The musings, life, and works of Spark

Aung Sun Suu Kyi surrounded by her supporters

Meet Aung Sun Suu Kyi, Nobel-Peace Prize Winner and the Burmese people’s voice for democracy. You can read more about her here¹. No blog about Burma would be complete without mentioning this amazing woman. I had the privilege of attending a birthday party in her honor on June 19th in Mae Sot. The party was at a local Burmese restaurant whose decor fiercely advocated for Burma’s freedom with mediums from stickers to artwork to their menu. It was run by NGOs of the area that were advocating for the release of women political prisoners in Burma. The night brought first-hand accounts of the lives of political prisoners, ethnic music, an awareness film, and (of course) some birthday cake. 

Aung San Suu Kyi has already been elected the leader of her people, although unrecognized by the generals overtaking the country. Now that she has been released from house arrest, she faces the challenge of keeping her momentum in the upcoming election on April 1st. Suu Kyi’s relentless fight for freedom and refusal to give in to fear is a light to her people who are in need of hope. 

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¹ http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php/burma/about-burma/about-burma/a-biography-of-aung-san-suu-kyi

Come drink an avocado smoothie with me in the restaurant I talked about yesterday. No, not there, that spot’s taken. There - that’s perfect. You’re in the heart of Mae-Sot, a Thai town on the border of Burma. See the young waitress over there? Here she comes. 

“Ming-ah-la-bah¹, Htay Tun²! What will I have? The usual, banana pancakes, Chezu-Timb-Aree³ - How about I’ll order for you, ok? - That makes two orders of banana pancakes.” Why banana pancakes in Thailand? It’s our team’s thing; you’ll see! 

Htay Tun is the regular face of the restaurant, working 28 out of 30 days in a month, 10 hours a day (if I remember correctly). Her quiet, sweet demeanor is so typical of the wonderful Burmese people we had the privilege of getting to know. 

Sometimes our team would eat at her restaurant two or three meals a day, some of us ordering two or three things each. One time a few of us forgot to eat lunch, so we showed up at 4:00 pm, and then again at 6:00 pm with our whole team. Htay Tun took it all in stride, even showing me her special way of folding napkins when I asked her. Our last time at the restaurant, it was a hugging and crying fest, at least among us girls! I challenge you to get to know the barista at the Starbucks you frequent, the waiter at your favorite corner joint, or even the janitor at your office building. Chances are, they have a story, and it has a few bumps on the story board that could use a listener. I’m sure there’s a few lines available for you to co-star if you look into it. Here comes your avocado smoothie. Enjoy!

By the way, if you actually feel like an avocado smoothie after all this, go ahead and make one!⁴ It might surprise you.

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¹ “Hello” in Burmese

² All names have been changed in order to protect the identity of individuals. Names corresponding to actual people are purely coincidental.

³ “Thank you” in Burmese

⁴ http://allrecipes.com/recipe/avocado-smoothie/

Picture this: You are in Thailand, having just stepped into the oven air earlier in the afternoon from the refreshing airport. You sit on the sideways bench in the back of a “taxi” truck bed, on the way to supper with the team that has come with you. Entering an open Thai-style restaurant, you join your team of nine around a table. Clusters of Burmese and Thai costumers surround you, sitting docilely in their chairs, hands in their laps, and conversations dimmed to a minimum volume. Your table, however, didn’t quite get the memo. In the middle of an animated story, your Caribbean teammate slams his hands down on the table, his voice carrying to the cracks in the wall. Dinner guests turn and stare - but not too long - before returning to their quiet meals. The rest of your teammates respond animatedly to his tale, elbows resting near their banana pancakes as they laugh uproariously. 

Fast forward to a river boat in the heart of Bangkok. You and your teammates enter the longboat-like water-bus, the only Westerners onboard. The boat fills, packed like crayons in a Crayola pack. Thai crew-members stand on the rims of the boat, manning a tarp system from the outside to keep spray off the passengers. Thai-style, everyone looks straight ahead, hands in their laps and mouths sealed. That is, except for our row of chatty foreigners, exclaiming over the day, the food, the heat, and anything else that came to our minds. The result? The usual stares, and our poor Thai translator’s mortified whispers to be quiet! 

Here’s the type of boat we were in.

Multiply these two experiences by sixty (the amount of days we spent in Thailand), and you can predict the rest of our stay. I loved being a minority and experiencing firsthand the beautiful culture of the Thai and Burmese people.

Above: our team member and his ladies

Meet the laundry ladies, a joyful group of Burmese women that run a small laundry service in Mae Sot, Thailand. Our team would go there often to drop off our poor clothes that had been exposed to way too much humidity and use. One time I went to pick up a few clothes, but they accidentally handed me the wrong ones. This led to an entertaining tour of their whole establishment, including walking out the back door to their house, searching through the piles and racks of drying laundry everywhere. Since we were unable to communicate as to what the clothes looked like, it took a while to find them! In the process we had some great laughs. But the memory that all of our team has of the laundry mat is that one of our team members, a friendly Jamaican-style guy from the Cayman Islands, ended up building a rapport with these cheerful ladies and would stop by often to hang out or eat supper. When it was time to say goodbye, it was clear that one of the girls had fallen in love and would readily accept a ring and ceremony if it was offered. 

