first day is like Christmas; everyone gets to open the box with a new camera, attach the wrist strap, install batteries and chip, and turn the thing ON!! This year's camera is a Canon Powershot A460 with way too many bells and whistles for us old film fogeys. A 'foliage' setting???

By day 5, they are documenting their day: inoculating kids, for example. Or working in the prosthetics lab; a mountain of oranges, 2 little girls sleeping, a proud papa, a child bathing.

One of the assignments is to take photos using the edge of the frame; hence Law Du's picture of Paung taken on the diagonal. Mg Mg Tinn comes in to talk about words and pictures, as a visual artist with many exhibitions on his CV, he de-mystifies the idea of artist statements in a language they can all understand: Burmese!

Wayne's Great Thailand Adventure: Working at Borderline Gallery

2008-02-25T06:56:00.000-08:00

February 25, 2008

As I write this, artist in residence Wayne has gone off on a field trip to Sukhothai, one of the ancient capitals of Siam, that lies about 3 hours east of Mae Sot. He will only be gone one night, but we miss him! He has been faithfully painting every day at Borderline Gallery, looked after by curator Sein Sein and visited by various exiled artists and the odd falong. Came in last Saturday and there was WB working, along with Sein Sein, Saw Cu Cil, and Kyaw. Although no one was speaking, you could feel the energy buzz. Wayne says Saw Cu Cil has a million ideas, all of which he wants to act on immediately.

MY STORY photo project 3/ 2008: Flat Stanley & Friends

2008-02-22T17:20:00.000-08:00

February 18 / Mae Pa
We took Wayne, Greg, and Julie to Mae Pa to meet some former MY STORY students whom we are training to teach with us. Greg and Julie are travelling with Flat Stanley ( see photo ). Somehow I think the idea of flat Stanley was lost in translation; never mind, the kids back in Annapolis Royal will love the photos.

Nan Aye and Ler Moo were asked to make portraits of the 'golowa' ( that would be us) which we then downloaded. They made us look pretty good! Then came the fun part: giving out the proceeds from print sales in Charlottetown. Harmony Wagner had arranged an exhibition of 15 of last year's images as part of an event welcoming a group of Burmese refugees to PEI. All the images sold; with half the money going to the artists and half to the project. Nan Aye and Ler Moo say they will buy clothes with their earnings. Two down and thirteen to go!

Wayne's Great Thailand Adventure: A Day in Myawaddy / February 11, 2008

2008-02-12T18:01:00.000-08:00

It was time for Nat and me to renew our visas by walking across the Moei River Friendship Bridge from Mae Sot, Thailand, to Myawaddy, Burma. This is a very common procedure for 'falangs' here; costs 500 baht which goes to the Burmese government, and is quite painless; unless, of course, you forget to look at your passport for visa expiry date and must then fork over an additional 500 baht for each 'late' day.

Sein Sein, Borderline Gallery's curator, offered to meet us at the immigration office on the Burma side and show us around Myawaddy, as she lived there before moving to Mae Sot.

After leaving our passports with Burmese immigration and receiving a handwritten slip with our passport numbers ( entrusted to Wayne for safe keeping) we met Sein Sein and walked up Myawaddy's main street, followed by hopeful 'guides' on bike rickshaws looking to show us the sights. Sein Sein was loaded down with water, oranges, and grapes, in case we got hungry/thirsty. As we passed a monk she put 2 of the oranges in his begging bowl. First stop was a tiny hole in the wall gallery, sign painting shop, home of one of Sein Sein's artist friends. We stopped for a few minutes while she helped him make a sign, that is, I think that's what she was doing. Then we piled into a ramshackle mini-van and headed up a hill to the 'temple on the mountain'. This is a new ( 4-5 years old ) temple, whose Pali name, according to Sein Sein, is too long and confusing for translation. By now it was about 10 am ( 9:30 am Burma time, just like Nfld ) and the aqua walls and gold chedi were brilliant and burning in the sun; white tile floors were still cool to our bare feet. Aaaaaahhhhh....

As we walked around the main chedi counter clockwise Sein Sein told us about the many statues of 'little gods' and the animal statues for days of the week: Saturday: elephant, Wednesday: mouse. Inside the cool shady temple we rested, drank water and ate grapes. Then Wayne and Nat went upstairs to the roof top, where 'woman not allowed', for a 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside: rollling green hills, gleaming temples, and blue blue skies. In the meantime Sein Sein and I watched a little boy play with a mommy and baby turtle, temple residents whose shells had been painted gold; although it must have been a while ago as the paint was pretty worn. Leaving the temple building we passed plain wooden cells where you can stay and meditate, ' get away from family and noise', according to Sein Sein. Said hello to some monks and then zoomed down the hill on motorcycles to Sein Sein's friend's Shan restaurant. Banana pineapple shakes, fresh fish, rice, pennywort salad, and the obligatory group photo. Delicious!

Back on the motorcycles and down to the market, a rabbit warren of narrow aisles and stuff, stuff, stuff; rice, chilies, spices, clothes, face whitener, garden tools, plastic toys, face whitener, charcoal braziers, machetes, pottery, face whitener, plastic boxes and bags....and so we head back to the Friendship bridge on bicycle rickshaws, say goodbye to Sein Sein who is going to visit friends. Burmese immigration guy says to Wayne as he hands back his passport, 'You look like 007, Sean Connery.' And to Nat, 'You are Prince Charles, you know, son of Queen Elizabeth.' Hmmm. To me, he says nothing. Back on the Thai side, we get new visa stamps, and cycle home, hot, tired, and very happy.

Jesudemarai, Sein Sein! (Thank you so much!)

MSppa 3 /Wayne's Great Thailand Adventure: Mae Sot & Borderline

2008-02-06T07:24:00.000-08:00

January 29, 2008

Wayne says he is overwhelmed by the colors here; we took him to Borderline Gallery today, which will be his 'studio' for the next month. He met curator Sein Sein Lin who gave him a warm Burmese welcome and then he and Nat went off in search of supplies: board (yes), hand cleaner (no). We introduced him to night market eating and many of our artist friends; he has gotten used to his bicycle (courtesy Borderline) and is exploring on his own. On Saturday he gave what turned out to be a kind of master class, with several of the Borderline artists and their students watching and listening intently. After lunch, WB was the model as Saw Cu Cil asked permission to sketch him.

