It is so crazy to think that our time in Mae Sot is coming to an end. It truthfully feels like we just got here. In the last week alone, my perception of Mae Sot as a city has grown tremendously. I remember arriving at Phannu House on our first day and thinking how there appears to be nothing here under the baking sun. More than a little intimidating. BUT after miles of bike rides, making friends, discovering the chicken and rice spot next to BJ Jeans, almost a month from home, and (most importantly) spending time with our partner and the people whose lives SAW impacts, Mae Sot felt safe and incredibly special.
My biggest takeaway from this experience is that SAWs staff isn't superhuman like we often make them out to be. They get tired. They miss their families in Burma. They get frustrated and afraid working to protect people in a government system that devalues them and their clients. But they don't stop. The special thing about SAW Staff is not that they do not experience negative emotion, but that they continue to work despite of it. As Thin Thin said in her interview with us, "As long as there are women here who need help, this where I'll be." Leaving Mae Sot ends a chapter that I'm not sure I'm ready to finish. I feel like maybe we should have accomplished more for SAW or explored more or I should have had some singular, incredible "HOLY SHIT THIS IS GLOBAL HEALTH" experience. But, it's time to go. I will always be grateful for having seen altruism (or its closest relative) modeled for me by countless individuals working for SAW. Everyone there lives for other people rather than material gain and takes each opportunity to share their knowledge and culture. I leave feeling inspired by their warmth and determination and excited to share our experience with the rest of our chapter.
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One of the things in preparing for this trip that I see as the most important in its us here in Mae Sot was bonding and growing as a team. I truly couldn’t be with a better team of people for this trip. We all complement each other’s personalities and we all know that we have space to be ourselves unapologetically, except maybe Aswin, creating a natural environment for growth. Chemistry is such an integral part of being able to accomplish tasks and make a difference. You need everyone on the same page in order to begin making strides. Each of us brings our own unique perspective, knowledge, skills, and personality that benefits this team. Our individuality is what creates the cohesive, though challenging at time, understanding and focus. Another key reason why chemistry is important is that you are in a foreign place where you don’t know anyone but those people on your team. Truthfully, I feel like before this trip we all thought we knew each other, but at least for me I have learned so much about my GROW team members since we’ve been here that I didn’t know before. And I feel like this has been true for myself as well, being in a place where I don’t know anyone else has really allowed me to be open and share who I am with people who are interested in learning about me. The bond that we have a team is further exemplified by how much we care for each other, and I love that. An example of this is that I celebrated my birthday while we were her. Now I usually hate it when people make a big deal about it, but I’d be lying I said I didn’t tear up a bit when they surprised me with a makeshift birthday cake and candles. It was so special to me because they did that because they wanted to, because they care. Being a part of this team has really been what has made this experience so special.
If there’s one thing I’m constantly reminded of while in Mae Sot, it’s hospitality. Regardless of where we go, I’m always amazed at how open and welcoming the people are here. Even in the moments when the language barrier is at its peak, the Burmese community here has always gone above and beyond to help our team navigate through life in Mae Sot. He is truly one of a kind and while everyone at SAW has been incredibly welcoming, there’s one person in particular who has left a lasting impression on me. ATL changes the atmosphere of a room by walking in. The guy radiates good vibes, is always smiling and speaks positively in almost any conversation. After spending yesterday morning presenting our GROW team’s goals to SAW staff and students, ATL came out to lunch with us. As usual, there was some debate over who was paying for the meal. Despite our team winning the check for our chicken and rice, ATL managed to sneak away and buy us some lychee-a fruit native to Thailand-for dessert. Over the course of the meal we talked about his family background and he shared where some of his siblings are now. ATL has one older brother that’s married and one younger brother, who also stays at SAW and looks super similar to him. However you never would’ve guessed how much hardship and loss he’s endured just by chatting with him. Two of his siblings and his mother, have all passed away. Yet, his cheerful outlook on life remains unchanged and he’s already dedicated his future to continuing the work SAW accomplishes when he graduates from university. It’s inspiring to witness so much compassion and altruism from one person. Lychee THE one and only, ATL.
