Mae Sot, Tak Province, Thailand, ought to be a doorstep to Burma. In fact, it's more like an escape route from Burma. Because of the important migrations, over half the population is Burmese. Mae Sot should be called "the Asian Melting Pot". Or "Little Burma".
Mae Sot no longer feels like Thailand: people speak Burmese or Karen, the car number plates are in Burmese, women wear beautiful pointed hats, colourful outfits and yellow powder on their cheeks... Step into another world, you would feel no different.
Located near Mae Sot, only a few miles away from the Burmese border, P’ya Dawn School offers cheap education to Karen and Burmese migrants. Opened in 2005, the school currently welcomes as many as 200 students, all of whom have been obliged to flee the oppressive Burmese regime and the continuous fighting between the Karen National Liberation Army, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and the Burmese Army.
The drive to school is one to remember. Into the wilderness of men in skirts, bumpy roads, poor farmers and blue mountains. Rolling hills of mystery, enchantment. Danger, magic, reality.
The loneliness loses itself in the immensity of this world and its people. They may not own the land, but the land owns them. Truly, they are one. Big storm clouds light up the fast darkening sky, com-pleting the picture. A family on their bicycle cycle past. Two men herd their mud covered buffaloes to the safety of their field. Farmers pick up their tools and start heading home.
It’s peaceful, ancestral, legendary, secret.
Right there, across the river, is Burma. Just on the other side. What is a border? Is it a line, a world, a frontier?
The dusty school grounds are lightened up by a lovely playground. The canteen is a formidable con-struction of wooden tables and benches. The teacher’s house is a small shack with a roof of leaves and bark. A new building for classrooms has been built, but they have yet to furnish it… For the time being, the students sit on bamboo poles. The toilets… I will avoid mentioning! And the shower? Just head down towards the well, adjust your sarong, haul a bucket up, and start washing! The conditions are amazing. It is an honor to share the lives of children who often must risk their lives to cross the river into Thailand, to go to school.
No running water, no internet… But some of the most amazing people in the world. People who, regardless to their condition, always make you feel welcome, and treat you with almost excessive kindness.
Despite all the hardships these children have been through, they seem happy. They have such depth in their stare. Their smiles can light up the world like a thousand candles.
They swing in the playground, kicking at the sky.
What use do they have for English now? It won’t make them swing any higher. If anything, it will weigh them down. But one day they will outgrow the swing. And without English to pull them up, the swing will break.
Only the brighter students can hope to be granted a scholarship to university. With no scholarship, there is little hope for them. So they study. They are eager to learn. They live in another world, another century almost, but all the same they want to learn. They want to learn English. And you can teach them! So… Go to Mae Sot!
You can contact chloe.sydney (at) estri.lakato.net
