Well, my second trip to the borderlands has just drawn to a close. After a very shaky start, I finally settled in, making friends and work contacts and now I am leaving with a great sense of accomplishment. I will return in January 2010 and I expect to have many new projects to work on.
My Projects
The last month has been a blur of activity, much of it bucketing about in four-wheel drive trucks!  One of the most rewarding undertakings was the training of my assistant Tun Ein. He’s a 24 year-old Burmese refugee who already had some electrical and electronic experience. I was able to pay him while teaching him the essentials of solar installation and maintenance. Luckily, we were able to do three installations together and I feel that Tun Ein will be a big help in the future. First we went back to Ti Lai Pa, which I had visited earlier during the dry season. On that occasion, the journey was a very bumpy 4-hour truck ride, mainly criss-crossing a river bed. This time it was an 8-hour slalom over slippery rivers of mud that used to be roads!  Between the three trucks in the convoy, we got stuck more than twenty times. However, it was all worth it as the new clinic is a substantial hardwood structure with a metal roof, the installation easy and the meals provided by our very grateful Karen hosts were unforgettable. Next we did two installations for the Mon National Health Committee. The first one was in Halokhanee camp for internally displaced persons, just inside Burma. This time I had permission from the Thai authorities and the camp was only two hours from Sangkhla, along a surprisingly smooth dirt road. This camp differs from others I have visited inside Thailand, in that it is more permanent and feels more like a village than a refugee camp. However, the reality is the same. The inhabitants are stuck there, with no prospect of returning to their villages of origin. Again the hospitality was memorable and the fish paste probably the best I have ever tasted! Lastly, we did a system at the Mon clinic at Japanese Well, again just inside Burma. They already have an over-sized generator there, but it is ancient and it has an insatiable appetite for diesel. One innovation we employed in the two Mon clinics was to use 3Watt LED lights in the In-Patient Department and the bathroom. These use so little energy that we can leave them on all night.
Another small job was to re-install the solar array and rework the battery configuration on a 500W solar system belonging to Children of the Forest, children’s home. The system had largely been donated by Annex Power, a Bangkok solar supplier.  Some rather basic mistakes had been made and when I diplomatically pointed these out to Annex, they invited me to come to Bangkok to give a short training to their engineers. It was fun to meet them and get a sense  of the commercial solar scene in another country and I look forward to doing business with them in the future.
One promise I had to make good on was to repair some electrical conduit and wiring at Baan Dada’s. This is a children’s home near Huaymalai, run by Richard, a smiling  Filipino man, with over fourteen years of service on the border under his belt. It was extremely satisfying to tear out the hideous attempt at conduit we found, and replace it with some fine looking pipe. Tun Ein was instructed in the joys of taking pride in one’s work and installing conduit that one could actually pull some wire into!
NawPawlulu
Due to donor cut-backs, Pawlulu is searching for other sources of income. I helped her complete the application for a grant from the Japanese government to set up a sewing project for her patients and local villagers. I hope she gets it. I got the final accounting from Nandoe for the funds I had supplied back in December. The results are impressive. The chicken coup was completed and stocked with eight chickens. The two fish ponds were completed and stocked with one thousand catfish and tilapia. The shop front was completed and is now the smartest boutique in town! The patients all got sandals, blankets, mosquito nets and pillows. And there is $100 left over for future projects. My relationship with Pawlulu and Nandoe was  one of the cherished experiences I take away from this place. I am also taking away a huge stock of hand woven sarongs, bags, cushion covers and scarfs, which I will sell at my fundraising events in early winter.
Whispering Seed
I donated a small solar water pump to the project and paid for most of the construction of a hand dug well to put it on. The rainy season has started and Jim has to worry about getting all his kids and their possessions back into Sangkhla before the flooding river cuts them off. I think the well digging will have wait till next year. Hopefully, by then he will have funding for the large solar system we have been planning.