Today, ATL took us around the Mae Sot Rubbish Dump – a massive landfill where most of the city’s trash ends up, and where workers search for recyclable materials that they can collect and exchange for a small sum of money. It was a really interesting and insightful experience to be able to see this facet of life in the city. We drove to the site of the dump in our open air truck, and even from almost half a mile away, the fumes that rose off of the trash cast a strong smell in our direction. When we stopped and hopped out to walk the rest of the distance on foot, we passed by several small homes that were situated next to the huge mound of trash that rose into the air. Garbage littered the dirt path that we used, and flies buzzed around us in droves. ATL explained the way that the workers here recycle to earn their living, and showed us some of the materials that would be collected.
After a brief pause to get a sense of the immensity of the amount of rubbish near us, we went down into the pile by way of a small path formed from crushed trash. As we walked over the mostly plastic garbage, cold leachate – a dark yellow liquid that is the remnants of precipitation which percolates through a landfill – rushed up to meet our feet. This makeshift path then led us to land further away from the landfill, which was green and also home to a few cows that were feeding.
After showing us the dump, ATL then took us to a nearby school which served the children of the workers who collect the recycling. There, we meet two teachers who explain more about the community that they service. Like in the fields of Phop Phra, children here are expected to join their parents in working as soon as they are able – with school as a secondary priority. The teachers and the school work to make sure that children have as much access to education as they can, and educate parents on the importance of a good schooling. While they explain, ATL chimes in that their work is very important, as the landfill is the site of many failed philanthropic and humanitarian projects. Indeed, in the 2014 article from Slate below, you can actually read about the turf war that has taken hold of the area as those working to improve the quality of life for locals work to build a sustainable environment of development. Around the Mae Sot Rubbish Dump, like in other communities in need, short-term fixes and photo-ops are not enough to address the root problems that plague communities. Nor indeed, is white-savior thinking that doesn’t critically think about the intricacies of life in a unique circumstances such as this and doesn’t bother to ask locals about their perspectives. Definitely great food for thought as we consider not only the work that SAW does, but also how they go about doing it.
It is understated how important it is to just go with the flow when you travel abroad. In our time in Mae Sot so far, our main contact has been unavailable due to him having to finish up school. This has caused our schedule to be delayed slightly, but we have had two very excellent guides in his absence. Nyean, Ye, and their whole squad have taken us on many adventures, from waterfalls to their favorite shopping malls. Every day we show up to the SAW office not entirely knowing what we are going to do, they suggest a course of action, and then we go. It is so important to have this flexibility because this creates a more authentic experience. The places we went meant something to our guides. These places are integral parts of their lives, places like we have back home. They are “wonders” of our lives that a special and mean something to us, causing the excitement of being able to share this with someone else. When you look at some of these places objectively, they aren’t much different from what we have back home. Objectively a shopping mall is a shopping mall, but subjectively these places carry meaning for those who interact with it more. It would be like if you were back home and you had a friend visit from another state, the places you’d show them most likely wouldn’t be unique to where you live, but special because of the life experiences you lived there.
