Slow Boat to Burma

Last weekend I needed to extend my visa by going to Burma. In Thailand, you are given a month long tourist visa each time you enter the country. Therefore, monthly "visa runs" comprised of exiting and promptly reentering the country are quite common for people staying for awhile. Since my two month visa had expired, I needed to get myself an extra month, so I took the bus to Ranong (where I've spent a lot of time for work, too... I think I've been there almost weekly for one thing or another), which is the closest point to access Burma. In chatting with foreigners in the past, I had a hazy idea about how things should go, and I knew NOT to pay more than 100 baht ($2.50) for my round-trip boat ticket. I arrived at Thai immigration, surrounded by an interesting mix of beach bums and sex tourists, got my stamp to leave, walked down the road to the dock, where I encountered a guy trying to get me to take his friend's boat. We argued about the price for awhile, and I shimmied down the rope ladder to the awaiting long boats. There was some arguing about the price that was agreed to and they told me that I had to pay 200 if I wanted to take the boat by myself. I replied that I never said that I wanted my own boat and to go find people. So after 30 minutes of moving between two boats (I wasn't certain of why, I just kept jumping across boats each time I was told to do so), we had 7 people, which was deemed sufficient to depart. Everyone was Burmese, so we chatted (as far as I can go in Burmese, which isn't far). The motor is actually on a long wooden pole which is placed in the water. As we bobbed along, water kept coming in from the side and splashing from the motor. The woman next to me was kindly trying to use her umbrella to shield the both of us from the splashing. We had to stop at numerous check-points out of Thailand. Once in Burmese water (Myanmar water, if you prefer), my passport was stamped and I paid 5 dollars (US) for a day pass to Myanmar. They like dollars and charge more if you want to pay in Thai currency. I had a 10. They gave me change. This highly impressed me. I've become a major cheapskate here and the thought of loosing $5 had been disturbing me all morning. So, way to go, Myanmar- you violently oppress your people and stifle open thought, but you've got a great system when it comes to dispensing change on your borders in currency that is not even your own. Then we went back to Thailand. The Thai police with a big dog stopped us to make sure we weren't smuggling cigarettes, drugs, or people back to Thailand. Everyone smiled. I said "Hi" in Thai, they let us go quickly. About 5 minutes later, the women in front of me pulled 2 cases of cigarettes (which are much cheaper on the Burmese side) out from inside her oversized windbreaker. It's good they hadn't unleashed the dog on us. When we got back to the dock, I bid adieu to my new traveling friends (including the American father and daughter duo who I'd joined on the return trip), and went back to immigration, where I encountered the same people from before, who'd paid a great deal more to take fancy, air-conditioned boats that didn't have "holes in the bottom" as one Brit put it. Afterwards, I was chatting with 2 women from the Netherlands. We had lunch together. They were so surprised that I was here on my own. Somedays I'm surprised that I'm here on my own.

My week has been filled with very long and ineffective meetings. One on Friday was particularly annoying, as it lasted for 4 hours, but nobody could answer any of the questions that were being asked (mostly by me... We have a new HIV program, and it's really difficult to determine how it should be run without knowing what other organizations are already doing... I've been asking this question for weeks to various people and the answer is never clear and never the same). There's a Japanese American who works for a partner organization nearby who was also at the meeting. We had a nice time commiserating. It's been really interesting being here, in the rural south, without expat friends for the most part. I feel like I'm seeing a side of the country, the local NGO world, that I would not have had I come with another westerner. I think it's also revealed to me how people from the outside are often seen by Thai people (not always so positively) and how little most westerners accomplish in the time that they are here, as they surround themselves with other people who think and act as they do. That being said, communication and sense of humor remain different, and that is really trying at times. When a co-worker thinks that a meeting is good and effective because it lasted for 4 hours, it's hard to explain how it feels to mourn 4 hours of your life that you will never regain. You can't really. And during those rare moments when I've had someone nearby with whom I can chuckle about feeling out of place or ineffective despite great time and effort, I begin to see why people seek out others who are like them, why local people perceive visitors as snooty or irritating, and why the cycle continues.

Still very little global concern about the situation in Burma. I had hoped that it would be addressed during the Asean summit, but seemed very much overshadowed by N. Korea and Lebanon. So sadly reactive. It's really frustrating and difficult to be constantly hearing from people about the atrocities from which they are fleeing (the usual forced military, forced portering for the military, stealing, beating, raping) knowing that nothing is being done to change it or draw international attention to it.

Our migrant women's football (soccer) program has been quite successful in a couple of communities. I've been playing a lot of football with the women, who are not at all adverse to slide tackling or just charging at one another. It's not a far cry from American football in some ways. It's been great and is making me seriously think about joining some kind of very non-competitive soccer team when I get back home. Non-competitive being key. My very competitive high school soccer team has permanently scarred me.

Three more weeks in Thailand, a little less than two more weeks at my office in the south. It's amazing how time flies!