Next Year
I plan to return in January and continue spreading the solar gospel. In addition to Jim’s  system, I hope to work on a large system for the Mercy Team clinic at Japanese Well. Maybe power a safe house for single mothers there also. Solar hot water, solar cooking and solar food drying are also in my sights

​My Projects
I have been very busy visiting villages and setting up projects for the future. Luckily, I have been able to extend my circle of contacts and through them reach out to more remote communities. Recently, I went with a new friend, Mr P’Nong, to revisit the little village of Ko Mong Ta. I had previously visited this village to take in the preparations for the funeral of a well-known Buddhist nun.  This time, I went to look at the solar home systems put in by the Thai government about 4 years ago. Most of them seemed to be still working, despite some obvious Rube Goldberg modifications! But the high points of the visit were sitting quietly in the main hall of the Buddhist monastery for almost two hours, then swimming in the river and going for a long hike with the resident novice monk. Thailand does Buddhism a little differently from other places, (at least judging by their meat intake). When I found a functioning cigarette lighter on the trail and offered it to the young monk, he immediately whipped out an old stogie, and lit it up with relish!
I spent a few days with Jim and family and some folks from Aquaeous Solutions, (a group dedicated to developing sources of clean water), out at Whispering Seed farm. Our task was to build three inter-connected water tanks, using pre-cast concrete rings. I really enjoyed this hard physical work, despite afternoon temperatures pushing 100 degrees F. I was able to using one of my solar powered water pumps to keep the (human) concrete mixers supplied. Also, to cure the cement tanks they had to be filled immediately. The little pump had no problem delivering about 1,000 liters an hour and filling all three tanks in about six hours.
I have three remote clinics to install small solar electric systems on, two of which are for the Mon National Health Committee. They are too far inside Burma for me to venture, so I have hired a solar apprentice, Tun Ein, to do the installations for me. I give him classes every week and I hope that he will be of great help to me in the future. The third system is going to Ti Lai Pa, a magical Karen village I previously visited with Nandoe. I’m told the clinic construction is proceeding apace and now the question is – can I get in there and do the job before the monsoon rains make the road impassable? Since part of Ti Lai Pa is inside Thailand, I can go there and Tun Ein and I can do the installation together, (an essential preparation for him, before tackling the Mon systems by himself).
Tomorrow, I hope to complete the solar hot water heating system at Nawpawlulu’s. Today, we hauled it up onto the roof and now only a few minor plumbing details remain. It’s now the hot season and the demand for piping hot showers is down somewhat, but I hope that from December to February, when the daily temperature swing is about 50 degrees F, my foresight will be appreciated. One of the fun benefits of working at Pawlulu’s has been getting to know some of the people there. Youngsters like Ponatee and Yusip have helped me work on the solar hot water and gradually I have come to know Aye Jo, a 93 year-old youngster! My guess is that he was a Karen soldier, both under the British and during the later Karen insurgency. I look forward to spending more time with him and getting more details on almost a century of life lived along the turbulent borderland.
So it all looks good for the remaining six weeks of my stay. I will be very busy, which is the way I like it. I am making plans to return here for another stint next year. After a sticky start, I have found that the community of both foreigners and local people is very supportive of me and my goals. The hard ground-breaking work  has been done and now I’m in a position to really help local projects and to spread the solar gospel far and wide! 

​Going into my second month here on the Border, and things are beginning to fall into place.