Today was a really amazing and insightful day! We had the chance to go out with the SAW staff (plus the newly-arrived ATL) to a workshop in the Phop Phra area that surrounds Mae Sot. This was our first time seeing a health education workshop that SAW conducts in person, so it is easy to understand how excited we were about this amazing opportunity given how critical it is to the central mission of both SAW and GlobeMed! Even the journey into the heart of Phop Phra’s farming communities was breathtaking. In the back of an open air pickup truck with reinforced bars to keep anyone or anything from falling out, we were able to see the vast expanse of the Thai countryside. With densely forested rolling green hills and tilled plains in hues of brown, beige, and yellow, the areas on both sides of road were stunning. Nyein and Ye explained to us as we passed by about the life of the average worker in fields like those that we saw, and about many of the injustices and harms that migrant workers faced. Nyein was especially focused on emphasizing the dangerous conditions that workers are exposed to – often doing farming with dangerous pesticides without any kind of protective equipment. Yet another health risk born from the social determinants of health – an ever larger problem than we had previously conceived. When the truck finally pulled to a stop alongside a worn path that narrowly meandered down a hill, we got out of the truck and helped to unload the supplies that we had carried in with us (food, educational materials, pencils, etc.). With heavy bags in tow, we half-walked, half-lurched down the path at the will of gravity, and then came upon a small bridge that spanned a gap between the bases of two hills. Made of bamboo, the bridge cried out under our weight, but held strong. Now in the functional center of the widespread, agricultural community, we set up shop in the Hope Learning Center – a building used as a school for young Burmese migrant children and for workshops like the one organized by SAW today. The young children playing in a nearby area were the first locals to greet the SAW team. They soon scampered away to call their parents who had wanted to come to the workshop today away from their homes. While the SAW team was getting ready with the workshop, ATL led our GROW team out into the fields to show us what a Thai farm looks like. Though we initially thought the sure-footed ATL had every idea where he was headed, as we found ourselves circling around identical patches of cabbage and hearing the same moos from nearby cows, we quickly realized that we were at least slightly lost. After establishing this, we made our way back toward the road, which we decided would be easier to follow back to the Hope Learning Center. Along the way, we met two young Burmese mothers who were working in the fields, one of whom was simultaneously caring for her young child. They told us about their limited wages, and about the hard work of keeping on top of all of their duties in order to feed their families. One of the women explained that as soon as her young boy was strong enough to help her in the fields, she would need him so that he could help to earn money for food. Our team had obviously heard about challenges that young children face when trying to maintain good school habits and stay in school for a long time, but this experience of getting a firsthand account of the complex and counteracting demands that children must deal with in this environment was eye-opening. Upon returning to the Hope Learning Center, the workshop soon began. Led in its first half by Yi Yi Win and in the latter half by Su Myat Win, this workshop featured attendees of both sexes and all ages (though most were women and children.) The focus for the Community Health Outreach Project session was on good hygiene behaviors, and through discussions and pictorial handouts, the SAW staff was quickly on their way to teaching the community. What most impressed me about the workshop was the great atmosphere that lasted for the entire duration. A definite buzz could be felt in the room as community members showed how much they cared about learning what was being taught through active discussion and a constant level of excitement. Another highlight was of course the meal that we shared with the SAW staff and community members halfway through the workshop. Fresh from the fields, the cucumbers were particularly juicy. After what seemed like just a few short hours but many, many mosquito bites, the workshop came to a close, and we set out for Mae Sot. The day was not yet done, though, as our team had plans for the evening. On Thursday, Anna, Sinna, and Aswin met an NGO worker from Buffalo named Jordyn at Mestizo’s – one of several bars that we bike past as we head to SAW’s office each morning. From the excitement they shared the next day, and the new insights that they had on the many different types of non-governmental and community-based organizations that exist here in Mae Sot, I knew that Jordyn was someone I had to meet. Fortunately, tonight presented the perfect opportunity. I wasn’t out with Anna, Sinna, and Aswin on the night that they met our new friends at Mestizo’s, so the chick-naming ceremony that Anna talked about in her post was my first real dive into the NGO culture that we have discovered here in Mae Sot. We biked towards Jordyn’s house led by Aswin (who has proven to be an excellent navigator of Mae Sot’s winding, bike-friendly streets). When we arrived, we were greeted by Jordyn and a small party of other NGO workers, most of whom were in their mid-to-late twenties and early thirties, and almost all of whom were from the US, the UK, and Canada. Sitting and chatting with them, I learned a lot about how much of an NGO-friendly city Mae Sot is, and how many different organizations serving distinct needs in health, education, and legal status existed. It was this diversity in focus that was perhaps the most interesting to me. I really appreciated the importance, for example, of how in protecting political prisoners that several of the expats NGO workers were focused on. As the night carried on, and young chickens were named, I heard some great stories, and received the most frank and honest description of what fighting for equity really looks like halfway around the globe. It was interesting to hear about the career paths that many of our new friends took, with most never even dreaming of ending up in this small border town, but instead subjects to the winds of fate as they explored their passions. I think that in tandem with the experience of seeing health education being practiced in the morning, the knowledge that I have gained from these discussions is really critical to shaping my conception of global health work, and my future place in it.
