Too long, finally back

Paul punting on the River Thames

Hopefully someone will come back to read this blog.  Writing meaningful content is the most difficult part of blogging if you really believe in only posting something worthwhile.  So much of what we encounter in life and on the web is transient.  Since I last posted, we moved everything we have to a new country and downsized considerably.  We have been on foot for the past few months, trying out life without a car.  This photo is Paul punting on the river.  We do NOT get around that way normally. The size of the world gets smaller.

Things in Karen State have continued to worsen, especially in the past few months.  Please consider supporting the community based organizations we have highlighted on this site including the Free Burma Rangers, the Burma Volunteer Program, ALTSEAN, Global Health Access Program and the Displaced Persons Response Network.  In June 2009 another 5,000 Karen villagers were displaced and sent over the border to refugee camps in Thailand.  The status quo where the regime murders its own citizens continues in Burma.

Finally, go see Burma VJ, the new documentary by the Democratic Voice of Burma.

Check out the new page on England!

JoAnne has added a section on England where she will post items relating to the adventures of moving to a new country as often as possible. The England page doesn’t have to do with Thailand except that it is much closer to Thailand (and Burma) than New Jersey!  Only a 12 hour direct flight to Bangkok.  And yes, we were teaching people English at the border.

More photo’s and the Burma Volunteer Program

We are back and have not had a chance to write a post to wrap up the last trip. Enjoy these few more pictures.

Who needs to wrap up? Instead, we’d like to tell you about the Burma Volunteer Program. A number of people have asked me about going in person to help. This group is a great way to help in person. Check out their web site:

http://www.geocities.com/maesotbvp/

If you are serious, write to them for more information. They will help you to learn more and if you get to the border, you’ll be doing meaningful work that really matters via this excellent community based organization. There is much to do – we encourage you to engage in this most satisfying effort to support a population that has been displaced for so long. Every effort counts and you can be a part of it.

JoAnne, Paul and Rosemary

Computer classes one way or another!

Today we concluded a week of computer and Internet security classes, including one day on Ubuntu Linux,  for students from several of the health groups. We are having a great time and rising to every challenge. The students were from four different health groups and were great – very interested and eager to learn. Most days we did not have Internet access and we did not have reliable computer workstations. So we did screen shots and gave them thumb drives with all of the programs and information. We also had a fan that barely moved so it was really hot every day, especially in the front of the room where the projector was located. Thank goodness the projector worked!

Attachments

Well, JoAnne’s big attachment is to coffee (as everyone knows).  She truly believes it is a magic elixir that will allow her to get the maximum amount of work done!  This morning the brand new immersion heater purchased at REI in NJ bit the dust.

Note the tears on the inside of the two cups.  No hot coffee for JoAnne this morning.

So, it is time to think about where to get coffee in Mae Sot really early in the morning.  JoAnne decides to try Charlie down the road at the Italian place.  Yes, we have Casa Mia in Mae Sot.  One of the American doctors taught the restaurant to make pasta.  So, JoAnne takes a walk to see if Charlie will sell her a nice cup of java this early in the morning (because he is not actually open yet). Of course he does!  And wonder of wonders, look at “to go” coffee in Thailand – a plastic bag instead of a cup!

JoAnne walks back as fast as possible. On the way she ponders about this “attachment” and sees a monk out with his alms bowl. She isn’t ready yet to give it up yet. She pours it in the cup, drinks it down and now she is just fine.

Teaching, learning, eating and sleeping (a little)

All of us are very busy teaching new classes, learning about new opportunities and projects, meeting more people, eating great food (of course!) and sleeping just a little.  The time difference is 11 hours at this time of year.  Thailand is 11 hours ahead of the east coast of the U.S. so we are not really sure what time it is!  Some of us wake up very early in the morning. Here are a couple of photographs of shopping in Thailand in the day market.

We are back!

Rosemary, Paul and JoAnne are back in Mae Sot much to our surprise.  Twice in just a few months and it is very satisfying to return to do useful things for our Karen friends and colleagues. The town seems much the same with perhaps a few more policemen out and about.  This time we are here during the rainy season and things are a lot greener both inside and outside.  And we are seeing many more creatures like giant crawly centipede type things.  We will have to take a photograph.  in the meantime, here are a couple of photo’s from our first two days.  We attended the annual Karen wrist tying ceremony which was a happy time. This web site explains the custom: Karen wrist tying ceremony

Enjoy.

Traveling home

Well, we are back home and have a couple of final photos to share. Yes, we both really rode on the elephant. The elephant and the beautiful orchids are in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Chiang Mai for a couple of days

We have left Mae Sot and miss it already!  Here is a photo from Lampang and two from Doi Suthep today.   Notice Paul is with MOM.   Enjoy!

Classes on web development

We have three half day sessions on web development this week and will do usability testing on a new web site that was developed and built by local staff over the past month.  Paul has been diagnosing and repairing computers, too!

This is a short update again!