24th March 2011 - Mae La Refugee Camp

Mae La is the biggest of the refugee camps in Thailand, stretching 5km along the strip of land between the road and the limestone crags just before the Burmese border. Every piece of ground is covered by identical bamboo houses, each thatched with the same big, oval leaves. Sarah told us to hide our cameras and we were waved through the security checkpoint.

The gate we wanted arrived suddenly, and had a very steep concrete ramp running down from the road. Sarah negotiated this successfully and we were suddenly surrounded by a crowd of children eager to carry our stuff up to the church.

It was a long climb up to the little Baptist church that Sarah’s friends Arthur and Classper lead. We were able to sit down at the top, and Classper entertained us with coffee and little red bananas that had been grown in the camp.

We went to set up in the church but were asked to take our seats at the front and suddenly all the children sang for us. Karen singing is very powerful and this was no exception.

Jay made a rough recording which you can listen to here: http://www.grimsburybaptist.org.uk/wathailand/MaeLaChoir.mp3

We did a shortened version of the programme from the day before as we had to leave around 16.00. You have to be out on time and you certainly aren’t allowed to stay the night. “Find the Hat” generated a similar hysterical response as at Phop Pra, and the sad music pictures brought forth the same images of burning homes and running from soldiers.

One particularly poignant one was of a weeping man carrying the lifeless body of a woman.

Again we were saddened and angered that small children should have to carry such painful memories. At lunchtime the kids introduced us to the traditional Karen game of Cane-ball. This is normally played with a ball woven from cane and is a cross between ‘keepy-uppy’ and volleyball – you have to keep the ball in the air with your feet and have to kick it across the volleyball net to the team on the other side. If you let the ball hit the ground you lose a point.

The church was well-equipped musically, with bass, guitar, drums and keyboard so we formed a mixed band with the Karen musicians. The kids had a different air about them from the ones we met at Phop Pra. That place was a migrant camp so people can come and go fairly freely. But Mae La is a refugee camp and nobody is allowed out, so there was an air of quiet desperation behind the smiles, especially with the older boys. We spoke to several youngsters and heard the same stories of parents and other family members dead, in camps or left behind in Burma with no news of how they are for months or years. They make the best of life as it is, but with no way out of the camp their choices are very limited. Many are studying hard and taking exams with the hope of bettering themselves in the future. The lads in this picture are taking exams in English, Politics and Economics. Like the others they have lost parents and other relatives to the fighting, and will have relatives back in Burma of whom they haven’t heard for years.

We gave out about half the kazoos and recorders, and also gave the nicer of our two guitars to the lad who had translated for us that day.

Having packed the car we beat a hasty retreat up the steep ramp to the road and headed off to Noh Boh Bible School.

More next post...

Ben's Thoughts after Phop Pra

Hi all, this is my first blog update. So far I've been more than happy to let Jay do the hard work of blogging (he loves it), and I've enjoyed reading the fruits of his solid documentation and amusing writing-style. However, after visiting Phop Pra today I wanted to say something by way of reflection on the 'music therapy workshop' the team ran. This came up as an idea to help the Karen children connect with their emotions through music, and to have the opportunity to express themselves creatively in a way that would be helpful to them.

I think of 'The Verve' song 'bittersweet symphony', which contains a line I have often pondered on:

'I need to hear some sounds that recognise the pain in me'.

I've always loved the Psalms, and it seems that in many of them, the Psalmist puts his finger right on the pulse of our human condition, then connects it with the character of God, pulling the two together. God gives us a 'bridge of sighs' as he turns our darkness to light, and gives us beauty for our ashes. Later, Jesus would quite literally dwell among us, identifying with our grief and sorrows. Using the analagy of the bridge, he put us on his back, carried us across the awful bridge of the cross, to safety on our way to wholeness. 

Back to Phop Pra:
We started the session with a game, in which the team played live music of varying style and emotion, the kids responding by gathering around the posters stuck on the walls of the church. 'Voting with their feet' as to their opinion about how the song made them feel. For example, 'Sweet Home Alabama' made several of the teenage boys feel 'cool', and 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' made someone feel sad because they missed their family in Burma. Touchingly, one boy said 'My Jesus my Saviour' made him feel 'surprised' by God's love. So then we had an impromptu mini worship time which was ace.

