Project Umbrella Burma

David's Journal December 2011

2012-01-13T05:40:00.000-08:00

The word “Geek” is old German for a brilliant , cheerful and probably not completely honest trickster, performer or tumbler, most probably part of a medieval circus. Now it refers to a person of high intelligence working with computers – not your average run, who see things from a different perspective. PUB has been fortunate to run across one of these. The border is being continually enriched with people of different and remarkable talent, which gives it for the rest of us its fascination and charm. Michael Cariaso first came here three or four years ago to work in Paw Ray’s school for Karen migrant children and set up the school with Computers. He firmly believes that by spreading the gospel of the internet a new age will be born. Looking at the changes that have taken place with the Arab Spring, that was made possible through social networking communication, it looks as though he might well be right. When he is not taking time off here, he works with the computerization of the human genome, and which prophetically he feels will completely change the face of medicine. We live in a world of huge potential. It just needs to be grasped. As an established Geek, employment for Michael is not a problem. He recently spent a year working with a group in the Netherlands. When he finished with them he traveled in Georgia, and then spent time in Malaysia, before finding a car and driving up the Peninsular and through the floods. His experiences, his exceptional photographs, and the benefits of his knowledge of the genome can be experienced by visiting www.cariaso.com and is well worth it. Right now he is spending 2 days a week with our students in the computer department at the Kaw Tha Blay Learning Centre that PUB supports. We and our students are remarkably fortunate.

Niang Win, Kyaw Chit and Soe Maung were amongst the first children to come to Kshakalu’s Kaw Tha Blay Hostel at Mae Lah camp in 2001 when they were ten years old. They were even by Karen standards quite small; a genetic advantage that prevents them in a food shortage of growing beyond their strength. Niang Win’s father had died. He has a sister. They are very poor. His mother sent him to Kshakalu for their survival and also that he might have an education. He went to school at the Seventh Day Adventist School, run by Helen Hall, a remarkable and dedicated Australian. Very quickly it was obvious that Niang Win was out of the ordinary and a Geek in his own right and almost monotonously began to collect top prize in his class every year. As a matter of course, he sent the prize money home to his mother every year. Once he had finished grade 10, he taught for a year with Helen Hall, then acted as the leader for Kaw Tha Blay Learning Centre during the ‘summer’w months, before going to a post grade 10 University preparation college called MinMahHaw in Mae Sot. From there he hopes to get a scholarship to study Math and Economics in a university in Hong Kong. The scholarships may be backed up by a Swiss NGO, called Childsdream, through the Canadian international Agency CIDA and through a similar Australian agency. Niang Win will be going back to see his mother in Pa’an this Christmas. The advances and possibilities that we are seeing now would not have been imagined when Niang Win arrived in Mae Lah in 2001.

We badly need some good news from Burma to hurry up history. I am not sure we have that much time to take this long. Recently the Free Burma Rangers reported that on the 29th. of October in the village of Tee Ma Mayn, not very far from Pa’an, the capital of Karen State, the government Light infantry division commanded by Than Mat Soe entered and fired into a house, killing the owner 36 year old Saw Pa Kok, and also took money and jewellery. In response, the KNLA, the Karen National Liberation Army, ambushed members of the Light infantry Division, killing two and wounding six. The government troop again in response, fired two mortars into the village and then entered the village found four women whom they beat and captured twenty-two others, whom they took off to act as human mine detectors. No one died then and they were let go after two days. Although in a remarkable change of direction, Current Prime Minister, formerly General, Thein Sein, cancelled the building of the Myitsone damn by the Chinese in Kachin State, the building of the Toh Boh Damn on the Salween river however is continuing, which will destroy 12 villages and 5000 acres of excellent farmland.

Thein Sein recently met the premier of India and was present at the recent Asean Summit in Bali. Apparent moves to decrease the dependency on Beijing. The Clinton visit and the present tolerance of the new USD – read replacement for SPDC – for Aung San Suu Kyi are welcome moves, but it is hard to know at this stage how much they indicate. At present the very minimal release of political prisoners suggests the government has not gone through any sort of an epiphany as far as Civil Rights are concerned. However the Burmese Elitists are not stupid and they must look with some anxiety at events in the Middle East and wonder whether it is practical to try to hold on to so much power, in a world society where it is hopefully becoming more and more difficult to rule outside of a proper moral code. We can hope that Thein Sein, as a person, is both sane and unafraid. Emerging from a military dictatorship, and a very splintered country, it is not easy to decide on an appropriate mode of government. Events in Teen Ma Mayn could well indicate that in some areas, the local commanders have a free range and often operate more as independent brigands than part of an army structure that we are more familiar with. The same leopard is still running the country for now, but we can hope that with time and continued contact with the all the outside world, the spots will begin to fade.