On Monday, we were invited to meet the Canadian Ambassador to Thailand, H.E. David Sproule. Once again Borderline put on a gorgeous lunch: tea leaf salad, ginger salad, potato curry, noodle salad, pomelo, oranges, pineapple, papaya, watermelon, French press coffee or fresh fruit juice. Are you drooling yet? You would have been proud of the boy; he represented Nova Scotia beautifully!

MSppa 3 /Wayne's Great Thailand Adventure: Bangkok to Mae Sot January 25 / 2008

2008-02-06T02:29:00.001-08:00

We met visiting artist Wayne Boucher in Bangkok, where he arrived late January 25, only slightly the worse for wear. After a good night's sleep at The Atlanta, we went sightseeing; to Grand Palace, where the clothing police said I must rent a very hot polyester shirt because a shawl wasn't suitable. It was packed as usual so after a while we retreated to Wat Po, much more civilized and peaceful with it's reclining gold Buddha and shady verandas. That night we took a dinner cruise on the Chao Praya; lots of good Thai food; and Wat Arun and the Grand Palace looking appropriately royal.

Next day we set off in search of contemporary art galleries. We found 3, with help of something called BAM (Bangkok Art Map); one was very up-market, showing a European painter, one was closed, and one took us 2 cab rides to find because Susan missread the address. It was called NO SPACE, young, funky, and at the end of a very quiet soi. Many Starbucks stops were made. We ate at our favorite Japanese noodle restaurant ( thank you Tom & Cindy).

Monday evening we headed for Mo Chit bus terminal and the night bus to Mae Sot. As Wayne said, it was the bus ride from hell; a group of very talkative French people insisted on pushing their seats back to horizontal position which meant person behind is effectively imprisoned. Add to that the driver's penchant for following the middle dividing line, another bus that had skidded off the road...but we made it; piled into a tuk-tuk, deposited WB at BanThai Guest House, reclaimed our bikes and rode home at 6 am.

MSppa goes camping on the border/ part 2

2008-01-30T23:55:00.000-08:00

Closing ceremony or no training is complete w/out same:

They took hundreds of photos; they took portraits of each other; they wrote an 'artist statement', they edited their work down to 3 images for each student; we printed out 4 x 6 inch work prints; they gave them titles and arranged them as for an exhibition. So now it's time for the 'closing ceremony'. We sit with Sally Wah and plan the menu: fish, french fries, chicken, oranges, soda pop, beer, and several plastic bags of local rice wine. She and Htoo Gay then go shopping; the ceremony/party is planned for Wednesday, January 23, 4 pm. This is so we can leave early early Thursday, get back to Mae Sot, shower and take night bus to Bangkok to pick up famous artist in residence Wayne Boucher. There is much bustling and singing going on while Nat and I pack.

At 4 pm, our students gather, along with the school administrator, a couple of teachers, and a camp honcho. Htoo Gay leads off by thanking the camp for letting us come and apologizing for the noise we made (noise ?), maybe it got lost in translation, then 2 of our students speak on behalf of KYO, then school administrator, then there is a lovely song, and then we are commanded to stand up and speak: 5 minutes each! We manage to spout something and then we are presented with Karen bags and wooly leis, made of short pieces of wool, which are a symbol of respect, gratitude, celebration, congratulations. So endeth the formal portion of the evening. Food, ice, and drink appear and pretty soon we are all feeling very happy. Too soon it's 6 am and Sally Wah is hustling us down the ladder and along the path to the river. As always we are accompanied by many young people who carry all our stuff. It is very foggy this morning and at one point Nat and I realize that we are ALONE, no one in sight, for the first time in 10 days. Not for long, though, as Phaw Phaw has been sent back to make sure we don't get lost. We make it down the river in one very low riding boat, back to the truck and Mae Sot. Sally says the first thing she is going to do is get on her motorbike go to the shop and buy potato chips and Coke. As for me, I head for a hot shower.

MSppa 3 goes camping on the border / jan. 2008

2008-01-24T15:33:00.000-08:00

January 24, 2008

We arrived in Mae Sot this morning at 9 am after spending 10 days doing photo training at an a IDP camp on the border. Exhilarating, exhausting, inspiring, overwhelmingly beautiful setting on the Moei River, north of Mae Sot, this camp has a clinic, a middle school, and about 700 people, along with chickens, ducks, goats, pigs, dogs and cats. It also has a lot of dust.

Working with KYO, we bought a generator, cameras, quilts, blankets, peanut butter, crackers, UHT milk, newsprint, markers, CD's, notebooks, pens, mosquito killer and set off by truck on Sunday, January 13. After 2 1/2 hour ride, we unloaded ( that's the royal we) everything, clambered down to the river, loaded everything onto a boat, and put-putted 20 minutes to our destination. By now it was dusk, so we unloaded in the dark, and hiked to our home for the next 10 days: an open sided bamboo house on stilts, near the school dormitories.

There was generator power every evening from 6:45 pm until 9:30 or so, also depending on diesel supply. Toilet was Thai-style in a low-roofed bamboo shed and bathing was in the river. Food was prepared in big cauldrons over open fire; lots of rice, fresh fish, chilies, something called 'banana tree', I think banana tree root, very like cucumber, noodle soup, and thermos of hot water for 'golowa' (us) coffee, which Nat made in our coffee 'sock'. We all (nine students, Sally Wah, us) slept on mats on the floor, under bed nets; it wasn't nearly as cold as we had expected, and for a few nights we had a glorious full moon; no need for flashlight on those midnight trips to loo.

