enote 54 June 7, 2009
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Announcing a New Website:
We are very excited about our plans to have a new BREF website up for all to visit soon. Aside from the enotes, which will regularly be published on that site, we have asked our son Chris to write a periodic report from the border to have as a part of “What’s New” section of that site. We do hope you will enjoy it, and comment on ways to improve it. As soon as everything is ready, we’ll inform you of the new address. Look for it in this enote soon.
Maw Kwee opening, Visa Crossing and Aung San Suu Kyi:
by Chris Brackett
Last weekend I visited the Maw Kwee School for their
opening ceremony of the seventh year. The 7:20 songthau leaving Mae
Sot was canceled due to problems with the truck, leaving me an hour
late. When we finally left we were double packed with the usual
assortment of the very young and old, Thai, Karen and Caucasian, and
several roosters in a covered wicker basket crowing their
displeasure the whole way. I met Hemely’s husband in Mae Salit and
was rushed off to the ceremony where people were waiting for us to
begin.
It was a packed house with about 100 students and teachers on the
left and a good showing from parents and school committee members on
the right. It was good to see that all the teachers had returned
from last year including Naw Ke Leh Moo Paw (now a mother of two)
has taught at the school for 4 years, and Saw Shalle (the head
teacher) returning for his second year. It was also nice to see
several of the Maw Kwee graduates who were to leave for their new
school (NoBo) tomorrow. The front row was saved for dignitaries such
as me, Saw Leh Taw (Project supervisor), the boarding house
director, a visiting pastor and Saw Kris (village headman). There
were a couple of opening songs by the children and then we quickly
got right to the important business of inspirational speeches. These
got off to decent start but we were soon bogged down by the visiting
pastor who had, apparently, many, many, inspirational words to
proffer. The younger children could be seen initially fighting to
stay awake, then trying to nap discretely and ultimately sprawling
all over each other, completely crumped out. It was a good time for
another song. Later Saw Kris had some really nice comments about how
the school had helped develop the community in many positive ways,
particularly with the teamwork and spirit of working together.
After the ceremony I had a meeting and lunch with the teachers, two
school committee members and Saw Leh Taw. Most of the particulars
for the new year had been worked out during the previous meetings
(school closing last semester) but I did learn that the villagers
were going to provide a salary for one additional teacher this year.
Although this school has always had wonderful support from the
villagers this is the first time they’ve taken it upon themselves to
provide for a new teacher. Saw Kris had also instructed the
community to start work on a new bridge across the river the next
day. I hope they can get this done soon as they’ve had months of
good bridge building weather, but it wont last long.
Finishing up I shared a glass of rice whiskey with Corey Htoo (Tamla’s
husband and one of dad’s closest refugee friends), played some
guitar with him and Saw Shalle and headed back to Mae Sot on the
songthau.
The next day I needed to cross the border to Myawaddy to extend my
visa for another 3 months. I was hoping, but not that hopeful, that
I would see some kind of show of support for Aung San Suu Kyi who is
currently on trial inside Insein (pronounced pretty close to insane)
prison. Myawaddy is a tightly controlled town just across the border
from Mae Sot and Canadian Dave had told me earlier that even a small
protest on the Thai side of the border had drawn Thai police taking
close up photos of protesters because they hadn’t obtained the
proper permit. When I got there, Myawaddy seemed unusually quiet
with much less than the normal flow of trade and NGO worker traffic.
I sat and joined some motorcycle taxi drivers chewing beetle nut and
was able to strike up a conversation in Thai with a few of them.
Everyone was noticeably avoiding any mention of “The Lady” or any
reference to her trial. However, after about 10 minutes, I noticed
at least four of these guys were holding up their cell phones
(discretely) facing me. I tried to see what was on the face but
couldn’t quite make it out. Soon after one of them got up and walked
directly in front of me, holding the phone next to his stomach, so
that I could see. On it was a down loaded image of General Aung San
(father, a legitimate hero, and legal image to display). I smiled
and nodded my approval at what was a clear show of support, no
matter how small, for a woman who may very well be the people’s best
hope for a better future. Then I came home feeling somewhat
melancholy.
Best regards to all of you,
Chris
Activities:
Because of the length of this message, we will report
on our activities in the next issue of enotes.
I hope you enjoyed reading this report as much as I did. Look for
more when the new website is available for all to see.
Best Regards,
or send a check to
The Brackett Refugee Education Fund, P.O. Box 8 Hamilton, NY 13346
phone (315) 824-3435 thomas.brackett@gmail.com
Copyright © 2009 The Brackett Refugee Education Fund. All rights reserved.