The Chili Bomb Diaries: Winter Arrives

Dear all,

So, this edition of the Chili Bomb Diaries is late late late in coming and I apologize. Things have been very busy over here. My supervisor got fired for…not doing good things and I’ve essentially taken over his job. It’s been an amazing opportunity to take on a lot of responsibility and to do things they wouldn’t have let me do otherwise. I’m running two of our largest programs and overseeing construction of our new offices in two camps. I am currently master trainer for our business skills course and have been left for a month to take care of our two larger camps while my other supervisor travels down south to pilot a new program. It’s all very exciting, very stressful, and very exhausting. As another coordinator described a week here, “it’s like getting hit by a truck. It happens fast but it knocks you flat.” Unfortunately, I won’t get hired permanently because they need to hire local Thai staff for the position. Part of this is budget, part political but I’m satisfied that this experience has turned into an unexpected learning opportunity.

Special apologies to all who requested extra information about the situation in Myanmar. It’s still in progress. Mostly, I hate to send out something that isn’t very good or complete but information is so hard to find here. I will try to get something off this week so you can at least have a bit of infos.

To update on the situation along the border, essentially the influx of refugees everyone braced themselves for never came. There was an initial minor rush of a few hundred which was really people who were already illegally in Thailand using the violence in Myanmar as an opportunity to legitimately claim refugee status. But, really, who can blame them? The reason there hasn’t been a wave of people at the border is because it’s been closed by the military in Myanmar. People want to leave, but they can’t. It is anticipated that refugee numbers will grow when things become more relaxed in the future. Things have actually been eerily quiet. Information is slow to get out and people are worried about their families. Myanmar is still very much cut off and at least those of us working along the border know very little about what’s going on.

Someone asked me something a few weeks ago about camp and I thought I would describe camp life a little bit to give you all an idea of how things work here. I had no idea before I arrived how things were structured and it’s sort of interesting how camps are set up. Most of the camps here have been around for more than a decade and they are very much established like towns. Camps are divided into sections. Each section elects a section leader every year and the whole camp elects a camp leader, like a mayor, every year. They make all kinds of decisions about camp governance and discipline.

Different NGOs take care of different needs. The one I work with takes care of reproductive health, births, and children under 5 years old. So training of midwives and growth monitoring and vaccinations of little people are all taken care of by ARC. We also do community health education and vaccinations of new arrivals. Our water and sanitation program is responsible for all water provision and construction and maintenance of toilets and waste management. The gender-based violence program deals with rape and abuse cases in camp. AMI runs the in-camp hospital and does referrals to out of camp local hospitals when necessary. TBBC provides food, clothing, home construction, and other life necessity rations to most camp residents. That NGO also builds and maintains roads and bridges in camp. UNHCR takes responsibility for legal issues and liaising with the Royal Thai government in issues of protection. They also take responsibility for coordination of efforts along the border and for resettlement. HI works with the handicapped. ZOA runs the schools. Other groups, like my program within ARC, or COERR, ZOA, JRS all provide non-essential but still important programs like vocational training, income generation, supplementary feeding programs, and other trainings for in-camp organizations. Within camp there are camp-based organizations which run tons of programs and services for camp residents like child protection and the Karen Women’s Organization and the Burma Women’s Union. Camps are really like towns, there is a morning market and an all day Muslim market, there are coffee shops and restaurants, tailors and karaoke spots. Churches and monasteries. Schools for all children and classes in English and computers for adults.
The weather’s gotten colder. I never knew and didn’t really believe that Thailand would get cold, but it does. Nights are freezing and one of our camps is just brutal even in the middle of the day. Apparently, there may even be snow at some point. I have to wear most of my clothes. I figure, it doesn’t really matter. It’ll only last a couple of weeks. Of course, all of the Thais are running around in down parkas and ski masks.

I hope all of you had a beautiful Thanksgiving. We actually did quite well here in Umphang. Someone had the foresight to buy cranberry sauce in Bangkok so the Americans among us divided up the traditional dishes and put together a stellar holiday. I got the pumpkin pie, being the only person who knew how to make one from an actual pumpkin. It was a bit awkward for me, given that it was very labor intensive and I actually really dislike pumpkin pie but Thanksgiving isn’t right without it, so there it was. Our Thai staff really appreciated that the whole point of the holiday was the food and it was really nice to share with first-timers. We even had that whole bustle and busyness in the kitchen before eating that felt like a holiday. I was in a good mood for days.

This last weekend was Loy Kratong, a Thai festival where everyone makes (or buys) little boats made from banana tree trunks and banana leaves, beautifully decorated with flowers and candles and incense. Then, after dark you go down to the river and send them off to say thank you or I’m sorry to the water goddess, depends who you ask. Jum and Som taught me how to put mine together and I felt a bit like a kindergartener but it came out fine and was a really nice way to spend an afternoon. That night after we all sent our floaty things off down the river there was this huge parade of beauty queens and a beauty contest. One of our very own coordinators competed. She was the first foreigner in the history of the contest to compete and was the crowd favorite by far. She learned her self-introduction and it went something like “Hello, my name is Alanna. I work for ARC. I’m from America. I like living in Umphang. I like vegetarian Pad See Eew and tofu salad. Thank you.” Her talent was singing Country Roads karaoke style. AMAZING. I got most of it on tape.

So with that happy thought I will leave you. I feel like this edition is a little disorganized but it’s hard to focus these days. I’m off to the southern camp for a two-week long business skills training next week after the King’s birthday and then I’ll be in Seattle for Christmas, which is too exciting! Can’t wait to see the family and anyone else who might be around in the brief window of time I’ll have to get over jet-lag before going back to work. I hope all of you out there are happy and healthy and that Thanksgiving was wonderful and that you are all gearing up for a great Holiday season. Updates! I love updates!

LOVE!

Mollie