THAIKEA Update (Funding Needed) and Visa Run to Burma

I haven’t written in a while, and it’s not just because I don’t want to pay at an internet café. I’ve been working hard and playing hard. Today we delivered 2 pieces of furniture to an elderly couple who are not capable of coming to THAIKEA and making furniture. They appeared extremely decrepit and still the husband was able to smile with his 4 brown teeth. I had brought my camera to take pictures, but when we put the furniture inside of the house, I felt that would have been inappropriate. I don’t think the couple would have necessarily minded, but I just had a disturbing feeling about it.

There are a few girls that always visit and play around THAIKEA. There were only 3 of us volunteers working- a ton of people left last week- so I think the girls felt comfortable coming into the shop and using the tools. I ended up babysitting for a couple hours throughout the day because they were playing tag around the tables, taking the tools from each and other and from me, and kept plugging tools into the outlets immediately after I had unplugged them for their own protection. I got really frustrated at one point and then Steve, our project manager, told me the youngest girl had lost her mom in the tsunami. I wish it wouldn’t have taken that fact to extend me patience, but it did. I also found out that Lek, one of our local helpers who speaks some English, lost his baby girl in the tsunami. He saved his son, who was clinging onto his neck, but his wife wasn’t able to hand onto the baby. Lek has moved back into a house in the town he lived in before the tsunami, but he will not go near the sea’s edge. He doesn’t want to see the ocean. I think almost everyone in Thap Tawan, the village that THAIKEA is currently located in, has a similar story, Every single villager was affected either directly or indirectly by the tsunami taking away their loved ones. The courage and strength these people have to move back into their houses near the water is incredible, especially when there are still no solid warning systems or protection in place. Supposedly, the government is in charge of this and corruption and greed have kept them from rebuilding southern Thailand. I believe economy comes into play here as well. The number of people who live in this area is insignificant to the government. Their only interest seems to be in tourism.

Visa Run to Burma (October 16, 2005)

I have no interest in ever going to Burma again, and not just because of the story I’m about to tell.

We left Khao Lak at 10am on Sunday and arrived in Ranon, Thailand on the border next to Burma a few hours later. There is a small bay where Burma and Thailand connect, so a couple of the immigration offices are on the water, or shall I say sewage, in the bay. We had to get departure stamps on land in Ranong, then drive and walk to a nearby boat dock. Once we got on the small long boat, we waited for our “boat driver”(?) to dock at an immigration checkpoint and have them check our passports. Then we took the boat across the bay to Burma. After another immigration checkpoint, we docked and went onto land in Burma. Our passports were stamped again for entry into Burma, and we were taken away by local teens to a nearby restaurant. We ate quickly as these boys waited for us and then told us we needed to get back on the boat because the tide was going down. We hurried back onto the boat and made it most of the way back to our original boat dock until we got stuck. The low tide was stopping several boats, but a few were getting by alright with just a few people on them (we had 11 total).

An important note is that the immigration office in Ranong closes at 4:15p, and if you don’t make it back to get a re-entry stamp in time, you have to do the entire boat ride/visa run over again. Another important note: It was 3:45 when our boat got stuck. The boat driver held his open hand up and said, “5”. He didn’t mean 5 minutes, he meant wait til 5pm until the tide rises again for the boat to continue on. Since none of us wanted to stay in Ranong or drive back again the following day, we all jumped out of the boat and waded through sewage water to get to another boat, which took us back to a different dock, from which we had to walk speedily to our truck and drive back to Ranong’s immigration office. We made it with 1 minute to spare! And, we had a free mud bath! What more could we ask for? ☺ As gross as it was, I was happy to be with the people who went. We all laughed it off and agreed that our visa run would go down as one of the greatest visa run stories for TVC.
Katherine (British) wading through the nasty sewage water to complete the visa run in time

Despite all the excitement and adventure, I am not interested in going to Burma again. I realize we were in a border town, but it was a slum- way worse than Tijuana. Little kids help people smuggle drugs across the border every day and they are beaten on a regular basis if the higher ups think they’ve been sending people to the competition. The people were friendly, but the filth and poverty were completely overwhelming.

Other than working at THAIKEA and having a memorable visa run, I have been having some good conversations with people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds; reading more books for leisure than I ever have before; playing a little guitar; teaching my roomies guitar; singing; dancing; eating a lot of tofu, vegetables and rice; witnessing incredible sunsets that blow my mind and put me in a state of awe daily; trying to decide when I should attempt dreadlocks followed by a shaved head; playing British and Thai games like deck tennis; swimming in the warm ocean; and playing fooseball at the local Fisherman’s Bar.

I recently found out that some people from TVC are going to Pakistan as soon as they raise enough funds to go. They will be doing immediate relief, helping the numerous people who just suffered a huge earthquake. I’m not sure if I could stomach some of what they are sure to see, but a part of me really wants to go help there for a while and then come back to Thailand to help with the reconstruction.

We were also informed at tonight’s weekly TVC meeting that we are broke and will have to stop some of the projects if we can’t raise funds. If you visit TVC’s website (http://www.tsunamivolunteer.net\), you can see exactly what we are doing to help the local people get back on their feet and have some normalcy in their lives after a deeply wounding natural disaster. On the TVC website, there is a link for donations- you can even make $1 donations. I know, personally, for the THAIKEA project, that we need more funds to move into our new location to help a different village. We have already met the needs of the villagers in Thap Tawan, but it will be extremely difficult to move on if we cannot raise funds so that we can pay for the tools, wood and other materials that will provide furniture to yet another tsunami affected village.