Regarding projects we are sponsoring, things have been moving ahead:
Napawlulu
I transferred $1,990 to Napawlulu’s account and requested the money be spent on the following items: 1) Warm blankets, mosquito nets and sandals for all 80 people at her Safe House, Children’s Home and Elderly Home. 2) The construction of a new chicken coop and the purchase of 8 hens, a rooster and some starter chicken feed. 4) The completion of the new shop front, which will sell woven items, eggs and hopefully a wider range of products in the future. 5) The construction of a new fish pond for raising cat fish for the patients to eat. It’s amazing how far $2,000 can stretch here. Labor is cheap and materials are expensive. Yesterday I saw two men cutting a tree trunk into planks, using the ancient pit saw method – one guy’s down in a pit, the other is standing on the log, placed across the pit, and they are using a cross-cut saw to cut the planks, a very primitive, extremely labor intensive, technique. As Napawlulu’s  sponsors have told her that her funding will be reduced, and may disappear in some cases, over the next three years, we have been brainstorming around developing new, more local and dependable revenue streams for her project. Ideas include a rice mill, taking in sewing work on a large scale and expanded vegetable and meat/egg production. I will be bringing back about 30 Karen woven sarongs as fundraising items for sale also. The main project we are gearing up for at the moment is an eye operation clinic which Napawlulu offered to host and organize, in just under 3 weeks. Yesterday she and I spent the afternoon cutting up material for the drapes to cover the patient’s faces during the operation. Soon, Nandoe and his son will build the operating tables themselves – again, it’s cheap labor vs expensive finished products. The surgeon is from Germany and spends part of each year doing cataract operations on the Border – such great work!
My projects
I have had great trouble securing some of the materials I need. I have been waiting for 3 weeks already for the black tubing for the solar hot water system at Napawlulu’s. This might necessitate a trip to Bangkok, but I have had the offer of help from a Thai speaker, to make sure I get everything and at a decent price.  My two solar PV panels should arrive this week and that will allow me to start experimenting with the water pumps – what fun!
I visited a remote Karen village called Ti Lai Pa recently, where they will build a small clinic. I offered to install a very basic solar PV system for them, and this will go ahead as soon as the structure has walls and a roof. The village  straddles the border, with the clinic in Thailand and the school in Burma! I hope they get it to a workable point before I have to leave. It is also proposed that I install a small PV system in the orphanage inside the nearest refugee camp, which houses 4,000 people. However, as foreigners, not connected to one of the large aid agencies are not allowed to enter the camp, this seemed a remote possibility. Then it was “suggested” that I could get access if I gave the Thai Border Police a solar panel, ($600 value). I told them that the solar panel wouldn’t work where I “suggested” they stuff it. Welcome to the Border!
I have been working with a group of four Italian actors who are training the kids in Children of the Forest home to put on a performance in a local park. It’s a rework of a Mon legend about the Rabbit on the Moon. I spent all day today getting their lighting and sound system up to snuff. Great people, great fun.
The Sangkhlaburi Roxie is really starting to take off! I’ve shown movies every night this week and will continue to do so, as long as there is interest.
Take care, stay in touch and keep that warm place in your heart open to the folks here on the Border

A quick trip to Umphang:
With Songkran in full swing, my Thai lessons on hold and boredom setting in, I decided on the spur of the cuff to make a quick trip to Umphang, the only tourist–oriented destination around Mae Sot. Buckshot kindly lent me his spare motorbike, a Suzuki 100cc, that he guaranteed would carry me the 164kms to Umphang and back. If I’d thought about it in Imperial units, I might have reconsidered – 100miles on a 100cc bike – are you nuts?  Especially since the bike model was the Suzuki “Crash”! I got more cheer from the brand of the flimsy plastic helmet, “Lucky”! Honestly, I’m not making this stuff up! But since this was my first venture on a motorbike, since I totaled my BSA Bantam in Glasgow, 25 years ago, I was raring to go. I traveled about 40kms, then started to climb into the mountains, which grew wilder and more dramatic as time went on. Halfway there, I passed Umphiem refugee camp, smaller than Mae La, but more remote, and apparently more crowded. I passed several NGO trucks on the road, whose mission it is to feed and care for these unfortunate people. Soon I was climbing into the cloud forest, where I would pass through belts of very cold air and reduced visibility. The scenery by now was spectacular, with cultivated valleys surrounded by jutting, jungle-covered cliffs. With only 