Next Time current peace talks and what they may or may not mean

Time to leave

2011-10-17T11:01:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving is over and our grandchildren have gone back to their homes; so hard for us to let them go. Hard also to imagine in two weeks, we will be in Mae Sot, back to our other kids and the Clinic. The summer is over before it has started. Cathy was back in May and we embarked on a garden fix-up, saw as much as we could of the family, wrote and published the news letter, had a very convivial Flag raising, attended Arts For Peace and had a great PUB garage sale at Eric and Cathy’s. Our thanksgiving is never over for all our friends who do so much to support PUB and make all this possible – what will be the promise and the message for the end of this year and into the next?

First once we are there the buildings will need to be looked at. In Mae Lah a sudden flood, swept away the boys dorm. No one was hurt and no one drowned – thank God – but the building has gone and will need to be replaced. Then there are the washrooms at the Teaching Centre; today inadequate for the numbers there. Then the school supplies, clothing, reviewing our computers and the internet connections, deciding on the outlook for a virtual classroom, connecting to Georgian maybe or Lakehead and a syllabus there and for our teachers, and looking to how this difficult society is poised now and how it will be in the months to come and how we can integrate our students into this changing world. There will be a lot to do for Cathy and Cathy and Eric.

Frank Brewster will be there for the whole of November, dividing his time between the Learning Centre and the Clinic. In the Clinic, a worthwhile direction we think we should take to improve pain control, which would need a political change on the part of the Thais, maybe a reasonable job for someone getting too decrepit for a more active role and here at home at OSMH – we are wondering about starting a Burmese Medical Club of interested medics after presenting Grand Rounds just recently.

To our supporters – thank you so much. To keep you up to date, we will be sending regular progress letters to you unless you would prefer not to have them, in which case, perhaps you could let us know by e-mail.

Cathy & David

www.projectumbrellaburma.com

2011-01-29T09:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,
I never know what these kids are up to next!! With PUB's money I bought their computer teacher a goodish u-tube video camera - once again leaping them into the modern world. Their teachers Avish and Snow have produced the below which I just love! Hope you will click on these links and see your kids in action and get to know them a bit. Having done nothing except provide them with the equipment I have no right to be proud but am - very- and you should be too!! Your funding has made this leap possible.
Good job teachers and students of KTBLC and friends of PUB! We have come so far. I am amazed.

Pi Cathy D.

PS I leave Wednesday for the Border. Cathy and Eric will be joining us for graduation on March 23rd and David for now, and the PUB Board and Lindsay, will keep the home fires burning.

Sent: Friday, January 28, 2011 8:15 PM
Subject: Speak Karen to Reach Karen (A series of video project from KTBLC)

Click on the link below to watch students teaching Karen, this is a project as a partial fulfillment of the course 'Spoken English'.
These videos will be of high interest to those who aspire to work with Karen people along the borderline. Learning basic karen will be an effective tool and hope this will make their experience worth while. I request you all to kindly refer this to your friends who may benefit from this. More videos still in the making......

Eh Ku Paw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifn6l03YZjY

Eh Ku Paw-2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbXRwyFO8oc

Day Mu Chi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D865qsnMl04

NU Paw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBm0eHM8X2s

Hei Gler Htoo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQC9SNsQV54

San San Myint
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LStzAJOIhs

Lah K'Paw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdcfjvLntPA

Paw Ku Say
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQVuWRdBmUE

Wi Lai Phorn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn9PIyt92eg

Views of PUB's investments

2010-10-23T02:57:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends of Project Umbrella Burma,
Last January we spent $2000. to purchase a 3.5 acre hillside (through a Thai Karen) that had good water. We have a farmer that works with us for his food. When there is clearing, planting or harvesting, our young students do the work. The two pictures attached show what they have already accomplished. They are presently eating soup gourds and pumpkin, lettuce cilantro -other greens. They have planted many trees - Banana, Lime, Pomela, Cashew, Mango, Papaya and others I can't remember. In the October picture you will see green lentils in the foreground. Also lemongrass, long beans, cucumbers. 3 huge bags of Soya bean seeds went in last week. We now have 3 huge Rice paddy areas loaned to us and will begin the harvesting Monday and will to have enough rice for college and hostel for 4 months. They finished the rice storage building concrete floor/rat proof walls etc. last weekend.
Enough. Thank you for your donations that have paid for seeds, young trees, tools etc.
Best to all,
Cathy in Mae Sot
PS The kids are also doing well in their studies!

