Burma border

Right now I am at an internet caf� across the street from a bar where a Thaiman is singing Jimmy Buffet songs. This town that I am in now is probably thecoolest and craziest place I have seen yet. There are no tourists. The onlywhite people are the aid workers from the various NGO's in the area helpingthe Burmese refugees. Today as I walked through the market. I was prettyovercome by the different smells and sights of Asia. I say Asia because thereare Thai's, Burmese, Indians, Bangladeshians, and Chinese from what I can tellfrom the faces and the clothing. Many people have their faces painted withwhite mud to protect them evil spirits. The streets are narrow with vendersselling chickens (live and dead that have been sitting out for days),cockroaches, snakes, frogs (fried and hopping) and tons of fish of anincredible variety. I could sit and watch these people for hours. I havelearned to ask simple direction and barter in Thai, but I don't understandwhat they say back and it is pretty funny. To tell you about my weekYesterday we were in Lampang. We learned about occupational health here inThailand and saw a couple of factories and the working conditions of theartisans who make the things you see in the market. It was pretty crazy.They had a stone lathe that would cut these stone bowls. They were outsideand had the craziest electrical system that I have ever seen.We are in Mae Sot which is on the border with Burma (Myanmar for all of youwho agree with the current dictatorship about how "Burma" represents theEnglish colony.) Today was one of the best days because we got to meet someincredible people. We met a lady who left Burma in 1988 because thegovernment was killing all of the people and students who wanted democracy.She came to the border and started a clinic to help the refugees and migrantworkers. Now the clinic has grown to have 40 inpatient beds, an operatingroom (very rustic), a delivery room and pediatric clinic. It was awesome.She also started a school to help the Burmese illegal immigrants on theborder. The immigration situation is very interesting in Thailand. First ofall they don't allow any person who isn't Thai become a citizen. Companiesthat employ foreign workers have to pay higher health insurance for theseworkers (to encourage them to higher Thais) but it evens out because they paythem a lot less. This way it doesn't strain the Thai's health system. Itisn't a bad idea. They also had a prosthetics clinic to help all of thepeople who lost limbs from land mines. The people that were making theprosthetics had wooden limbs themselves. It was great to see that people whohad fake limbs make and train other who suffered from the same situation.There were a couple of fourth year medical students from Europe doingrotations in this clinic. Maybe I will get to come back also.We then went to an organization that trains backpack medics that go into Burmato treat the people that are being neglected and discriminated by thegovernment. The Burmese government forces these indigenous people into forcedlabor, routine raping of the women, and burns their food sources to keep themfrom "becoming a possible threat." It is terrible. The World HealthOrganization ranked Burma's health situation next to last in the world. Themultiple tribes of people have to relocate their towns 3 times a year in orderto keep from becoming slaves to their government. They aren't a threat, onlyan easy target. This organization trains backpack medics which are peoplefrom these villages to bring medicines, teach health practices, and helpdeliver babies. They said that in the last 3 years that they have had 8 oftheir backpack medics killed. They usually die by either by the army shootingthem down or by the many landmines that are through out Burma. It is aterrible situation. These groups of medics haul 220 pounds of medicalsupplies through the mountains of Burma looking to help the people. One ofthe tribes by the way are the Karen's, no joke. It isn't pronounced the sameway, but it is interesting. It was incredible how organized this group wasand the records that they kept. I think that it would be interesting to doresearch with this group about the diseases of oppression.