40kms to go, everything changed in an instant – I was caught in a torrential downpour! Not too life-threatening, when you are stationary and the temperature is around 100 degrees F, you might think. But with night coming on and traveling at 60kms/hr in blinding rain, I started to get distinctly concerned. Very soon I began to shiver and my teeth started to chatter like castanets. Of course, there was not another vehicle on the road, they all had better sense, and above all, somewhere dry to go to. I had booked into the Trekker Hill Guesthouse, and not Hell nor high water was going to stop me getting there. Just as well, because soon there were torrents of floodwater crossing the road, where particularly steep side roads intersected my road. Just when I thought it would require surgery to remove my death-grip fingers from the handlebars, Umphang, in all its glory, hove into view, through the downpour. The Hill Trekker staff know a stupid fa-rang, close to hypothermia when they see one, and quickly had me in the hot shower, followed by a tasty meal. I expected to sleep well after my ordeal, but it was not to be. When the owner described the guesthouse to me on the phone, as ‘next to the Powerhouse’, I thought, “Oh, that must be a retro bar that specializes in the 70s power trio music of Hendrix and Cream”. I’m afraid not, old boy. It was the generating station for the whole damn town! The noise even overcame my high tech ear plugs, plus the vibrations ploughed right up through the pillow and on into my head. Umphang’s claim to fame is the proximity of spectacular waterfalls and exciting hiking trails, but the rainstorm had made access to the waterfalls impossible. So I did some off-roading on the bike and got to see what life is like for the really isolated Thai farmer. Hard scrabble. All in all, Umphang impressed me as dank, depressed little place, that has a ways to go before becoming the tourist destination it aspires to.
Songkran:
The Water Festival, celebrating Thai New Year happens between April 13th and 15th and this year was no exception. Traditionally, it was a time to visit and pay respect to elders, maybe gently wash the Buddha images in the Wat and generally clean house, literally and spiritually for the coming year. However, more recently, the festival has focused on the watery aspect, and how! For almost a week, young people, and not so young people, station themselves at the side of the road, beside 55gallon drums of water and drench anyone who passes. The unwary farang is a prime target. To counteract these stationary drenching facilities, gangs of youths ride around in Toyota pick ups, like they are Somali ‘technicals’, with two or more 55gallon drums in the bed and dispense their own drenchings. I had to eat dinner a couple of times completely soaked to the skin and dripping onto the restaurant floor. I have to say that it got a little old after a while. But the high point was the big parade, which took about four hours to wend its way down the main street. All morning, trucks full of villagers arrived from outlying areas, all dressed alike, to reinforce community bonding. Everyone in the parade wore the same shirt, hot pink with a procession of cartoon animals going round the bottom edge. The parade was made up of large elaborate floats with traditional Thai themes, often with massive sound systems, each playing a different Thai rock song. In between the floats were hundreds of people on foot, gyrating wildly to the pulsing beat(s), being soaked mercilessly by neighborhood kids.  I even saw the town fire truck dispense  a continuous dousing to the already-drenched revelers. Of course, such  a bacchanalia needs an energy source, and the fuel of choice was Mekhong – the Thai whiskey. Really it’s more like rum, but the old guys and gals in the street were downing it like it was spring water, and then rocking out like youngsters!
Thai Language:
Since Songkran, BGET work has been slow, so I have decided to spend my last two weeks in Mae Sot trying to learn some Thai. I had not made a serious attempt before, because I was very tired each evening from the BGET computer work and, out in the field, I was surrounded by Karen, Mon and Burmese speakers, with hardly a word of Thai spoken. So, armed with my “Thai for Beginners” book  and accompanying CD-Rom, I have dipped my toe into the stream, eddies and sloughs of paa-saa tai, Thai language. But its not at all easy. Thai is a tonal language and mispronunciation of any of the 5 tones can render your otherwise, well crafted sentence complete gobbledey gook. Take the word kaao, for instance. Depending on tone used, this may mean: fishy, news, rice or white. Or, how about bpaa, which can mean: to throw, forest, aunt and father (of a Chinese Thai person). I addition to the tones there are several other intricacies waiting to befuddle the unsuspecting student. Vowels can be long or short, and can be combined into sounds that, for me, involve quite a bit facial gymnastics to even approximate. I am getting pronunciation help from a very kind young man, who has the good grace to go under a name I can pronounce with ease, thank you, Nop!