PUB July 2009-July 2010

2010-08-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

Low Res Newsletter

City of Orillia will hold their third annual raising of the Karen Flag

2010-06-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

On July 2nd, 2010 at 10:00 am the City of Orillia and Project Umbrella Burma will hold their third annual raising of the Karen Flag to commemorate all those who have died, lost their homes and livelihoods as a result of the actions of the Burmese Military under the direction of the the Military Junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and to remember those Karen and other Burmese Ethnic groups who are still suffering the burning,and pillaging of their villages, systematic rape and forced portering and forced relocation. We raise the Karen Flag as an international responsibility to give awareness and hope.

The Packet & Times Jan 26, 2010

2010-01-27T03:26:00.000-08:00

BURMA VJ: Monday Sept 28 10p CBC Toronto

2009-09-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

We have been trying to get this important, multi-award winning documentary, BURMA VJ: REPORTING FROM A CLOSED COUNTRY to be shown in our area and we have just learned that it will be shown on CBC Newsworld at 10pm on Monday September 28th (for those like myself who are used to being asleep by 10:00pm, have a nap and stay up .I promise it will be worth it) We will also continue to try to get it shown in the Orillia area.
This is eastern time Toronto etc. For other areas please check CBC Newsworld.
Thanks for your continuing interest and please pass this on, as we don't have everyone's email.

For more information see the Democracy Now coverage.

video of karen flag raising

2009-08-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

Dear All,
This is a letter from the President of the Karen Community of Canada. If you were at the Flag Raising, you will see yourself. This will go out to many countries around the globe!! Hurrah for the Karen and for The City of Orillia (and Project Umbrella Burma).
Enjoy!
Cathy

Hi Cathy:

Please check the following link. One of the Karen volunteers in London did a great job and uploaded on youtube for Karen people around the Globe.

2009-07-17T01:19:00.000-07:00

The Orillia Packet and Times newspaper covered the Karen Flag Raising Ceremony. Thank you to everyone who attended.

Karen Flag raising Friday July 10th, 2009

2009-06-26T17:41:00.001-07:00

The Green Room at the Orillia Opera House will be open from 10:00am until 12:00 noon for coffee, tea cold drinks and biscuits.

Speeches and the ceremony of the flag raising to begin at 11:00 am.

Your browser may not support display of this image.

Canadian Flag and Karen National Union flag flying over Orillia last year.

This year Project Umbrella Burma will again be raising the Karen Flag to fly proudly over the City of Orillia from July 10th to July 31st.

In Burma today, the Karen people are undergoing the most savage attacks on civilian villagers, an ethnic cleansing that has been ongoing for 50 years (4000 people have fled to Thailand in the last month). Over 2000 people are vilely imprisoned because they do not agree with the illegal military government. The Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi , Burma’s so distinguished voice for democracy, in a trumped up trial, is likely again to be stifled.

The City of Orillia, in its wisdom, has chosen to honour Project Umbrella’s mission and vision by endorsing this Flag raising as an expression of their international awareness. Project Umbrella Burma thanks them.

We are hoping the Burmese people, particularly the Karen Community, of Canada will join us in Orillia for this event.

To our friends from Burma who may come from a distance, please email Cathy and David dcdownham@sympatico.ca or call at 705 689 0358 if you require a place to stay on Friday evening, we hope to be able to accommodate you.

Orillia Flag Raising

2009-06-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends of P.U.B,
As you know, in 2007 the City of Orillia endorsed Project Umbrella Burma, as their international outreach .
As part of their commitment, the city has again authorized P.U.B. to fly the Karen National Flag.
Our Vision is the safety and survival of all ethnic groups in a free and democratic Burma. Part of our mission is to raise awareness for the desperate situation of the people of Burma.
The Flag Raising will take place -

Friday, July 10th at 11:00 am at the Orillia Opera House.

Please mark this date on your calendars.
Details of this event will follow in mid June.

Thank you,

www.projectumbrellaburma.com

2009-04-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

From Mao Tao Clinic Website Sunday, April 05, 2009

Education

· Access to education if compromised by lack of accessible schools, poverty, war, displacement, low wages for teachers and the UNHCR.

· Officially education in Burma is compulsory until the end of primary School, with the completion of 4th Standard. Unicef reports that less than 50% of children achieve this.

· Education is supposed to be provided free of charge, but teachers wages are so low that they are forced to charge fees or seek other work elsewhere.

· Only SPDC schools continue to the 10th Grade, but these schools are not found in rural areas.

· University professors are restricted in freedom of speech, political activity and publications.

Health.