We started at 9 am on Monday morning (that's Karen time; for us it was 9:30 Thai time, shades of Newfoundland). Stopped for lunch, shooting time, at 11 am, then from 1 - 3 pm. Shooting assignments were given, then downloaded and critiqued as a group, with Sally Wah translating, and me translating Nat for Sally Wah.

The days had a rhythm: wake at 6:30 am to the singing of the students ( actually a prayer ), sound of firewood being chopped, the thwack of a cane ball being kicked; breakfast of rice, soup, left overs from the previous night's dinner. Then trip to the outdoor kitchen to wash face in a big drum of river water, tie up bed net, roll up blankets, start class. Lunch is more of same, try to use cell phones, only works when taped to a specific verandah rail! Afternoon class, then down to river to bathe and wash clothes, home to prepare for next day, dinner at 6 pm, play cards with everyone, with the occasional sip of homemade rice wine. Generator comes on (or not) and when it goes off, out come tiny candles stuck on every available surface. We listen to the students reciting their lessons (rote learning is very big here) and evening song prayers, in bed by 9:30 or 10 pm. Everthing is covered in a fine layer of dust and pigs ( one huge sow took an instant dislike to me), goats, cats, ducks, chickens, puppies, little kids wander everywhere. We were the subject of many wide-eyed stares and the recipient of many helping hands as we tried to stay upright in the fast-moving river and down the river bank.

I read this over and only wish I could send the feel of a warm breeze through the bed net; the smell of frying fish, the light at sundown over the Chinese-painting mountains that surround the camp. For now, these photos will have to suffice.

MY STORY photo project 3/ 2008 or getting there is half the fun

2007-12-20T01:27:00.000-08:00

After leaving beautiful Karsdale on November 26 we finally arrived in Mae Sot at 5 am on December 19. We ate our way through Seattle and Vancouver with friends ( fresh tuna, oysters, my fill of Starbucks in Seattle; delicate ravioli in Vancouver...but I digress.)

Our hosts in Seattle , Gloria and Gary, whom we had met in Mae Sot, showed us the mountains and the water and introduced us to a wonderful group of people who are working hard to help the people of Burma. Gloria had helped arrange an exhibition of some of the MY STORY photos at the Miro Tea Shop in Ballard, near their home. We arrived to find that only one box of two had arrived and that box had apparently been drop kicked by the US postal service. Hence some broken glass to deal with! Luckily there was a U frame it shop around the corner so we were able to repair the damage post-haste. The exhibition will run for the month of January.

My friend Jane, fellow ESL teacher in Mexico and Mae Sot, then drove us up to Vancouver, where we biked around Stanley Park on a brilliant but coooold day. She also took us to look at several possible venues for the MY STORY exhibition in the spring of 2008. A morning yoga class was on the agenda in preparation for that endless flight to Bangkok in the evening.

Gloria, Gary, Jane and Mike we can't thank you enough for your generosity and hospitality. We are very lucky to have friends like you!

The Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok is still crumbling...a few more missing tiles in the swimming pool, the curtain falling off its rod in the room...but somehow it manages to exude a certain funky charm. And the restaurant is still good, presided over by Ahn and a staff of giggly waitresses. To top it all off, who should be there when we arrive but Tom and Cindy. Just like home!

Took a day off from camera research and went to the Bridge on the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi, about 2 hours north of Bangkok. There is fascinating new museum by the cemetery, with many photos, artifacts, and first hand accounts by the Brit and Aussie P.O.W's. Also a kazillion tourists all tripping over the RR ties on the bridge. We then took a clackety old train up the line, had lunch and then went for the shortest boat ride I've ever been on. It couldn't have been more than 10 minutes on a long-tail boat; however the river spray felt great.

So now we're in Mae Sot; we've met with some of our Karen Youth Organization students from the previous 2 years, in fact spent most of the day on Friday looking at the photos they had taken, many from IDP areas inside. And talking about schedules.

Today, Saturday, Dec. 22, we went for a bike ride along the River Moei that forms the Thai-Burma border here and on the way home somehow got into the middle of a parade of people in yellow shirts, complete with marching band, on Mae Sot's main street. We think they were celebrating the general election which is being held tomorrow, but of course we're not sure! Everyone seemed happy to have us bumble along. Right now, Nat is out buying beer because there is NO alcohol sold on election day.

On Monday, Dec. 24, we move into our rented house. We've bought a bed (that comes with 2 guys to assemble it) , mattress, and lounge-y chair thing while Thant at Ban Thai has given us a set of sheets. I have the Thai word for pillows so that is the next task. We are the proud owners of about 15 mugs, courtesy of the local mobile phone company. When you buy minutes, you get a mug...3 years = lots of mugs.

Also trying to figure out times to call the daughters on Christmas. You'd think we'd have figured it out by now; we'll see.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

MY STORY 2 / The Borderline Exhibition / Mae Sot

2007-05-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

60 images from 20 students. Each print carefully put in its frame by Nat: dusting, wiping, using the indispensable Lee Valley framing tool to whack the frame back on! It took him a hot, sweaty week. My job was to get the exhibition prints from the printer guy, type up all the labels, artist statements, get them laminated, correct the typos, get them laminated again. We worked out prices for the photos: framed and unframed, with 1/2 the proceeds going to the artist. Sein Sein Lin and Saw Kennedy have put up posters and delivered invitations all over town. We keep seeing them in unexpected places as well as all the usual 'falang' hangouts. The poster photo was taken by Neh Htoo of Nann Aye. They were two of the people who came from IDP areas to take part in the training. Can you see the 'wings' behind Nann Aye?

2007 is year 2 for the MY STORY photo project exhibition and because our students from the Mae Tao Clinic all work during the day and our students from IDP areas were too far away, Nat and I did most of the hanging over 3 days. Der Lweh Htoo and Kyaw Kyaw Oo ( 2 of last year's students) came on the last day and besides hanging photos, put up labels, cleaned glass, and straightened pictures.