After this, the children were given art materials and were asked to draw how the music made them feel. For around half an hour they drew, as music was played from an mp3 player over the speakers. Walking around, there were many pictures portraying sadness, some bright and happy, and it was touching to see the Karen children expressing their stories and emotions through art.

One story in particular illustrates to me the awful experiences the many Karen children have suffered, as well power of music and art to help connect and express emotion. One of the teenage boys -who was also acting as our translator- did not at first appear to intend on taking part in the exercise. However when the first song played (White Dove Fly High- Casting Crowns) he suddenly stopped said 'This music is sad', found himself a piece of paper, and started drawing, using a guitar for support. He drew a picture of a sad boy, with 'thought' bubbles, remembering the army attacking his village, and another 'bubble' showing the same village in peace before the attack. Walking around the children as they concentrated on their picture drawing, there were many similar scenes of grief expressed.

After a short while, we played other songs that gently lifted the mood, intending to strike the themes of hope, joy and celebration. By the end, some children were working on sad pictures, but others had started doodling chickens, superheroes etc. Overall they seemed to engage and enjoy the process. The team felt very emotional we peered over their shoulders and offered compliments for the fine art-work. Jackie in particular found the pictures very moving.

Later the team ate a nice meal (sirloin steak and fries for me, thanks), and reflected how God uses the gift of creativity to heal.  We pondered on the thought that we could trust God in his love for the Karen children, who have suffered so much. Until today we did not know these children, yet God has always known and loved them. John 3:16 says that '...God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son'. When we feel a small fraction of his love for these kids for a single day, and we think of how he loves each man, woman and child on this earth with an 'everlasting love' (Jeremiah 31:3), it makes the mind boggle and our hearts turn to thank our heavenly Father for loving us, adopting us, using all sorts of creative ways to heal our broken hearts. He is the everlasting Father, and we love him for it.

Tomorrow we head to Mae La refugee camp to meet more of the Karen people who have had to flee their homes in Burma and are confined to a camp on the Thai border. This sounds heavy and serious (and it is), but we've discovered today that the Karen children have enormous capacity for fun, joy, and are very creative, so I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.

We are away from internet access for a a couple of days now, so it will be friday before our next installment.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading!

Ben

Phop Pra

Wednesday 21^st March

We're catching up here, so make sure you get the story of our journey from Horizon to Mae Sot in the previous post.

After breakfast at Poon Na Gunn we hit the road at nine. The journey was less than an hour through the Thai countryside past fields of maize and banana trees. We practiced the Karen farewell song in the car, with ben in the back playing guitar. At Phop Pra Sarah introduced us to Pastor Peacefully.

He keeps something between a school and an orphanage on land that has been granted to him and his sister by the King of Thailand for refugees from Burma. Term had just ended so some of the children had slipped back across the border to their families. Others were staying for the holidays because their parents were already in refugee camps, or it was too dangerous for them to go. Most of those still there were sitting an exam so it was very quiet when we arrived. The Pastor introduced us to a young lady who was to interpret for us, though she seemed to disappear and a young man took her place.

After the exam was over we spent the morning in the blue-roofed Baptist Church on the site.

We sang some action choruses with the children, then had them sing us some songs. The Karen are very musical and especially love to sing.

Next we acted out the story of David and Goliath. Jay was Goliath of course, and hammed it up to the amusement of all. All the other parts were played by the kids. We rounded off the morning with a game of “find the hat” which everyone enjoyed, especially when it was Pastor Peacefully’s turn to play. After that Susanna took them all outside for some dodgeball.

The afternoon got more serious, with games that allowed the kids to explore emotions. Some heart-rending pictures were drawn showing the violence and dislocation that they have had to live through. Jackie and Hazel looked through the pictures afterwards but had to stop because they got a bit emotional and would have been unable to continue the day.

The last activity was to make musical instruments out of the various bits and pieces that we’d bought in Mae Sot the day before. We started with this:

...and ended up with an extraordinary selection of instruments.

There were the usual shaker-type things, but we also got stringed instruments made from rubber bands, and even oboe-type reed instruments using plastic straws. Ben and Jay were extremely taken with these and started experimenting making their own.

After it was all over Peacefully took us to a weaver’s house where we were shown some traditional Karen cloths and garments, and we bought some to take home.