Meet Tun San Ko and Naing Ye, Burmese boys living in the heart of the Muslim sector of the town Mae Sot. They spend their days helping out a Muslim Thai family with their Middle Eastern restaurant. From the first time I spotted Tun San Ko’s sweet smile, I felt drawn to him and the locals restaurant that he and his friend helped out at. The friendship that the boys have to the family’s two daughters that run the shop is really special. Elsewhere in Mae Sot, Thai people tend to distance themselves from Burmese, who are looked down on. But here, we were met with laughter and community. As soon as another team member and I arrived in the café, we were shown a seat and lavished with free treats: lassies, egg rotis, Burmese tea, and naan bread. Thus began a special friendship between the sisters, boys, and us. When the shop was less busy, one of the girls would teach me Thai and Burmese, while Tun San Ko would pass by, smiling shyly at me on the way to serve customers. It took a while to correctly pronounce his name, but his huge grin every time was worth it. Meanwhile, customers would direct curious smiles at us, the only foreigners within a mile radius, as we clumsily attempted to learn their language.

* All names have been changed in order to protect the identity of individuals. Names corresponding to actual people are purely coincidental.

Welcome to Child Development Centre (CDC) on the Thai Burma border, a school that came out of Mae Tao clinic (a centre providing healthcare for displaced people). Our team happened to walk in one day at the suggestion of a Burmese friend, Shein Shein Oo*, and were treated to the upmost Burmese hospitality. It was graduation day, and we were led to an overhang where we could view the festivities. Unintentionally, we became somewhat of a festivity ourselves as students looked up to see who the foreigners were. There was already one Caucasian in their midst, laughing with a Burmese student and looking totally at home. Back on the balcony, the director of the school came out to meet us, eagerly exchanging contact information and inviting us to what was to be the fanciest meal we had ever had. What a contrast to our school system, where visitors would have to sign in at the office or book an appointment to schedule in the principal! It was inspiring to see all of these kids being given an opportunity for a second chance at life. You can check out more about CDC at a volunteer’s blog: http://ilovemaesot.blogspot.com/

Above: A kindergarten class in session at CDC

Meet Shwe*, Burmese mother of two that I met in the Mae Sot hospital. Her eight-year old daughter lay in the bed in front of her, half of her leg missing. Across from the bed Shwe sat on the floor of the hallway with her one-and-a-half year old son, Lwin Lwin*. The day before, two of our teammates had felt led to come to the hospital, spreading joy to patients and their families. They had ended up connecting with one family in particular and wanted to bring the rest of the team to meet them. So we ended up in the middle of a narrow hallway lined with hospital beds on one side and family members on the other. After meeting the family that my team mates had connected with, I went to sit with the next family over, Shwe and her kids. Using my limited Burmese, I attempted to ask about the girl’s condition, learning that she had been hit by a car two days before, subsequently losing half her leg. Lwin Lwin kept crawling over to me, pushing his toy wooden truck back and forth. In Thai culture, pointing feet at others is seen as rude. Consequently, as soon as Lwin Lwin would stretch out towards me, his mother would lightly smack him and tuck his legs back in. This resulted in a very confused an upset toddler! After hanging out for a while, we attempted to go back to our house, but the downpour outside had other plans. Half an hour later, we were on our way. Later we learned that the area we had been in had restricted access except for close family members. Sometimes it pays not to be able to understand the language!

* All names have been changed in order to protect the identity of individuals. Names corresponding to actual people are purely coincidental.

Above: Pha* and one of our team members posing for the camera: a never-ending form of entertainment!

*Meet Than*, Pha*, Dara*, and Bourey*, a group of boys that hung around the area we rented a house in for three and a half weeks. When we first moved in, they came by to check out the crazy foreigners. Soon we built a relationship with them, and as soon as they heard the screech of our house gate opening they would run to check out what we were up to, peek around the corner, or give a high five.

Our team had bought nine pedal bikes to get around, so the boys even brought our bikes out for us when we had to go somewhere and back in when we returned.

Above: Getting somewhere became a game in itself as we often played with the boys before and after leaving. 

Many afternoons were spent with the boys outside our house, doodling, kicking around a soccer ball, or chasing them around. We had a little fish pond in the front of our house that they would always gravitate to, pretending to spear the fish, creating algae wands to wave around, and dumping in more food in a day than the fish probably needed in a month. Than and his gang were always off on new adventures, exploring our house, posing with sunglasses and belts, and generally having a good time (That is until we realized that the locals might get the wrong impression and stuck to playing with the boys outside our gate in plain view). One day I was playing tag with one of the boys when he led me down the street by the main road, around a corner, and into what appeared to be his grandma’s shop. I became acutely aware of how much easier it is to build a relationship with a boy then with an adult when you can only speak select phrases of their language!

* All names have been changed in order to protect the identity of individuals. Names corresponding to actual people are purely coincidental.