Maybe even more useful than gaining this perspective, though, was learning about the effective ways to scare off the aggressive dogs that make Mae Sot their home at night. As seemingly every person who talked to us confirmed, it is critical to have a strategy for protecting yourself from the dogs. Tip #1 – Never try to flee on your bike when a dog comes up to you and starts growling: the dogs will end up chasing you, and they will end up catching you. Tip #2 – Don’t look any furry guys in the eyes: when they bark, they are marking their territory, and a glance toward their eyes is a direct challenge of their authority. Tip #3 – Have a game face, and a game shout: if some canine friends are not acting so friendly, even when you aren’t doing anything to provoke them, shout out at them. This will scare them away and let you safely continue past. It was critical that we got this insight today, because on the way home, our group of four came face to face with some not-so-friendly dogs. Of course, the dogs ignored the girls in the front of our pack, and instead focused in on Alex and I. With shouts that sounded more like the yips of a scared puppies and anxiety-driven biking that nearly saw us crash in to one another, Alex and I were thankful to make it back to the comfort of Phannu House – where laughing at ourselves was much easier. In preparation for ATL’s arrival, we headed over to SAW office. Thin Thin was working in the main room. We asked her how her day had been going, and she explained that her morning was spent counseling a woman who was a victim of domestic abuse. This led to a conversation in which she explained the difficulties Burmese women face while trying to escape domestic violence. A nonexistent (or drastically less responsive) police presence, little legal support, and lack of mobility due to transportation and more importantly financial constraints severely impede the women’s ability to remove themselves from the situation. We found ourselves using words like “abuser” or “aggressor” to describe the men responsible. In Burmese culture, wives are expected to be subservient to husbands. These men likely have never had a “healthy” (by Western standards) relationship modeled for them. This is part of the reason SAW workshops like Gender-Based Violence and Family Talk are so important: they work to adapt the perception of power dynamic between spouses while respecting the traditional gender roles. *See Thin Thin’s interview for more details.
ATL arrived in Mae Sot around 4 PM, but we all decided it made the most sense to let him spend the night getting settled. Aswin, Sinna, and I decided to get a drink. Rather than going to Border Booze as usual, we wandered into Mestizo’s next door. Although, not immediately sure of the vibe, I suggested we stay for one drink. Shortly after realizing we were too lazy to change locations and purchasing round two, an obviously American woman wearing a white dress came stomping inside. Yelling that on her walk to the bar she managed to break not one, but BOTH shoes, she hobbled to the bathroom while two Burmese men at the table next to us doubled over in laughter and cheered her on. Things learned in the next hour: Jordyn is from Buffalo and works for an NGO called Wide Horizons which teaches community building strategies to Burmese young adults. The two Burmese men, David and Patrick, left Burma as refugees and now work for CBOs (community based organizations) in Mae Sot. Their friend Rob, who arrived not long after we started talking, was from the UK and started a new job as director of Kickstart Art, an organization that provides art therapy to Burmese refugee children and acts as an outlet for local artists to sell their work. Jordyn’s pet ducks were killed by dogs, but the chickens she is raising recently laid eggs. There was a chicken naming ceremony/house party at her place on Saturday, and we were kindly invited. The longer we talked, the more we became educated on the scope of the NGO community in Mae Sot. I started to realize one of the biggest problems migrants face is lack of education access, something arguably more impactful than health access. After grade five, children can either leave their families and community in Phop Phra to continue their education in Mae Sot or begin working as field laborers to contribute their families’ income. Convincing parents of the delayed benefit of higher education is not easy, especially when children could be earning money. A lack of education and skills training causes the poverty associated with being a migrant worker to be cyclic and span generations. This is not profoundly different from the cycle of poverty faced by many families in Cincinnati. The CBO workers also explained that funding is moving from the Thai-Burma border back into Burma as the political situation improves. NGOs working within the country have become “sexier”, so they predict organizations will have to follow to stay afloat. The affect this will have in Phop Phra over the next several years is unknown. I guess I had the perception that SAW was the only one working around here, but that is clearly not the case. I’m looking forward to getting know our new friends and learn more about the work they are doing in Mae Sot/Phop Phra. Ye and Yin have acted as extraordinary tour guides, translators, explorers, and as our first friends since arriving at SAW. Although I’m sure the two of them are not impressed by our GROW team’s attempt at hiking and waterfall climbing, they’ve been kind enough to rub in the fact that we’re amateurs compared to them. Their friend Htin Zo, has become a part of our daily SAW experience and helps breakdown the cultural dynamics we don’t always understand. Our time in Mae Sot has been filled with plenty of new adventures with the three of them and Tuesday was no different.