Thanak and Whitening:
More of a Burmaway than a Thaiway,  Thanaka is a beautifying whitish paste applied to the cheeks of children and women, which serves to protect them from the harsh rays of the sun. But it is not just smeared on, rather, it is applied as a cosmetic, in intricate swirls and geometric patterns.  It is made by grinding up small branches of the Thanaka tree, and adding water to create a paste that has a scent reminiscent of sandalwood.  I find it very attractive, as did the protagonist in “The Piano Tuner”, which I’ve alluded to before. The same cannot be said for the plethora of skin-whitening products, purchased and applied principally by Thai women, to achieve a more western appearance. I got badly sun burned one day, (I foolishly left the house without first applying my Thanaka!), and had to go to the big pharmacy in town to get some aloe vera lotion. I had to wade through about 60 brands of whitening cream products to find one measly bottle of 3% aloe vera. The creams all featured pictures of Thai women who were confusingly eurasian looking, and sported weird jail palors. I have to say that the world wide appeal of skin whitening products leaves me cold and disgusted. I can assure any of these beautiful ladies that they are much more attractive to me, the way God made them, before they apply that muck to their faces. Take it from this peely-wally wee Scotsman!
Plastic:
Plastic is mixed blessing in Thailand. On one hand, almost everything is made out of it, and that means cheap useful products for people with few resources. Every villager has plastic buckets, plastic plates, plastic sandals etc. A striking feature of both rural and urban Thailand is the profusion of blue PVC pipes strung up everywhere. Coming a variety of sizes, these blue snakes make their way from wherever there is a water source to wherever there is a water need. Water on one side of the road, house on the other?  No problem, just run a couple of lengths of blue stick from one tree to another, and you’re done!  And its versatile too. I notice that the bakers of naan bread keep short lengths of the old blue magic stick handy for those lumps of particularly recalcitrant dough. But there’s one Thai habit that butts right into this ocean of plastic and the resulting collision is smelly mess and ecological disaster. Thai people are in the habit of burning their trash, and that now includes all the cast off plastic bags, old flip flops, juice bottles etc. Often, even before the light penetrates my room, here in Fort Buckshot, I awake to  the odor of melted plastic from our neighbor’s fire. Even though, in town, there is a regular and efficient trash collection service and  plastic of all kinds has value on the recycling market, some homeowners still prefer to handle the waste disposal problem themselves, and just burn the whole damn lot!

SANGKLABURI, Thailand. ​Sitting on the front porch of the Mon Women’s Organization building in Sangklaburi, it’s 9am, the sun is up, the humidity is down. Four saffron-clad Buddhist monks have visited the house opposite to receive their daily alms.  I just got a call saying our BGET team and the Mon women returning to their HQ inside Burma, have transferred from the 4x4 truck to a bus, and will arrive at Nyisar soon.
The BGET boys and I arrived in Sangklaburi on Monday after a grueling twelve hour journey by pick up truck. Although it was all on highway, I was trapped in the back of the “King Cab”, tiny seats behind the driver and passenger. I think Toyota is overstating its case calling it a King Cab, “Princeling Cab” or “Fourth-in-Line for the Throne Cab” would be more apt! Plus the seats had no padding left and the shock absorbers were shot. In short, I suffered the whole way from  a painful rear end and frequent loss of blood flow to that area. This brings me to my main gripe about Thailand – the hardness of the sitting and sleeping surfaces. All the chairs are made from hardwood, and the hardwood around here is the defining standard by which all others are measured. The mattresses are of horsehair or some such unforgiving substance. When I stagger from the truck, blood circulation not yet fully restored, I am welcomed by the sight of the restaurant table and benches all crafted from Terrazzo, which is concrete with stones embedded in it, ground flat and polished to a gleaming surface of diamond hardness. When staying in the village or other guest situation, we sleep on the hardwood floor with  only a thin raffia mat to keep the sleeping bag clean, – padding value zero! Everyone else is apparently cool about this appalling oversight in Thai culture, which is otherwise very civilized. I have heard that there is a cushion somewhere in South East Asia, but for me, this is now taking on the status of a Creation Myth – “ Once upon a time, our ancestors used to live happily on top of a big plush cushion, but then one day someone complained that it was not soft enough, so they were thrown off and we have been condemned to sit and sleep on rock-hard surfaces ever since”. But if a bruised arse is the highest cost of the transforming experiences I’m having, then I pay it gladly.