Across Eastern Burma:

· Infant mortality rate is 91/1000 compared 76 for the rest of Burma. (compare 18/1000 for neighboring Thailand.)

· One in 5 children dies before the age of 5.

· One in 12 women dies in childbirth – 4 times higher than the rest of in Burma.

· Malnutrition levels in children is 15%

· Malaria infectivity at any one time is 12%

· HIV/AIDS are considered epidemic.

General sanitation and understanding of hygiene is low. Access to clean water is poor. Incidence of GI diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, and shigella is therefore high. Many of these diseases are avoidable.

My brother is coming to visit us here as he finishes his job prospecting for copper in Botswana. He and his wife are traveling this long journey because they want to see what is going on here.

It will be wonderful to see them. We want to show them what we have been ‘up to’ the last 7 years.

We plan to take them on the same tour through Mae Tao Clinic as the CIDA people, the United Nations representatives and Save The Children get and Laura Bush had. We will look at Trauma where David works, and see the people with amputations and abscesses, acid burns just to begin the alphabet. Next we will go to the In Patient Department where malaria is a constant visitor, where AIDS/HIV is cared for but not treated, oddly unless you have TB at the same time, and where just recently MSF withdrew their previous management of TB because of worry that the patients lack of treatment compliance was leading to too many resistant forms of the disease.

We will see the new Pediatric In-Patients and admire the children, and probably see the process of rescue from mal-nutrition and vitamin deficiency. We will probably run into Dr. Terry Smith, in OBGYN, who has recently been helping run a course for about 54 Medics who after 9 months of training are going back to their communities in Karen State to improve critical care midwifery throughout the state. Last time in Reproductive Health, he showed me two tiny babies who had been dropped off at the front gate. This is a regular occurrence. My brother and his wife are concerned people and have done what they could as they worked in various parts of the world, helping people in similar situations to ours, but I know we will upset them, as each time I take these tours with people, I get upset myself. The Clinic runs an active birth control program, but not everyone has had the education. For migrant women (many thousands working in Thailand in the sweatshops, trying to help their family,) life is not easy. Most women need a protector of some sort. With a baby, it is impossible to continue working. Dr. Cynthia and the Karen Women’s Organization run several orphanages. The Karen has enormous charity for each other. I have not a met a more caring people. Generally, the husbands are with their wives as they have their babies and giving birth is a thing of great joy but often on the other side of the building there are women very sick as the result of botched back street abortions.

We have had many visitors this year, but this is the first time ever anyone in our immediate family has been to visit and so we are very excited. We are looking forward to drinking coffee in the morning, likely in our bedroom in our Mae Sot house, with them, where we are lucky to have air-conditioning. This time of year it is very hot. They have seen most of the rest of the family recently and we can catch up on the news. My brother and I enjoy argument and discussion. I want to know if he has changed his views; what he thinks of the financial crisis; what his Africa tour has left in his head. How it has changed him? Before we were always talking about growth and how much we needed to retire, but living here, we are now questioning if we need so much, and wonder if the gap between rich and poor threatens everyone’s security far more and that living in balance with each other should be our main concern. Maybe we have it all wrong, that progress is often not progress at all and that we must shift our attention to the real problems; the excessive energy consumption, the huge population increase, climate change and our failure to see that nobody is allowed to be desperately poor or desperately rich and that the first world is responsible for many of the problems of the third, and it is time to pay the bill.

We will take them to the 23 year old Refugee Camp to meet our student charges there. This year they are having to stay in the heat of the camp unhappily as it is too dangerous for them to go back to their home villages, or to Kaw Tha Blay, their previous College Campus in Karen State (this is difficult to translate but trust me). This year, we are low on cash, so we cannot provide the $7.00 each, as we did before, so that they could buy their way out of trouble if needed if they ran into the SPDC. There are 57 children left in the hostel as of yesterday. I know because I checked before buying hand and laundry soap, toothpaste, sanitary needs and toothbrushes. 25 did go home, quite how I do not know, but I think they went with Pah Yim, the Hostel grandfather, and walked. It would take 4 days in the heat. I will take my brother up the side of the mountain, through the camp, that houses more than 50,000 people and we will take watermelons or oranges, treats they do not get too often.

We are down to the deadline with the Library donated by the Retired Teachers of Ontario. We built it but the woven bamboo is just been painted. We were also in competition with the completion of the Cafeteria in the College, and it was exam time too. We finally smuggled boards for shelves into the camp under roof leaves last week but the builders can’t put them together yet. It is the biggest holiday in SEA, the water festival from now until next week. I badly want to impress my brother who set up a Mining Library in Timmins and Sudbury. It runs in the family my mother was a Librarian too. Thanks to The RTO and Heather Gauldie and the amazing Cathy and Eric Sayles, it will happen soon and I cannot wait to see the children with these beautiful books.

