Onwards

After moving on Saturday, I spent Sunday in the office helping to get exams and review sheets written for the school. In the afternoon, my old neighbor had the culmination of his art project in Mae Sot with a migrant children’s art exhibition. I dropped in for some food and art, then headed back to the office to plan a workshop to help the students at the school work towards greater maturity and sense of responsibility.

Monday morning, bright and early, I was on a truck heading up to camp for a high energy day of workshop activities. I taught Tuesday morning, then jumped in a truck and headed back to Mae Sot. I had a brief time to shower, pack and check in with everyone at the office before I was off in another truck heading to Bangkok.


On a bus, the trip usually takes between 8-10 hours, depending on how many stops it has to make. With my boss driving, it took less than 6. (Speed limits being another one of those things that aren’t terribly regulated around here.) We checked into the most luxurious hotel I have ever stayed in. The CenterPoint Executive suites are not, by far, the most luxurious hotel there is, only the most fabulous I have ever had the privilege to experience. I had the corner room on the 22nd floor, looking out over the madness of Bangkok in an air-conditioned, cotton wrapped cocoon of luxury. In the afternoons, I floated on my back in a magnificent blue pool, looking past the fronds of palm tree up into the gray sky, never seeing the tangle of traffic or the heat and the sweat of the streets.



My first day in Bangkok was spent at the British Club where there is a monthly meeting of all registered NGO’s working with refugees in Thailand to share information and coordinate. It’s a fabulous place to meet and link up with people who are usually out in the field, or far away in Bangkok, or working in other areas of Thailand. There was a really informative presentation about land mind use in Burma, as well as good discussion about the chances of increased military action in the area as we move out of the wet season. The morning is a general open session and in the afternoon various subcommittees meet, including the education subcommittee, which I attended.

It seemed strange to me to wash the mud off my feet and put on something nice, sit in the air-conditioned, high-ceilinged colonial splendor of the British Club, and drink coffee served by people in white suits. Outside, there seemed to be an oasis of calm in the monstrous city, complete with manicured lawns, a tennis court and a pool where people swam lazy laps.

Our hotel was opposite Pantip Plaza, also known as IT Center, also known as the computer lovers land of dreams. There are floors upon floors upon floors of hard ware, software, pirated DVD’s, computer parts, gadgets, flashing neon lights, loudspeakers and general chaos. It was an opportunity to stock up on DVD’s that could not be resisted, especially as I passed a booth with Mr. and Mrs. Smith featured prominently. And for $2.50 a pop, how can you say no? So our first night was spent ordering pizza (Pizza!!!) and wallowing in our executive suites watching movies.

Thursday was the beginning of the launch of our new project, known as SHIELD. SHIELD is an acronym I haven’t yet entirely mastered, but it has to do with providing support to health, institution building, and education to migrant and refugee communities in six provinces of Thailand. The two-day launch workshop was held at the Amari Atrium hotel, an even more luxurious location than our digs. So while we were completely happy with our breakfasts of espresso coffee and omelets delivered by omelets chefs on toasted whole-wheat bread, our lunches were an endless buffet of delights including a full sushi bar and a selection of cheeses and breads. At first, amidst all the suits and administrative managers attending the workshop, I could not help but feel like a country girl crashing the party, especially when it came to my obvious delight about the food. But then I saw one of the recently arrived senior managers sitting down at his table with two plates simply heaped with mountains of food and I felt a little better.

The launch was fascinating for me. I worked in groups with the country director of a large international aid organization, with people with years of education and experience and with people who sit behind desks all day, with lawyers versed in international law, US contract regulations and refugee advocacy. I spoke with people who had just arrived into the country with no experience at all with the situation and I spoke with people who had been in the country for years but rarely in the field. It was an interesting coming together of so many different kinds of people and experience and it takes all of us working together to make the project happen. It was such a pleasure to have an opportunity to speak to new people, learn new things and get out of the usual context of my muddy life.

Strange for me to have gone from my books and theory in University, to the muddy reality of the refugee camp, and find myself once again, spending all day talking. And after two days of doing nothing but talk, I felt ready to get back to Mae Sot and start doing the doing.

I celebrated the end of three luxurious days away from Mae Sot by doing a little shopping. Bangkok is perhaps the only place where I will be able to find shoes that are my size in this country, so I took advantage. Everyone else was too tired from the endless meetings and stayed in. I went out into the madness.

I ended up in a small club near Lumphini Park called Brown Sugar. It was packed but I found a spot at the bar and ordered a margarita. Can I even remember the last time I drank a margarita?? I sat back with my cool drink and let the fabulous sounds of live jazz roll over me, eyes closed with a huge smile on my face.