Today’s activity included tagging along with SAW staff as they crossed the Myanmar-Thai Friendship Bridge at the border city of Myawaddy. We stayed behind and Ye and Yin showed us around the perimeter of the river, while we waited for them to return. The stream of the Moei River separates the two countries, but the body of water is so small that you can practically walk across. A few boats are littered across the river for easy crossing between both sides. Actually seeing the Moei River in person, truly unveiled a deeper understanding for the accessibility Burmese migrants and workers have to Thailand. I’d imagined the bridge as being heavily occupied by border security, closely surveilling the area for undocumented people that might try to cross into Thailand. However, that wasn’t the case at all. The atmosphere surrounding the bridge is cheerful and busy with workers rushing by, trying to get from point A to point B. There isn’t the slightest bit of hostility in the environment, like I thought there would be. Instead, there are plenty of markets nearby and little shops going along the river. For a moment, it’s easy to forget that there are immigration officers waiting to check visas at the crossing point and you feel like you can walk over and cross the bridge, too. The Friendship Bridge is definitely as friendly of a place, as it sounds. Wow! We’re finally here! And how wonderful it is! The first couple of days have been a blur as we found ourselves coming down from the excitement of finally arriving, resting up from the longest journey I have ever taken in my life, and getting to know Mae Sot. Since we first landed on the dirt strip that makes up the main artery of Mae Sot’s airport, everything has felt surreal. Maybe it was the jetlag, maybe it was just the happiness of finally getting to experience the real reason behind GlobeMed and what I have worked for firsthand. Regardless, getting in the back of an open-air pickup truck with bags in tow, almost falling out (having Alex chuckle at me for being a novice), and making our way to our home for the next month was completely overwhelming. We’re staying in the Phannu House, a guest house here in town that’s very close to a few different restaurants for breakfast and dinner. It’s a great, quiet little place with a calm courtyard and bikes that we have rented to get across town. Thanks to our new friends Nyein and Ye – two students in SAW’s GED classes – we now (kind of) know the way to the SAW office. Not getting lost en route is half of the battle, but navigating the traffic here is definitely also a big challenge. I haven’t ridden a bike much in the last year, and being rusty on two wheels is not a good idea when cars, mopeds, and motorcycles are all zooming past one another in the weaving of an intricate fabric of city life. I’m thinking that I’ll improve over time – maybe even feel comfortable on my bike by the end of our stay. But I will definitely be needing a lot of warming up. Aside from checking out the parts of Mae Sot that we can get to on our own, we have also been exploring other parts of the city. Nyein and Ye have been amazing hosts, and they have taken us to markets and good restaurants, as well as further outside of the city to see the natural beauty of the area. Today, we visited a park with one of the most beautiful waterfalls you could possibly imagine. We made our way along a path up to about the halfway point of the waterfall, and then jumped in amongst the rocks and fallen branches to climb our way to the top. Even with the millions of ants that seemed to spring up on every surface that wasn’t covered in water, it was a lot of fun and a great bonding experience! When we finally got to the top, the view was incredible, and we took a lot of pictures with our team and our new friends. After making our descent back down, we also had lunch with a group of some of the SAW staff. Chicken and rice, a noted Burmese staple around town, was excellent. Aswin in particular seems to love the stuff. When some of us finished up, we decided to head back to the waterfall while everyone else was still eating. Unfortunately for me, this meant an unexpected plunge into the cool water. Forgoing the path and trying to climb up the unconventional way from the bottom “steps” of the waterfall, I lost my footing and was completely submerged in the water that lay at the waterfall’s base. Of course, my phone was in my pocket, so it is now sitting in rice that I bought from the restaurant across the street from Phannu House. Fingers crossed that it makes it out alive so I can keep sharing these beautiful scenes of Thailand! Speaking of beautiful scenes, after lunch, we made our way to another waterfall, this time at the top of a mountain and set before an open lake. We climbed the stairs to the top of the mountain path that led to the waterfall, and then set out on the steep and treacherous journey (I almost slipped twice, and did slip once – though this was on flat land). It was very cool that the path through dense forest led right over the waterfall near its apex so that we were able to literally step over a waterfall. We followed the path all the way to the top, where we got some great views of the valley spread out beneath us and took a few more group photos. After a quick stroll around the golden temple that sat overlooking the land, we quickly made our way back down and jumped into the man-made lake I mentioned earlier. Like in most things, Anna and Aswin were in first (even before Nyein and Ye), Sinna soon followed, and Alex and I – though tentative at first – eventually made it into the murky water. A great way to cool off from the excitement of a long and very, very fun day.