So, we will climb up the mountain together and I am sure the kids will meet us just inside the gate and they will pull us over the difficult bits making light of the heat and water. They are incredibly fit, rarely get sick now, which was not how it used to be. I am sure they will give us a demonstration of Chillo or kick ball – a good choice of a game, because it does not take much space. Over the past few months , the children have repaired the dormitories, the eating and study halls and the toilets and showers, totally rebuilding some of the bamboo structures. I have told Kshakalu that we cannot take any new students this year because we just don’t have the funding and the one plus from that is that we now have enough room for a volley ball court so the girls will have some exercise. So, those in Burma will have to wait for the recovery that is promised.

I am so looking forward to my brother coming. I am so proud of our brave children and I am going to be so happy to introduce him to them.

Ten of the students from our hostel will go to the college next year, a smaller number than usual but we have big second year class of 31 and we will take in another 15 from ‘inside’ and other camps.

We have spent money on turning the safe house in Thailand into the home base for the college. The Burmese Military is determined to destroy or take over any pockets of Karen resistance this year. So the decision had to be made to cross the river. And in a short time, we have been accepted or almost accepted into Doh Tah, theThai Karen Village.

This has been an amazing process and I want my brother to see it. Our students are, as I write teaching Thai/Karen village children how to read and write their mother tongue. Our teachers are teaching the children of the 7 villages in our area how to touch type in Karen and English and Thai, on the computers PUB donors and Orillia and Area Rotary Clubs have bought and our medic teacher is teaching English to them during this school break. It is a lot of organizing that Kshakalu does and my brother who has set up in many third world countries will appreciate how difficult this is.

That will be the next place I will take my family. We have cows now and chickens and further north on both sides of the river many goats and ducks and more land, lots of land given to us to use by Karen gone to America or Thai who need the land worked to keep it. We need an agriculture teacher although we have farmers sent from ‘inside’ to help us in this slow move towards independence. Our computer teacher is ready to help with the accounting for both Hostel and college. Our Thai teacher will, hopefully, interpret and ease the way to our acquiring a telephone landline so my dream of giving them Internet Access will finally come true. These things take a long time to build in this third world working with people here who have no country to call their own.

Our kids are poor, displaced and illegal with no civic rights. The college is so significant. The students have had less (only two outfits, one pair of slippers), so we could have all the buildings we need at the college (dormitories, schoolroom, a library underway, the cafeteria/kitchen/classroom, the road and toilets) and are gaining security so the education can continue - broaden and deepen. Will my brother and my wonderful sister- in- law understand why we do this?

My brother has always stepped lightly on the earth even in his search for metals. It is a lesson it has taken me a long time to learn. The Karen, have no rights. Literally they walk on landmines. Their attitude to life has had a huge impact on mine.

I can’t wait to see at least part my own family and show them our big family here.

Then home to see more family and all the wonderful aware people who have helped and who, hopefully, will continue to help as we prepare for another year.

Love to all,

Cathy

Volunteer Value

2009-03-14T01:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends of PUB,

This year has been a very special year for the young people PUB protects and nurtures and for a few young and old from home.
The College has had a difficult year but beginning in late Sept we began to continue our integration into a Thai Karen Village in Thailand on the border. The college, that is the hope for many young Karen, is now called a Learning Centre to fit with the Thai Ministry of Education guidelines. This means more safety and more opportunity. While the College's original home remains in Karen State and they do make forays back there for the sheer beauty and love of a little bit of their home, these cannot be permanent because of the continued threat of attack from the Burmese Military.
We have almost finished the necessary building for 50 people on our tiny wedge of hillside in Doh Tah Village, so now there is some comfort albeit cramped. Here, we have a place where we can learn, and a place where volunteers can come and stay - integrate with the students, learn from this incredible experience and teach.
We have been so lucky this first trial year to have 4 young volunteers from Canada. The student's English is so very much better now because of these three young women from Orillia and one from Toronto.
The Mae Tao Clinic has also benefitted from a two month visit by Dr. Frank (Brewster) and a shorter 4th visit by Dr John (Toye) which is pretty special because they, like David and I have lost their hearts to the Karen people, their generosity, their courage and their plight and without question we hold them in our hearts and will all come back.

