A Dedicated Man

Names and places have been omitted for security reasons.

In my first week here I met a 44 year old Pa-O man from Southern Shan State who has been in Thailand since 1989 or 1990 after fleeing Burma during the uprising in 1988. He was part of the movement to overthrow government at this time and lived in the jungle in Eastern Burma after the uprising. While on the run, he attended the Jungle University at this time for one year. The Jungle University was run by foreign teachers who taught strictly in English about a variety of topics. During this time, this man met the author of The Land of Green Ghosts Pascal Khoo The (this is a great book from the perspective of a man from the Paduang ethnic group whose women wear neck rings which you may have seen pictures of before). In the jungle, conditions were certainly not ideal with many people dying of malaria and malnourishment, not to mention the conflict with the brutal military.

He has only had contact with his family remaining in Burma two times in past 20 years. The first time was shortly after arriving in Thailand. He crossed the border and it took him half a month to walk to his home. He had to always watch out and travel secretly in fear that the government might catch wind of him. When he got close to home he met his mother and brother near his town, but in an outlying village. His mother told the authorities that she was going to visit family (you must tell government if you go anywhere overnight) but they found out that ex-rebel leader was there and the meeting only lasted 2 hours. He was informed that the government was on the way and he had to flee back to the border. This is the only time that he has seen any of his family in past twenty years. He contacted them one other time by phone a few years ago but has not done so since because he fears for their safety. When I heard this whole story, it nearly made me cry.

He lived in a refugee camp in near the border for about 6 years where life was never easy. Some of these refugee camps are quite large (the biggest is about 100,000 people) and the living conditions are not so nice. Most families do not have enough to eat or other adequate neccessities and currently it is prohibited for them to look for ork outside the camps. At this time he did however get work (hard labor) but got paid extremely low wages. Thai business people and contractors take advantage of the situation by paying Burmese who do not have work permit much lower wages than their Thai counterparts (sounds familiar no?). While in the camp he was involved in community groups and worked as a translator for organizations who came to give trainings. He knows about 6 languages which were learned through his time in the jungle and staying as a guest in many communities. He also worked as a tour guide for one month but still not being paid anywhere near as much as Thai counterparts. Other Thai tourist guides were still mad though as he was a better tour guide than them and could communicate with the hill tribes in the area and explain the Burmese situation better than them. This resulted in many tourists requesting his services which angered the Thais and led them to report his status as a refugee to the Thailand Authority of Tourism. Eventually there was an opening in an international NGO that worked in the camps and he was taken on as a translator and community worker. He moved out of camp in 1996 and one month later it was attacked by Burmese military, killing a few refugees. This link tells about a similar attack.

At the NGO he worked his way up and now holds a decent position (as high as he can go working as a person from Burma without official Thai residency or citizenship). He has relationships with many of the NGOs working in the area and tries as hard as possible to help his people (Pa-O and other people from Burma) to improve their lives here and inside Burma. He has a good head on his shoulders and good ideas about how development work should really work (not forcing it upon people but supporting them to help themselves).

I have only been here one week but already learned so much from him. He is so eager to share information about his life (as hard as it has been) and about the situation in Burma. He is a wealth of knowledge and information and just in general a top notch person. He has a good relationship with the organziation that I work with so I see him quite often I look forward to getting to know him better and learn more from this man who is a mentor not only to people in my organization but now also to me.