Thursday, April 5, at 6 pm Sein Sein Lin (curator), MoMo, Nge Nge, and Eh Eh had the food ready ( those steamed spring rolls and tiny potato samosas, pineapple and watermelon, lime ice tea) ready, the floor swept, and the doors open. First to arrive were the students from the Clinic. This was the first chance they had to see their work framed and hung. A 'wow' moment! Pretty soon the gallery was packed and some of the prints were sold. KYO's Rocky welcomed everyone, Nat said a few words and then some of our students spoke: in English, in Burmese, in Karen.

It was a very satisfying evening for all of us. Our time here has flown by; doesn't seem possible we have been in Mae Sot since December.

Thanks to Karen Youth Organization, Karen Education Workers Union, helpwithoutfrontiers.org, Mae Tao Clinic, Borderline Gallery.

Most of all, thanks to the MY STORY photographers. Without you there would be no story.

Summer Camp in Burma

2007-04-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

April 9 - 20, 2007

The MY STORY photo project has just returned from a 2 week workshop in Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma). We were asked to give the photo workshops by a young Karen/Burmese guy who has lots of ideas and lots of energy. HIs idea was to train some young Burmese considered ' at risk' and to do it through an Anglican youth group. We decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up so on April 8 we flew into Yangon and on April 9 we met our 14 students.

Yikes! We had said we could handle 6 students ( we'd brought 6 cameras ) but our guy gave us a seventh camera, we divided the gang into 2 person teams, sharing cameras , and off they went. The age range was 16 to 31, including two young women, one of whom reminded us of Peanut's Lucy! There were 2 older Karen guys ( the 31 yr. olds) and we decided that our Karen friends in Mae Sot had planted them there to make sure we didn't do anything foolish.

The workshops were held in a big concrete hall, part of Bishop's Court, the compound where the Anglican archbishop of Myanmar lives. We gave the kids short assignments, downloaded them ( this took quite a while), talked about them as best we could in a mixture of Burmese/English/Karen/sign language and had them edit them. Because we didn't have access to a printer, we'd put the edited images on a CD and rush them downtown to get 3x5 prints made. 'Rush' might be a bit of an exageration! The temperature was 40+ and Yangon is very spread out, which meant a taxi, usually w. no door or window handles, definitely no aircon! We took them on one field trip to a nearby pagoda which was fine until we walked through an army complex on the way home. Nat and I were terrified, but the students were very much at ease and no one said 'boo' to us. Go figure! At the end of the workshop, the students chose 5 pictures each and mounted them on big sheets of kraft paper which were then hung from a wire along one wall.

The workshops felt like summer camp; kids on summer holiday, short attention spans, love to talk, sing, and play ping pong (there were 2 ping pong tables in the hall). So we had our work cut out for us; by the end of the training we felt like vaudevillians: yukking it up, making faces, anything to get the information across. And judging by their photos they did learn something; whether from us or from each other is debatable.

Our time in Yangon coincided with 'Thingyan', their water festival/new year, when everything closes and people stand on the streets with hoses spraying anything that passes by. We lost 2 days teaching then because public transportation stops ( this consists of ancient cartoon like buses, stuffed to the gills with humans) so our students had no way of getting to class. So...

Nat and I decided to take a train ride that circles greater Yangon, 1$ US for foreigners, 20 Kyt for Burmese. 'We won't get wet,' I said, 'It's a train...' The train had open windows and doors, benches that ran the length of the cars , and made 36 stops. At each stop someone would either get on with a hose or heave a bucket of water through one of the windows. Needless to say we were drenched! And it felt sooo good. Then we took a ferry across the Yangon river ( also $1 US, insurance included) to the dusty little town of Dalat. We went at sunset so it was blessedly cool. Lovely!

Initially we stayed downtown in a guest house with aircon. But there is a great lack of electricity in the city ( all the buildings have generators on the street that throb through the night), so we were often in the dark. And it was a cab ride to work and a cab ride back. So when our contact said he could get us a deal at a hotel near Bishop's Court that had a SWIMMING POOL we said yes, please. This meant we could walk to work and there was a Black Canyon (Thai coffee shop franchise) just up the road that was open from 5 pm on during water festival so we could eat.

Made two visits to Shwe Dagon Pagoda, the holiest Buddhist temple in Burma; one at 7 am and one at 9 pm. There are many golden chedis and stupas aside from the great big one that you can see from almost everywhere in the city. The main one has a 78 carat diamond at the top which changes color at night depending on where you stand to see it. We were shown this by a 60 year old retired electrician who appointed himself our guide that night and then said he had no pension, no income, etc etc. We were happy to pay him for his guidance. There is a sense of calm at Shwe Dagon, even though there are many many people walking, praying, kids playing, banging on drums; we both felt it.

The city itself has lots of broad avenues and big ugly concrete buildings but it also has lots of big trees on those avenues and quite a few architectural vestiges of the British time there, including many many Christian churches, all of them in seemingly good repair.

It's dirty, noisy, polluted and fascinating. Great Indian food, weird entrail looking things being cooked in oil on the street that you spear with a bamboo skewer and gnaw on ( not for the faint of stomach) and good beer. The people seem very friendly, always ready with a 'hello' , ready to listen to your butchered Burmese with a smile.

Must stop now and go PACK as we leave Mae Sot on Monday, April 30 for Bangkok and home.

More Lessons Learned / Laos / part 3

2007-03-13T19:58:00.000-07:00

On Monday night we were awakened by the sound of thundering rain on our bungalow roof at the Lingngum Resort. Would we be able to ride to Vientiane in the morning??

At 6 am things were damp and grey but the rain had stopped so we set out to ride the 95k to Vientiane, capital of Lao. Brilliant green paddy fields, only one Parker Mountain type mountain, and many, many little kids yelling, helloooo!. The sky kept threatening rain which was a blessing as it meant the sun wasn't beating down on our heads. At 70k we stopped at one of the kazillion watermelon stands that lined the road and sucked back two of the sweetest, juiciest melons ever. Watermelon man shook out his dusty straw mat for us to sit on under a tarpaulin and hacked up the fruit. Then brought over his family for us to meet.