Please have look at our special graduation picture and read what one of our volunteers had to say.
Thanks,
Cathy and David

From Tracy Penley, Orillia, Project Umbrella Burma Volunteer

When you think of a graduation, you think of an end to something with the focus now on the future. At Kaw Tha Blay, there is much talk of the future with the graduating students. They all seem to be sad that they are going to be finished at Kaw Tha Blay but are very excited to move on to something that can put them one step closer to helping their people. In Canada, the options after graduation are unlimited. As I found out from my time here, there are many options here for graduating students too, but they may not be as lucrative as those back home. Of the eleven students graduating, two will go on to teacher training and will return to their villages in Karen State to teach their communities. Four will study to be medics, with a few becoming backpacker medics – those who travel into Karen State to help people who have no access to healthcare. The rewards are great but it is a very dangerous choice. There are two girls who would like to work with the Karen Women’s Organization – an organization that works to promote the rights of Karen women through education, empowerment, and micro-finance opportunities. There are three students who are undecided on what to do, but they have a few options: officers in the army, further schooling or even assisting Project Umbrella Burma and Kaw Tha Blay with the various projects it has. It is quite apparent that these students are thinking of the future and trying to make a difference in the lives of those around them.

One of Kaw Tha Blay’s goals as a college is to mold the students into leaders so that they can help their people. From my two months at the college, I have seen a great deal of leadership in all the students. The graduating students are just one example of that idea of leadership. Instead of immigrating to a third country and struggling to survive there, they are going to be leaders for their people right here in their own country and struggle to create change any way they can.

When I initially thought of what it was to be a leader, I thought of someone who can command a group of people and people listen to what they say. After spending time with the students, I can see that a leader is much more than that. Not all leaders have to be the outspoken, strong and dominant. Many of the students are not like that, some would even call them a tad shy, but they do demonstrate leadership through their actions. Simply participating in class and completing one’s homework shows the others that education is important and they should follow suit. Punctuality is something every leader should have, and I am ashamed to say that I was probably late for more classes than my students! I’ve learned that confidence alone does not make a leader, but there are equally important characteristics like patience, self-respect and dedication.

My experiences here at Kaw Tha Blay have been nothing but rewarding. Living at the college has allowed me to better understand the students and their individual personalities. I could not have gotten that experience by simply traveling or visiting for a few days. I truly feel that the students have accepted me and I have become a part of their daily lives. It will be extremely hard to leave after graduation, as contact with them is not always guaranteed. I wish that I could have yearly updates on each and every one of them so that I could always know that they are ok and have become the leaders I know they can be. It is an assurance to know that Project Umbrella Burma and Kaw Tha Blay will be there to educate more students so they can also move into the future as leaders who have dignity and dreams.

There are a few experiences I’ve had at Kaw Tha Blay that I will always remember.

In the middle of January we gave the girls crochet hooks, knitting needles, weaving materials as well as yarn. The most popular option was crocheting, and the girls taught those who did not know how. They took to it like fish to water. For three days straight the girls had their crochet hooks and yarn with them everywhere they went. We eventually had to tell them that crochet was for free time only, and free time did not mean midnight either.

Another memory I have is of a few boys working together to attach bookshelves to the school walls. It was a major accomplishment for them as the builders had managed to do everything until that point. They were given the chance to use the power drill, and even took initiative to use a level! For an hour and a half there was a lot of drilling but when they were finished, the look on their faces said everything.

Toilets are a running problem at the College. When we arrived in January, the “western” toilet was out of commission, and another was being built. One day, Cathy and three of the boys decided that they would fix the clogged toilet. I was in the cafeteria when they came walking up the hill towards me. Cue the Ghostbusters theme song. There they were, one boy carrying the clothes hanger, another carrying a toilet scrubber and the third carrying a bucket. All three plus Cathy looked like they had just battled a large demon and were positively tuckered yet as they walked, they had this swagger of confidence because they had defeated the demon!

One thing that may seem insignificant to others but really made an impact on me was the simple use of affection. I am not a person who gives or takes affection relatively easily but the Karen people are certainly comfortable with it. Within a week of staying at the college, I was being given hugs and having my hand held among other affectionate behaviours. As the weeks progressed it became even more impulsive and frequent between the girls and I. I found myself giving hugs and reaching out to touch someone because it felt right and I wanted to. This is one thing that I am going to miss when I leave. Karen people are very affectionate with the same sex, even the boys would hold hands and touch while in class. Some of the boys were as affectionate as the girls with me too. If I had to put in words why these behaviours made such an impact on me, I would have to say that it was their way of showing their appreciation and affection. In a world where things are never constant and tomorrow is not always predictable, a simple gesture lets someone know they are loved and is a form of comfort to the person initiating the affection too.

