The camp
6am comes mighty fast- especially when you have been traveling since the 26th of December! Honestly I don’t think that the backpacker life is for me, I couldn’t do this for months on end. After getting picked up and buying some rice for our stay, we were on the way. It’s a 5+ hour ride to the river depending on the state of the roads and what season you are traveling in. Luckily it is the dry season right now, so Thailand is fixing all of its back country roads in prep for the rainy season, so we should have newly paved roads and no mud slides to contend with. After the car ride it is a 2 hour boat ride north to arrive at the camp. Both Andrew and I were pretty tired, but I was lucky enough of get some sleep in in the first 2 hours of the ride when the roads are fairly straight and smooth. Sadly Andrew didn’t fare as well and by the time we were off roading on an insanely windy and pothole filled road he wasn’t able to get any sleep. Our driver – no crazier than any other driver in Asia- was taking the turns so fast even Andrew and I were feeling a bit queasy – and we were once the only two people not sea sick on a tiny ass boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean during a storm. Eventually we arrived at the river and were on a boat without any hitches occurring. You can never tell with the Thai authorities how things will go until they happen.
The boat ride North
Arriving in the camp there was an energy and flurry of people that just wasn’t there when I first arrived in July. There were food stands alone the river, and people playing very official games of soccer and volleyball, not to mention just way more people than I have ever seen in Sector 1 of the camp. Thinking it was at first due to the season- January is the mildest of all the months, so no oppressive heat or rain – Mweh Paw turns to me and says,
“Oh, I forget it is Karen New Year”
“Today?”
“No on 12”
“It’s the 7th now… this will continue until the 12th?”
“Yes, it maybe a problem for you”
Ha! Go figure we would arrive during a week-long celebration in the camp and that no one thougTBht to mention it beforehand! Well we will have to wait and see what happens with the project now, in the meantime it is nice to see the camp thriving with activity. Sometimes it can be a very depressing place, for all of the obvious reasons, but now it was a completely changed atmosphere. They even managed to get a loud speaker and have someone announcing the soccer game plays in real time just like on TV! Which is quite a feat for a place that barely has any electricity. Dead tired Andrew and I took a nap on the bamboo floor of the place I will be staying in. To only be told by Mweh Paw that Andrew will be staying somewhere else, by insistence of the First Clinic in Charge. Well at least we didn’t expect anything different!
See, the Karen aren’t really into privacy even if Andrew and I could stay in the same hut
After a brief nap and some fried chicken Mweh Paw surprised me by saying that there will be a TB meeting tonight at 6pm to talk about the project. I am stunned! It took me 3 days last time to have a meeting about this project and now I get one within a few hours of arrival with the First in Charge of the camp none-the-less! 6pm rolls around and it is time for the meeting, the First in Charge of the camp, the Second in Charge of the camp, the Clinic in Charge, the TB lab tech, and 3 other TB workers are all there plus, Andrew, Mweh Paw, and myself! Thankfully Andrew kicks off the meeting, since he has done this way more times than I have.
“I want to start by thanking you for having us here. My name is Andrew Lim and I lived on the border for 1 year and have worked with GHAP and KDHW…” he starts into this incredibly formal speech introducing himself, his Burma work, and medical school work all the while Mweh Paw is dutifully translating away as he is talking. I’m not sure what shocked me the most; the formalness of Andrew’s speech in contrast to the meetings situation, which was being conducted while sitting on the floor of someone’s bamboo house by the light of two candles, or Mweh Paw’s amazing translational skills! I had no idea her English was so good, having not really spoken to her much as of yet. When Andrew was done he just looked to me, and in response to what must have been total horror and shock on my face he says, “They like things formal” and I’m thinking how do I follow that amazing speech on all of his Burma work and medical school resume?! I totally should have gone first!
So doing my best to try to introduce myself and the project. From there we delve into the nitty gritty of the project. It turns out to be THE most helpful meeting I have ever had about the project. Maybe there is hope for this whole thing happening after all!