Arrived in Vientiane around 2:30 pm, feeling quite pleased with ourselves and quite hot and dirty. The Lanni Guest House welcomed us with ice cold water in the room frig, high ceiling with lovely fan, big screened windows with wooden shutters and a terrace that wrapped around the second floor looking out over the garden and neighboring wat,. It's an old French villa, very 1930’s, with padded doors (!), an armoire to actually HANG CLOTHES in. If I may digress: most people here seem to keep clothes in big plastic boxes or chests and whatever needs hanging gets hung on the verandah or in the garden. After hitting the local ‘falong’ supermarket which had things like wine and cheese, we retired to the balcony. Heaven. Vientiane is spread out along the Mekong, a slow dusty place, with wide boulevards, many one-way streets, and many streets undergoing major surgery so it's easy to get lost which we did with astonishing regularity. We did manage to find a few of the patisseries and cafes that are a legacy of the French. Vive la France!

We went to the National Museum to look at dusty badly reproduced photos of the 'secret war' waged by the American imperialists. There was a diorama of the caves where the Pathet Lao hid out from the US carpet bombing. Honestly, it looked like green blobs of clay with a pencil hole poked in each blob! True to form, they said they closed at noon for one hour, but at 11:30 am when I arrived to join Nat they didn't want to let me in because 'we are closing now'. When I explained that I was meeting my husband and would be quick they relented.

Our next adventure was the great search for a pharmacy. Nat had come down with a bad head cold so I set off in search of something called ‘Tiffy’. We think it’s a decongestant; we’ve used it before when feeling cold-y; costs about .30 cents /4 pills and available at pharmacies, corner stores, just about everywhere. So off I go in search of the nearest pharmacy. It seems Vientiane only has 2 pharmacies, both located at the southern end of town, near the hospital. This I discover after hiking to the hospital and asking at least 5 people. Also getting 5 different sets of directions to the pharmacies. Finally , as I gave up and headed home, I passed a corner stall selling cigarettes and skin whitener ( 2 very popular products), so I asked the shopkeeper, ‘Tiffy?’ No she replied, but she pointed up the street to the next little stall. Sure enough, there were boxes and boxes of the stuff. Hallellulia.

After three days of wine/cheese, we rode the 23 k south to the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge , passing through immigration w/out paying the $10 US departure tax; we’re old? we’re on bikes? they forgot? The lead up to the bridge is a circuitous one , designed to get drivers from driving on the right back to driving on the left. In any case, there was not another soul on the bridge. Once over the bridge we found the bus station in Nong Khai , and a bus that would take us to Udon Thani where we would hopefully find another bus to Phitsanoluk. We were shepherded on to the bus by a couple of guys and a woman who seemed to be in charge of everything. Much waving of arms, shouting, laughing, with the end result that our bikes and panniers were stowed, we were seated with cold bottles of water in about 3 minutes. By noon we were in Udon Thani, where I was taken to the ticket desk by an elderly moto-taxi guy. Got 2 tickets for the noon bus, tried to explain that the bikes were coming (I’d left Nat to deal w. all that out on the roadway). Ticket lady couldn’t understand why I wanted 2 tickets and had 2 bikes until I pointed to my wedding ring and remembered how to say ‘2 people’ in thai. I then look up to see a procession approaching; first there’s someone I’ve never seen riding my bike with a big grin on his face, then there’s Nat, then there’s a couple of guys carrying panniers. So once again, we were shepherded onto the bus for the 8 hour ride west to Phitsanoluk. And a great ride it was, too. No air con, but lots of room, comfy seats, plenty of rest stops. Got to Phitsanoluk at dusk. ‘No problem, ‘ I said. ‘I was here with Jane 2 years ago. I’ll find the hotel Jane and I stayed at.’ Well, Phits. seems to have expanded since I was there and in no time we were totally lost in a big city with lots of traffic. ‘ Where’s the river?’, I kept asking. But before we found the river we found a big modern hotel and Nat said he was going no farther. The hotel took us in, bikes and all: we had a room on the 9th floor ( w. elevator), a roof top pool and garden and a dinner buffet. Also TV with BBC, ABC, CNN and the movie channel. Happiness...

Friday, March 2, we headed out to Sukhothai, ancient capital of Siam, and now a national historic site, with many temples and wats and one really good restaurant. It’s only 60k from Phits. and flat as a pancake but it seems they were re-paving the road so by the time we got to Sukhothai we were covered in red mud! Our guest house host took one look and said, ‘Go shower, you can check in later!’ He was French guy, cyclist, married to a Thai, with a lovely collection of wooden Buddhas, kneeling, reclining, praying, many of which he said he had bought at the river market in Mae Sot. Had a lovely lazy day on Saturday, cycling among the ruins, and bumping into this middle-aged couple staying at our guest house. They both wore the same safari vests ( lots of pockets), the same khaki pants, the same sensible shoes, and the exact same checked cotton neck scarf . They were visiting the ruins in a tuk-tuk and she had a sheaf of papers and a clipboard. Archaeologists? HIstorians? Twins? Part of a BBC Masterpiece Theatre? I never got up the nerve to approach them; they seemed entirely focused on whatever it was they were doing. More fun to make up stories anyway.

Sunday morning we zipped off to the Sukhothai bus station where we caught a mini-van ( bikes tied on top) to Mae Sot. Three hours later we were home, getting ready to start the second photo workshop at the Mae Tao Clinic on Monday.