2009-01-29T21:54:00.000-08:00

The below is a letter from Sarah Weber of Orillia. Sarah spent a month volunteer teaching at the Kaw Tha Blay Junior College which is supported by Project Umbrella Burma. Her genuine love for the students and her understanding shone through in the constant commitment she made to them. Rising at six AM and before breakfast leading dance practice so that they would be the best they could for their Karen New Year performance. The memories of Sarah and her friend Hilary fill the air at our little college.

Just yesterday another exceptional volunteer from Orillia, Tracy Penley, was consoling and trying to cheer Moe Tha Zar a 19 year old who must leave the college today as she had just heard that her mother back in Burma, her last living family member, is terminally ill. Tracy played the Hip Hop music Sarah and Hilary had given and smiles came through the tears, then laughter as we all hopped around the mosquito nets once again.

Cathy at www.projectumbrellaburma.com

THANK YOU SARAH (the picture is the nervous but proud teacher on opening night)

In the past, the month of December for me has usually meant celebrating holidays, being around family, and writing exams for University. This December, I was fortunate enough to spend a month at Kah Tha Blay Junior college volunteering for Project Umbrella Burma, teaching young adults the English language among other things. As much as the experience was completely new to me, a different country, teaching students my own age, palm trees instead of pine, I found that the month's themes for me still held. We celebrated local holidays, became the type of family that comes from sleeping, eating, learning and working together, and there was still an element of education and testing one’s knowledge.

While celebrating Karen New Years and developing close relationships with the students may be easy to compare to holidays and family back home, the theme of education came in more subtle forms than one might expect in a school setting. It is assumed as an English teacher there would have been a fair amount of traditional learning, and while there were formal classes along with teaching the of lyrics to Bryan Adams song of new hip hop dance moves, there was more to the education for me than just teaching the students. Living with them for a month, we were able to educate ourselves on how we relate to this group of peers, who are giving up their family life and their homes to better their future for their families and communities through the opportunities the school provides. While we share common experiences, it is the backgrounds that we come from that frame how we come to them, how they affect us, and how we react to them. This is what I’ve learned we have in common, and how it’s not the same for us:

Everyone enjoys a good campfire! And some start the fire at 5:30am if they're on cooking duty, to make rice and curry for the rest of the school. I feel that if O.D.C.V.I. had requested this of me, my reaction would not have been as willing.

We all wanted to learn a new language, and feel we have to. I struggled very hard to learn the Burmese version of Bryan Adam’s “Baby When You’re Gone” to try and understand Burmese pop, and explained to them our frustrations with never becoming fluent in French. They however, are working on their 3rd and fourth languages, as they are living in Thailand where you need more than Karen, or Burmese. Oh, and some shared their frustrations with not being able to write in their first language because it was mandated by their government that they not be taught it. French doesn’t seem to trying now.

We both just want to be happy. When I taught a lesson on expressing emotions in hopes to get a different answer to “how do you feel?” than “I feel happy!” I found the answer remained the same every time it was asked. It could be argued that the lesson just didn’t sink in that much, or that everyone was genuinely happy every time I asked, but when a student opens up to you about their family living in the mountains for weeks at a time while the military regime burns their village and commits violent acts against their relatives, I can understand how college life is constantly a happy place, a place with food, shelter, free education and friends. I can just begin to understand what it would feel like to admit to the darker emotions that come with the past.

In the girl’s dorm, it's one big sleepover, including calls on cell phones (relatives contribute to these second hand miracles) to friends. The difference here is that we’re sleeping under bug nets to prevent malaria, a privilege many didn’t have in their own villages, and calls to friends may be to tell them they can’t see them after all because their security clearance with the Thai police fell through, and they can’t make through the military checks on the highway. A much different kind of long distance relationship.

There are so many more moments of reality checks I had, realizing that expectations of how life is going to work out, and what to expect from it are different for students like me than those who are Karen, are refugees, and living in Thailand away from their family. A private 2m square cement shower room that shares a wall with a pig pen is a Big Deal, hip hop dancing and Break Dancing on a stage made out of mud and straw is fine… the list really goes on. Essentially, I learned that these students have been through so much in their 18+ years, more than I can begin to understand how they cope with. As a result, they are so appreciative of every aspect college life can bring to them, whether it be the guarantee of rice every day, access to computers and English lessons, or opportunities to contribute to their communities once they have proudly completed their program. I have been reminded by them, and learned from them how to be grateful, how to be family when you’re not near yours, and how to learn as much as you can when someone offers you an education, no matter how hard you must work, and a chance to give something back. I feel that what we learned with Project Umbrella Burma has been the most rewarding education I’ve had in my travels, and hope that I’ve given back fraction of what I’ve taken away.