For most people, their first time on a plane is an exciting experience. Leaving the ground and not falling back down is an experience that isn’t found anywhere else in life. The typical first experience is a relatively easy first journey, a cross country flight or a short international flight. I am a part of the group who really wanted to push themselves in their first time flying by taking a trip that would consist of 21 hours of flying total one way. The first flight was a simple a to b from Cincinnati to Newark, New Jersey, about an hour and a half. I got to the airport and checked my bag and received my tickets. I went through the loathed airport security with no complaints and walked to my gate waiting to board. Leading up to this trip, everyone kept asking me whether I was excited or nervous, ad my honest answer was that I wasn’t really either. I was so foreign to the concept of flying that I didn’t even know what to imagine my flight being like. We were called to board and we took our seats, my friend being nice enough to let me have the window seat so that I could witness takeoff. I can’t really describe how big of a smile I had on my face as we took off from the ground, I turned into an awestruck little boy instantly. I have always been interested in engineering and the multitude of things that relate to it and so I let that part of me take over, admiring the beauty of airplane. This flight flew by and went relatively well, slight turbulence here and there but nothing too major. We landed and Newark and I now felt like flying was no big deal, however I was not naïve enough to think that the looming 16-hour flight was going to be the same cake walk as the last one. Cursed by my size, I knew that I wasn’t going to have much room. I didn’t know that I was going to basically be trapped by the window, completely unable to sleep, and eventually feel sick for the last five hours of the flight which almost culminated with me getting sick in the when we finally landed. We walked into the Hong Kong airport and this was my first experience in a foreign country, and it was an incredible feeling. Seeing all the people, the signs in different languages, the overall design of the airport, the random stores that were inside, and surprisingly not feeling out of place. In Hong Kong, we again had a short lay over before we flew to Bangkok, which was the smoothest flight of the trip. When we arrived in Bangkok we went through customs, struggled slightly to find our luggage, exchanged some money, and went on a search for a place for our group to rest. We found a place next to many other travelers underneath an escalator. After the slightly longer break here we all got into cabs and made our way to the domestic airport to make our final flight to Mae Sot. I learned many things on this short cab ride, like how good Thai music is, how most Americans would probably say that everyone here drives crazy, and that there are a lot of tolls to go through. When we arrived at the airport we went through security again and we found some food then we worked our way to our gate. The flight to Mae Sot was not bad at all, very similar to the flight from Cincy to Newark, except for landing. The Mae Sot airport is very small with only on landing strip, even though construction is under way to make it larger. We were greeted here by Dr. Htin Zaw and the rest of the SAW staff. Overall my experience flying for the first time was amazing. I loved seeing the difference in the airports and in the planes that we flew on. The best part of the trip was that I was able to experience this with a great group of friends who were all very helpful and who graciously put up with my many novice questions.
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AuthorSWelcome to our blog for GlobeMed at the University of Cincinnati's 2017 Grassroots Onsite Work (GROW) internship team! |