End of Lao Adventures with Nat and Susan

More Lessons Learned: Laos / part 2

2007-03-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

LUANG PRABANG (LP): Lovely old guest house, Vissana, whose front room is loaded with antique silks and cottons. High ceilings with fans, lots of plants and flowers, but she only has room for one night. So the next morning after a big helping of banana pancakes and cafe lao, made in what looks like a cloth funnel, we are taken to her sister’s guest house a few blocks away. This is a stucco and bamboo house, renovated with silk hangings and baskets and would you believe, a BATHTUB!!! I haven’t had a bath since leaving Nova Scotia. Never mind that it leaked a bit and the plug didn’t quite plug; it felt soo good after a long dusty day on the bikes out of town to find the tomb of one Henri Mouhot who ‘discovered’ Angkor Wat but died of malaria here in 1861. The guide book said to look for a sign about 14k out of town. It neglected to tell us tthat the sign in question was for an elephant camp! We zipped past it, got to the elephant camp, where there were no people let alone any elephants, carried on through a small village and to the end of the road. Retracing our steps to the elephant camp sign we saw some parked bikes. On closer inspection, we saw a path going down to the river ( also mentioned in guide book). Down we went and after a few hundred yards ran into a group of French tourists who said we were on the right track. The tomb is tucked away in a little jungle glade by the river; quiet and peaceful. We met a fellow photographer there who said, ‘Did you see the big snake eating a frog on your way in?’ So much for peaceful and quiet.

There’s a good market in LP and lots of pastries and cakes, a legacy of the French. As a UNESCO heritage site there is also lots of work being done to restore and repair some of the murals on the old wats. The colors are blazing bright; quite a shock when you are used to seeing faded peeling images. We wanted to see two contemporary art exhibits at the LP museum but it took two days for us to get the timing right,. Museum hours are 8 am to 11 am and 1:30 pm to 3:50pm. Finally made it one afternoon and saw some huge silk embroderies, maybe 10 feet long by 5 feet high. One was silver thread on pale blue silk, waves of stars; another had a field of satellite dishes that looked like umbrellas, and a third was delicate flowers done in gold thread on yellow silk. Also saw some contemporary photography of Buddhist monks meditating in the jungle. When we went to look at an ancient throne in the main part of the museum at 3:30 pm ( I looked at my watch!), they were closing the doors!!! So we went and had lime fruit shake instead.

Our next hurdle was getting bus tickets for us and the bikes to go from LP to Vang Vieng, a distance of about 200k, but most of it vertical. First we went to 2 travel agents who said we couldn’t take the bikes on the bus. This came as surprise because we had had no problem in Thailand. A third agent sold us tickets, but said we had to check at the bus station about the bikes. We then went out to the bus station where the ticket agent said we had paid too much for our tickets and if we wanted to take the bikes it would be an extra 80,000 kip. OK we said. ‘Be here at 7 am tomorrow’. OK we said.

Next morning we rode to the bus station past a group of young monks chanting by the side of the road while a couple of people knelt in front of them. At the bus station, the driver said he wanted $5 US to put the bikes on. ‘Ha, ha, ‘ we smiled, we already paid’, meantime taking off panniers and front wheels and shoving the bikes in the luggage bays. This VIP bus took 6 hours to go the 200k up and up and around one hairpin turn after another. We passed a couple of cyclists we had met in LP and they looked exhausted. We silently thanked god that we were on 4 wheels and not 2 and arrived in Vang Vieng around 2:30 pm. Actually we arrived on the highway across an old deserted airstrip from the town and it took us a few minutes to figure out where the town actually was. But we did, found a guest house, had showers, had a nap, got up, went to use the bathroom only to find out there was no water. Help was summoned and the water was mysteriously turned on again!

Our plan was to ride from Vang Vieng to Ban Tha Ha, a town at the northern end of a long lake made when the Ngum river was dammed. There we were to call a Mr. Leh who would take us down the lake to Longngum resort, from where we would ride the 100k to Vientiane.

First challenge was to set this up with Mr. Leh. The phone system in Lao is sporadic, so it’s a crap shoot as to whether you will actually connect with someone on their cell phone or, if connected, whether the connection will last more than a minute. We got guy at guest house to call for us and after 3 tries he got through. ‘’You meet me at Ban Tha Ha at 10 am,’ says Mr. Leh before we are cut off.

Bright and early the next day we set off to ride the 23 k to Ban Tha Ha, hoping we’ll find a dock of some sort. We find a one-street village, with a market full of dried fish, that sits high above the lake. Riding up and down the main drag, looking for anything resembling a boat dock we found a well-dressed gentlemen gingerly repairing a wooden fence. ‘Do you know Mr. Leh?’ we asked hopefully. Yes, yes, you go my restaurant and call. Where you from?’ Off we went to his restaurant ( the most prosperous least dusty of the several lining the road). ‘Can we use your phone to call Mr. Leh?’ we asked the young woman minding the place. After 3 tries she got through;’ I’m far away. I will see you in 4 minutes.’ Click. Line was dead. So we got some coffee at the shop next to the restaurant; they apparantly didn’t have coffee yet. And sat down to wait. Sure enough, 45 minutes later a burly young man appeared as if by magic. ‘You come with me,’ he said, leading us down the steep bank between 2 houses to his long wooden pirogue. He picked up the bikes like they were toys and deposited them in the bow. We followed, sitting on a mat in the middle of the boat, whilce Mr. Leh steered the outboard motor from the rear. We then put-putted down the lake, past little islands, dead tree trunks, the odd water buffalo, dozing, swimming,and seeing not one human being.

More Lessons Learned; Of Bikes on Boats / part 1

2007-03-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

March 5, 2007

Friday, February 16, we celebrated the end of the second MY STORY photo workshop with our IDP students. The afternoon was spent going over downloading images to a computer ( although how many of them will have computer access is a BIG question). Then we all went out to dinner at a restaurant in Mae Sot run by a Burmese guy and his Thai wife. There were 22 people at the table; fortunately we'd ordered food ahead of time or we'd still be there. The students and last year's students ( this year's teaching assistants) arrived jammed into the back of a pick up truck; quite a sight to see them unfolding out of the vehicle. Kyaw Aung, who lives deep inside, offered to bring us wild honey 'when I come see you'. And so we said goodbye, good luck, send us your photos by March 9 for the exhibition. Keep your fingers crossed!

Then it was off to Chiang Mai to see Suphot, the framer. This is the guy I've been calling Khun Bhon for a year ???? Something got lost in translation...We arrived by bus on Monday afternoon, ready to travel on to Lao with our trusty Giant bikes. After checking in with Suphot who said, 'Yes, I can have 60 frames ready by March 6', we met Tom and Cindy for dinner at friend Steve's new restaurant. The beer was cold, the samosas were fresh, and Steve played the piano for us. This will be our only visit with Tom and Cindy as they were heading out for Vietnam and China the next day the same time.