We gave the solar training on Tuesday and Wednesday to the Mon Women’s Organization. There were six women and one man in the class, including our translator. Again I find myself in a multi-language soup, which  is fun, but always leaves me wondering just how much the information got changed as it made its way from English to Thai, thence to Mon or Karen. In my worse nightmares, what started its life as, “Never, ever get the battery acid in your eyes or mouth”, ends up as “the battery acid is a little caustic, but it really brightens up your teeth”. I taught in English, that most of the women understood, with additional clarifications in Mon. The BGET boys taught in Thai, which was translated wholesale into Mon. The entire training was one long, love-fest of good feelings, frequently punctuated by gales of laughter. This is the way the Mon people like to have their interpersonal relations.  I want to cry when I think that there is very large group of well-armed thugs, just over the border, who have a stated policy of repression and genocide against such sweet people.
The Mon are one of the original peoples of South East Asia, pre-dating the arrival of the majority Burmans. The Mon brought Theravada Buddhism, which is now the predominant religion in all of the SE Asian countries. They are physically slight, extremely handsome in a refined, delicate way. The Mon  are originally a lowland culture, like the Thai, in contrast to the other ethnic minorities in Burma, like the Karen, Karenni, Kachin and Chin, who have traditionally lived the mountains, since their arrival from points north.  Mon language is written in a script that has since been adopted and adapted by the Burmese language. In short, Mon culture is very ancient and sophisticated, originally dominating most of present day Burma, yet today, it  is fighting a rear guard action, just to preserve its language. Like the Karen, the Mon have an armed resistance against the SPDC. But also, like the Karen, they are riven by factional splits, that the SPDC exploits and which reduce  their effective fighting force.
The MWO have branch office in Sangkla, where I am staying, which  is  a base for education and communications. Teams of Mon youth come here to do courses in English, Journalism and Democratic Rights among other subjects.   It was very inspiring to hear her talk the politicization of the Mon youth, and their optimism for a positive democratic future.  When they cross the border back into Burma, they have to be careful not to carry any incriminating papers, as they will be searched by the  border guards. Like Leo Ferre, the French poet said in the 70s, “Rien dans la main, rien dans la poche, tout dans la tranche!” There’s nothing in my hand, nothing in my pocket, it’s all in my mind! (Where you can’t get at it!)
There are many Mon people in Sangklaburi, some were born here and have Thai papers and full rights. Many others were born in Burma and have almost no rights, they are “unrecognized refugees”.  In contrast, the Mon in Sangklaburi, do not fear arrest, but they cannot leave the immediate district without a travel document, even to go to the regional capital, 2 hours away by bus. The document contains the destination address, the number in the party and the hour of expiration. The Mon Women’s Organization and similar groups are tolerated in Thailand as long as they do not agitate, hold demonstrations or publish subversive material. The Mon are not trapped in a camp like Mae La, but they are exploited, forced to accept low wages and they cannot own a house, a car or get a driver’s license, not even a business license.
Sangklaburi is quite a contrast to our beloved Mae Sot, being much smaller and  located on a gorgeous lake in a much more tropical zone. The lake is man made, formed by a hydro-electric dam, commissioned by the King about twenty years ago. Despite that, it looks very natural and  provides food and  long-tail boat transportation for the local community. The town is spread out and only has one wide main street, whereas other streets run down  peninsular ridges that drop into the lake.  There is a Mon side and a Thai side, connected by a modern road bridge and also, the longest wooden bridge in Thailand. The road virtually ends here, but Three Pagoda Pass, a border crossing point to Burma, is just 10kms away. The pass was held jointly by the Mon and Karen rebel armies until 1990, when it was over-run by Burmese forces. Like Mae Sot, Sangkla, has it’s share of political intrigue, spies and the occasional murder, but it’s not the  growth industry that it is in the gritty old border queen! 