When saying goodbye after only a short month, I found it more difficult than the ending of any other teaching or camp counselling experience I’ve had. Cathy helped me pinpoint this difference, reminding me that never before have I been worried for the future of the people I’m leaving, and I feel this is true. The lives of these students are so uncertain, and that scares me, but I feel hope for them knowing the support they have been given, and the doors that will open. When we left, a student called the very next day to remind us not to forget them, and that we should meet again. I was feeling exactly the same.

2009-01-07T22:53:00.001-08:00

this worked

2009-01-07T22:48:00.001-08:00

test post 1

Are you safe there? by David Downham

2008-12-30T19:57:00.000-08:00

When talking about the work we are trying to do here on returning to Canada, one of the most frequently asked questions is; ‘Is it safe there?’

We have two young women here in Mae Sot from Orillia. Now instead of Europe, young people will often tour the East. These two are spending a month teaching in the College in Doh Tah before going on to Southern and then Northern India. They are confident, positive and very capable and a delight for our own young people in the College there, of whom they are the temporary teachers. They are the sort of young people whose parents must be congratulated for so brilliantly fitting them with the tools of life.

But, whoever you are, it takes anyone time to understand and absorb another culture, another person’s day to day. Cathy’s concern was inevitably they would not have the time to absorb what is going on here and made her to say to me last night ;

‘ I would like to say to them, here we are working on the Thai-Burmese border – which is a lawless place whether it looks like it or not, where the rules of neither country are observed; a ‘fringe place’ with many similar examples around the world, and where here, perhaps more than 2-3 million people live in poverty, great jeopardy and without any likelihood of justice; a people disregarded, who are an embarrassment and a nuisance to both countries; their lives of no importance. And I want to say to them that while this is accepted as an attitude by any country, there is no real safety for anyone anywhere.’ And she went on; ‘Am I being pompous? Do you agree with me? Will it help if I say that?’

And of course, I said,’ Yes, it would help’, and ‘ Yes, I think they will understand.’

In Orillia, a group of people have got together to make a film of what is happening here. I do not know whether it has a title yet, but perhaps we should call it: ‘A Community Intervenes.’ They have made footage of the College and the Clinic and of the presentation of a Stethoscope to Dr. Cynthia, a gift to honor her, from the doctors at Soldiers Memorial Hospital. It came with a short speech of appreciation of her amazing contribution to her fellow Karen and to the many people from all ethnic groups in Burma. It was given in English and with a special translation into Broken Burmese, which hopefully lightened her day. Slowly we are all learning from people like Dr. Cynthia that taking care of another is taking care of yourself.

Here, in Thailand, the professionals, academics and middle classes generally have been demonstrating against the corruption of the present government, bringing travel and tourism, vital to Thailand’s economy, to a standstill with an extraordinarily disciplined and peaceful takeover of Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok. The much revered King of Thailand’s birthday was looming on the 4th. of December and the protesters respectfully decided to pack up and go home, but this is unlikely to be anything but a momentary lull. Though the King did not address his people and has certainly become quite frail recently, he took the time to ask Cynthia to visit and presented her with another award. The King in Thailand carries a huge and well earned moral authority. His recent silence on his birthday could be seen as a reprimand of the corruption in the government. While his recognition of Cynthia and through her, of the importance of the Karen in Thai society will be taken by many as an attitude to be adopted as he nudges his people into a more enlightened attitude.

Trying to understand, and attempting to improve, so often takes us deeper into the maze. At least fifty thousand people live a half life in Mae Lah refugee camp alone, unable to travel outside the narrow confines of the camp, unable to work, prevented from living in a permanent house, certainly receiving some level of education, but with no direction for its use. Not surprisingly alcohol and drug abuse become a problem. The failure of the British to leave a reasonably workable political legacy in a multiethnic society has left three devastated generations, in Burma proper, in the territories of the ethnic minorities, amongst the expatriates, who have gone to live in Australia, Canada, the U.S and the Baltic countries, and the people, growing up in the camps and those living the ultimate life of insecurity as illegal immigrants . The UN’s emigration policy for the Karen provides a weak-kneed answer for some individuals, at the same time; it destroys both the leadership and the culture. The Juntas policy is clear: submit or suffer slow extermination. The Thai at present prefer to look the other way. We cannot expect much change in attitude from the Junta, but a gradual relaxation of the rules of citizenship for the Karen on this side of the border would be to the long-term benefit of Thailand . The king of Thailand, a strong believer in peaceful settlement knows this very well. And coming back to the original question: ‘Is this a dangerous place?’ ‘ Yes, of course, it is.’ Is this a good reason for not trying to do something about it?’ ‘No, that would be a far more dangerous thing to do.’