And we were heading for the Thai - Lao border at Chiang Kong and a boat down the Mekong river. We pushed our bikes over the sand to the river's edge where they were tossed into a long, low pirogue with a tiny outboard and in about 5 minutes we were pushing the bikes up a steep ramp in Huai Xai, Lao. Long immigration procedure with much stamping of papers/ visas/ passports and where we were relieved of $ 86 US for the pleasure of up to 15 days in Lao, People's Democratic Republic of... We wondered why Canada had the highest visa fee of any country listed? Was it something we said? Two Lao kids helped us fill out the paperwork and practiced their English at the same time.

Huai Xai is a dusty one street town whose main reason for existence is as the place to catch the slow boat down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. We stayed at a dusty guest house run by the female Lao version of Basil (Fawlty Towers). She ordered everyone around; at one point I found myself delivering cafe Lao to some French guests. We were told to be ready at 8 am the next day. We were; madam gave us 2 fat wads of kip (Lao money = 10,000 kip for 1 US$) to pay for our passage; we gave her a much thinner wad of Thai baht. Had baguettes and jam for breakfast, cafe Lao, very black and strong, made in cloth filter, and then we waited and waited. Finally a songthaew appeared to take passengers to the boat dock. We were told to ride our bikes, which we did. The boat is a long covered wooden affair with hard benches for seats; and it was full of people like us. Most people had huge backpacks, we were the only people with bikes. We handed over the first wad of kip for the day's journey, our bikes were tied to the roof and we shoehorned ourselves into a bench. At 11:30 am we finally left. We were to spend the night on the river at Pak Beng which was 7 hours downstream. People read, slept, played hearts, smoked, slept some more, looked at the river banks, sand, forest, rocks, very few settlements, dreamed, read, wished they'd bought the cushions that everyone was selling on the streets of Huai Xai.

Pak Beng lies at the top of a steep sandy cliff. Our plan was for Nat to zoom up the hill and find us a bed (there were dire rumors of not enough beds for all the passengers and no one wanted to spend another minute on those benches while I dealt with panniers and bikes. We dock, Nat vanishes and I teeter off the boat on a narrow plank with the bags. Then the bikes are untied and unloaded. Suddenly I have 4 guys carrying everything up the hill! Heaven! But where do we go? There's one 'main' street and a side lane. Just as the porters are scampering up the main street Nat appears from the lane, 'This way, this way. We've got a bed' So off we went up the lane to concrete guest house perched at the cliff top, followed by the parad of bearers. Guest house lady said, ' Give 100,000 kip' (about 10$ US). We obeyed. Ate delicious garlic nan and chicken tikka at an Indian restaurant and were in bed by 9:30 pm. Next morning, armed with cheese baguettes and Kit Kat bars, we were at boat #2 by 8 am, with our second wad of kip. Nat horsed the bikes down to the boat while a fellow passenger helped me with the panniers. We were too late to snag one of the somewhat comfier padded seats, but the benches had a bit more leg room and the boat was not quite as crowded. Promptly at 9:10 AM we departed, wrapped up in any extra bits of clothing we could find as it was chilly. More brown river, green banks, oddly shaped rocks, the occasional water buffalo, and every once in a while a speed boat roaring past. This is the fast boat to Luang Prabang that takes only 6 hours; if you survive any impact with rocks or floating logs!

At 5 pm we arrived in LP, mounted our bikes and promptly got lost looking for our guest house. LP is a UNESCO site so there is a lot of restoration of wats and streetscape work being done. Unfortunately they haven't gotten around to the street sign part yet. We did find it eventually and ended the day at a very modern bakery with cappuccino and chocolate cake.

Lessons Learned

2007-02-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

Lessons Learned

On Friday, February 9, we finished week one with our IDP students. We are teaching at a house in Mae Pa, a village about 6 kms. from where we live. The workshop runs from 9 - 11 am and 3 - 5pm, so we come home during the middle of the day. While our students are shooting assignments, we are trying to stay ahead of them; organize photo files on the computer, photocopy handouts, eat lunch, stay cool, check e-mail. Then it’s back on the bikes. I figured out we will have ridden 240 km by the time this session is over; 20 rides out, 20 rides in. It’s nice and cool for the morning and late afternoon rides, just us and the cows, the goats, the motos. But it’s starting to warm up by the time we head back for 3 pm. This involves lots of ‘tee klee’ (Karen for cold water) when we arrive.

Our 8 students ( one woman) range in age from 19 to 35 and come from different areas inside Burma. They are funny and patient and eager to learn. We are called ‘Pi-Pi’ and ‘Poh-Poh’ (grandmother and grandfather) which we choose to take as a compliment.

One of them managed to bring his wife and 2 kids. Don’t ask us how! Two of the guys have a fair bit of English, but the rest are relying on our former students who are acting as translators and assistant teachers. This has been a huge help; as there is lots of hands on stuff with the cameras, and lots of explanation of camera/flash modes/ISO....you get the picture. We have had to learn to speak slowly and in small clumps of words so the translators can keep up. Do you hear me, Nat? They are all taking lots and lots of pictures which have to be downloaded on our computers as they don’t have access to one here, and it does take a long time . However, being Karen, they are infinitely patient, unlike yours truly who gets antsy after about 2 minutes.

On Thursday the project printer from Karen Youth Organization finally arrived at our teaching place. Printing out small work prints on A4 paper has helped them get the idea of editing, arranging, and adding some text to their images.

Thursday afternoon, one of our students learned that his sister had stepped on a land mine inside Burma. Somehow she was transported to Mae Sot General Hospital for treatment, where her leg had to be amputated. Transport had been arranged to take our student to the hospital so off he went, promising to be back for Monday’s class. We forget what our students face every day as a matter of course.