The area is surrounded by jagged, forested mountains that march off  into the distance, in ridges of subtly lighter and lighter hues. It’s picture perfect. All the more poignant, given the mind-bending situation that the Mon are in, when one considers that the Thai-Burma Railway, built by the Japanese using  Allied and Burmese slave labor, ran through Kanchanaburi, the regional capital about 100kms away. This area, gorgeous as it is, has been contested since the days of the Mon/Burman empires, and before. As always, the ordinary person, who just wants to raise their family and live a peaceful life, is caught in the middle and ends up paying the highest price.
I hope to come back here next year, but I’ll have to get used the humidity, which is a good deal higher than in Mae Sot. As I write, there’s a tropical storm just above, trying to decide whether to drop it on us, or move on and plaster somewhere else. But that’s why it’s so green, isn’t it?

Bicycles and motorbikes are everywhere and some motorbikes have 4 riders and two of the riders are talking on mobile phones! One of my daily joys is observing the rich mix of people here. Many men and women wearing longyis, the Burmese sarong. A large number of Muslim folk, the men wear kufias, the small pill-box hat, some young girls wear a headscarf. The Chinese trader who has his shop in one of the old wooden buildings and  his house is up above. His daughter goes to school with her arm around her best pal, a Muslim girl. The kids are well-loved. The Indian gem trader, born in Rangoon, haggling with the rich Thai woman from Bangkok. He speaks good English and tries to hustle me into a gem purchase, again and again, but it’s all good-natured banter.

I eat every meal in a different restaurant, trying to remember where the best ones are. Memorable meals so far have included Tea-leaf salad, banana-leaf salad, spicy pork salad, (was warm and included squid, shrimp, glass noodles and lots of lemon-grass and other very aromatic herbs), Bamboo curry and roti ( more like Indian puri, done in oil). Almost all the food is spicy hot, just the way I like it, but there’s a delicate sweetness too. The cost is very reasonable from a 66 cent Pad Thai to a $2 Burmese curry in a place catering to Westerners. The market street is of course a source of great sensual stimulation. Walking through the crowded alley, one can’t fail to notice the buckets of eels, the live frogs tied together with an elastic band, fresh water turtles  and the caged sparrows, all due to end up on somebody’s plate before the day is out.

There are quite few Westerners here, mainly working for NGOs. Apparently, the foreign community is divided by salary level and mode of transportation. Some big aid organizations are well dug in, sending back shocking reports about the plight of the Burmese refugees and getting large donations, much of which goes to pay for their tinted-window SUV, their servants in the big house and junkets to conferences where yet more reports are generated. The rest of us, who volunteer our time for free, ride about earnestly on funky Chinese bicycles and have to buy our own mosquito nets!

The plight of the Karen refugees in the camps is indeed heart-breaking. They are displaced and stateless. The Thai government lets them stay in the camps, but won’t let them leave or give them Thai papers or provide any assistance. That’s where the NGOs come in. But I have had it explained to me that the camp situation is about a lot of money and personnel concentrated on a relatively small population, maybe 150,00, yet not achieving great things. However, just across the border inside Burma, the need is huge and almost unaddressed. I have decided to concentrate on cross-border work. On March 17th we will do a training at a new clinic, serving around 400 internally displaced people. We will install a very small PV system, but even 2 fluorescent lights, a plug to charge a laptop  and batteries for flashlights and the crucial malaria microscope is a huge step forward.

In BGET, the Border Green Energy Team, I work with Salinee, the Director, Muang, the office manager, who are both Thai, and Thai, Sunti and Em, who are all solar technicians and are Thai Karen, born in the camps or nearby. (I realize there are a lot of Thais in that sentence,  but one of our techs really is called Thai). Plus there’s Jennifer, who is from the US. They are all in their twenties and have much fun together. Muang likes to listen to Thai and American bubblegum pop songs all day, and sing along with them. I’ve only been in the office a week and now I can just about sing along with them too! Tomorrow I will start 1 hr a day Thai language with Muang. To keep it serious, she’s charging me $3 an hour. You can see photos of everybody by going to www.bget.org and clicking on About Us, then Staff.  Right now my work centers around preparations for the two trainings I will do – customizing the training manuals, deciding who will teach what, checking that all the equipment works and communicating with the leaders of the groups we are training. I am also training our technicians, giving them a more in depth understanding of PV and batteries. They are very receptive and appreciative. An old, experienced codger like me gets a lot of respect in Thailand!

I feel very healthy. The weather is great. Since Mae Sot is in the hills  it is cooler than Chiang Mai was. The mornings and evenings are perfect for cycling, though it gets a wee bit clammy in the late afternoon. I’m eating so much, it’s just as well I have to cycle everywhere! Right now it’s the end of the cool season and soon the hot season will begin. We’ll see if I’m still loving the weather in April, when it really gets toasty!
But Mae Sot is a deceptive little town. After the daylight hours of tranquility and harmony, there lies an underbelly of crime, exploitation and political intrigue. I know this from reading “Restless Souls” by Phil Thornton and having his information confirmed by long-time residents.

Yesterday, Feb 29th, was a special day. The BGET team revisited the refugee camp at Mae La. It’s about an hour north of Mae Sot and is the largest of the several camps up and down the border, with a population of 60-70,000. It was established in 1990 and is mainly populated by Karen. The Karen are a unique people. They had a creation myth that said that their younger white brother would come back some day, returning to them their long lost book. Well, when the American Baptist missionaries arrived here in the late 1800s, many of the Karen converted to Christianity. Now 40% are Christian, the remainder being Buddhist and Animist. The whole 6 hours we were in the camp, I could hear Christian songs being sung to guitar accompaniment. The conditions in the camp are crowded, the buildings are often makeshift and the level of poverty is palpable. Most people will not be resettled to 3rd countries, and will remain there till the Thai government’s policy changes. But what is striking is that the Karen have maintained their dignity and their cultural cohesion and do not exhibit the hopeless and desperation one might expect. On the contrary, they are focused on the future and education plays a large part in the camp. I wandered into High School #2 and spoke to the headmaster. There are over 30,000 children in 16 Primary, 8 Middle and 10 High Schools established in Mae La in 1996. Classes include Bible, Karen, Thai, English and Burmese languages, History, Geography, Math and Science. There is vocational training too and I visited a rudimentary metal-working shop. There is a computer learning center that BGET installed the electrical power for. The system is a 1Kw PV array with diesel generator back-up. They have internet connection and mobile phones work there too. We were there this time to do a presentation to the students in the Engineering Studies Program on a Micro Hydro system that BGET had installed at another location, with the assistance of 7 of the ESP students. It’s difficult to get permission for camp residents to leave, but in this case it was obtained. So, the BGET team and the 7 participating students did a PowerPoint presentation in English and Karen, to about 20 other students and the Director of the ESP. English language skills are pretty strong in the camp. We were treated to an elaborate lunch of fish soup, cabbage salad, chicken and sweet and sour soup. It was humbling to be so feted by people who have so little. The ESP students are about 17-25 years old and seem a cohesive group with great camaraderie and constant joking and laughter. The Karen are obviously an extremely resourceful and enduring people. I just hope they can get back to their homeland, Karen State, just over the border, called Kawthoolei, in Karen language.

And then there is Oscar. He walked into BGET office looking like the Kung Fu master of ‘Little Grasshopper’ fame, who had been given the clothes that were left after Woodstock went home. He is 65, born Karen in Burma, but resettled in the US in 1968, by his father’s employer, a Scot. His education was old school British and he can recite long passages from Walter Scott’s ‘Lochinvar’ and Shakespeare’s ‘As you like it’. After 40 years in the US, trained as structural engineer, he has returned to help his people and rediscover his roots. He’s a gas, and I’m sure he will appear in future epistles from the border.