Then on Friday afternoon 2 of our students came down with what we think is recurring malaria. So we arranged for some medical attention and are hoping that they will be better on Monday. Life in the fast lane!

In the meantime, we met with 4 of our 6 students from the first Mae Tao Clinic photo workshop on Friday at 6 pm to help them with a final edit of photos for the April Borderline exhibition. We had taken the printer along in one of our saddlebags, then set it up and got ready to print. Nothing happened no matter how many times we turned it on/off. Finally Nat opened it up to discover to his horror that it didn’t like being turned on its side for the ride to the clinic and had disgorged its ink all over the inside of itself. It then proceeded to smear ink all over Nat! By 8 pm, we had cleaned it up and headed home for dinner with some friends and Greg and Julie ( from Annapolis Royal). We dined on fresh fish and then had Dunkin’ Donuts and beer for dessert to celebrate one of the group’s birthday. Not a combination I’d recommend. But Tesco and Dunkin’ Donuts are new to Mae Sot so we are all indulging in a little artery clogging.

Greg and Julie arrived from Chiang Mai bearing gifts...and what gifts: real brie, real edam, real foccacia, real olives, real olive oil, and real wine, white and red. Our cup runneth over.

This weekend we are trying to catch up on mail, bill paying, record-keeping, as last weekend we did this killer ride out of Mae Sot, heading east, up the mountain ( think of Parker Mountain but longer and a lot hotter) to find a temple built by one monk about 10 years ago. Unfortunately we overshot the place by about 15 km. That 15 km was a long steep downhill so guess what we had to do when we realized we had gone too far. What had started out as a 2 hour ride was now 4 hours long, so we panted our way back up the hill, then coasted home to showers and cold beer.

Life in Mae Sot / january 2007

2007-01-30T22:10:00.001-08:00

It's COLD here at night; we're using 2 blankets and sleeping w. socks on. I don't expect sympathy from the bluenosers among you , just thought you'd like to know that you are not alone.

We are more than halfway through our first intensive MY STORY photo workshop at the Mae Tao clinic. And it has been intensive. Our students take hundreds of photos, ask lots of questions, and are way ahead of us in the computer/camera/download department. Today Maung Maung Tinn will come and speak in Burmese on what an 'artist statement' is. He's the painter who works at the Mae Tao Cllinic shepherding foreign visitors around.

The exhibition contract for Borderline Gallery is ready so we must sign and return it post-haste before they forget the dates for the MY STORY show.

There's a strange nut that is being sold by the side of the road; it looks exactly like a tiny bat, and in fact, there is a drawing of a bat on a piece of cardboard by the stall. It 's a white meat, kind of bland but also kind of good. Not a clue as to what it is.

As you can see, we are learning to carry all manner of things on our bikes!

Wayne's World Fundraiser & Pig Roast/ the photos

2006-11-15T11:10:00.000-08:00

Wayne's World Fundraiser & Pig Roast

2006-11-14T21:00:00.000-08:00

September 10, 2006

It was a sunny, cool Sunday at the Queen Anne Inn in Annapolis Royal when we set out to raise money for the MY STORY photo project, the Annapolis Junior Golfers, and the Bridgetown minor hockey league. We had musical kitchen parties, Thai dinners, massages, fine wines, hay rides and, the piece de resistance, a painting created on site by visual artist Wayne Boucher. The Inn donated the pig, beans, salad, and apple crisp, as well as the staff and the gorgeous venue.

Greg Kerr emcee'd and things were proceeding apace untii the innkeeper appeared in a Hawaiian shirt, fake chest hair, and a micro skirt decorated with hosta leaves.....in aid of auctioning off $50 worth of hosta plants and a gardener to install same. Wayne came in with his completed masterpiece and managed to get paint all over several guests.

A good time was had by all and over $5000 was raised. Hurray!

MY STORY background

2006-11-14T20:53:00.000-08:00

February 1, 2006

MY STORY Photo Project

Last year when I visited the Mae La Oo refugee camp I learned that a German photographer had set up a darkroom there about three years ago. How he did it with the lack of a dependable water supply I don’t know, but did it he did. When I asked what kind of work he had been doing the reply was, ‘He took pictures for himself.’

My former Montessori training kicked in and I thought, maybe we could do a photo project with some of the refugees here. One of the big problems in the camps is the lack of something meaningful to do. Mae La Oo has set up its own village government and they have a weaving shop, a tin shop and an agricultural station, all of which sounds a lot grander than it really is. The Thai government wishes they would all just disappear; doesn’t want them setting up businesses of any kind as this implies a permanence, doesn’t let them work outside the camp, ditto, so there are many long hot hours to fill. I thought maybe we could get some low-end digital cameras, teach a small group of young people to use them and ask them to document their lives. Saw Y, my contact at Karen Youth Organization was enthusiastic and we agreed to pursue the idea over the coming months. Nat agreed to be part of the project and we drew up a proposal and budget. KYO agreed to do the administration, provide a computer and space in Mae Pa for training and meeting, plus a few basic supplies.

When I got back to Canada last spring, I saw “Born Into Brothels”, Zana Brinski’s film about her work with the children of prostitutes in Calcutta. ‘Aha,’ I thought, ‘that’s what I’d like to do.’ I was unsuccessful in contacting her foundation in New York, (kids-with-cameras.org) because I wanted to pick her brains, but Nat and I decided we’d go ahead and do it on our own.

And that’s what we’re doing. Nat is bringing over 6 low-end Kodak cameras on March 7 and I am doing some initial training ( how to look at pictures, point-of-view, cropping in the camera, lighting) starting the week of February 13. Over the next 4 weeks 5 young Karen refugee participants will take pictures, critique and edit them, culminating in an exhibition of the photos at Borderline gallery in Mae Sot. This is a handicraft and art gallery run by a group of Karen women. We also hope to bring the exhibition to ARCAC in Nova Scotia.

Our three year plan is to take the cameras to some of the IDP (internally displaced people) areas and some of the camps.

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2006-11-08T10:47:00.000-08:00