We're back in Mae Sot, and we've been busy since my last post!
Before describing our time in Ban Nam Hom (BNH), I'd like to give a little more of an overview of our time at the Mae Tao clinic (May 29), which we visited before driving to Ban Nam Hom.
The Mae Tao clinic, located in Mae Sot, was founded in the late 1980s to serve Burmese refugees who were fleeing the border at the time to escape the Burmese regime. Since its founding, when all care (free for refugees, migrant workers, anyone seeking aid) was located in a single small home, the clinic has expanded into an impressive complex and provides consultations to approximately 100,000 patients. About half of those consultations are migrant workers living and working in the Mae Sot area, while the other fifty percent travel cross-border from Burma (source: Mae Tao clinic)
When we arrived at the clinic on the morning of the 29th, we were greeted by one of the administrators, who gave a presentation that helped us understand the context and growth of the clinic since its founding. Her presentation provided data on the type of care given, issues and impacts arising since COVID, policy information, and an explanation of how the clinic is funded and managed. If you're curious, you can learn more about these issues through one of their more recent annual reports.
After the presentation, we received a tour of the facility, where we were able to observe first hand how important this clinic is to the population it serves based on the number of people actively receiving or awaiting care. The clinic has an onsite eye clinic, dental clinic, delivery room, and about a half dozen other types of medical services.
Getting a tour of the Mae Tao clinic
One of the most fascinating pieces for me was learning about all of the policy red-tape associated with providing care to Burmese refugees. For example, as the clinic is not an official registered hospital acknowledged by the Thai government, it works in partnership with the Suwannimit Foundation in order to mobilize resources and for legal protection. Furthermore, the infants of Burmese patients giving birth at the hospital are not automatically Thai citizens; the births have to be documented as a home birth in Burma. I'm definitely not a public health expert--that's Han's arena--but the larger policy issues surrounding the clinic really sparked my curiosity.
After the Mae Tao clinic, we drove about an hour out of Mae Sot, loaded up into 4WD pick-up trucks, and made our way to the Ban Nam Hom school, located in a remote, remote, remote river valley in the Tak province of Thailand.
BNH School Day 1 (May 29)
We arrived at BNH in the early afternoon. Upon pulling up, Han immediately expressed excitement and gratitude to see how much the school had grown and developed in the 10 years it had been since he and Westminster had last visited. We were greeted by teachers and the Principal--the same Principal that had been at the school the last time Westminster visited--and Han was also excited to learn that 4 teachers were still teaching at BNH ten years after he'd last met them. It was cool to see them reconnect. We were also very lucky to get to meet and reconnect with the Principal because he's retiring in just a few months.
While still very much a reflection of a rural school in a remote area of Thailand, the school was BEAUTIFUL. Han was able to point out how much the school had changed in a decade re: new buildings, renovations, and facility enhancements. For example, ten years ago, the Westminster group stayed in open air buildings on dirt floors (cue the bugs) in little pup tents. This year, we stayed in the fully enclosed cafeteria and it was very comfortable! Han couldn't remember how many sit toilets (as opposed to squat toilets) the school had ten years ago--maybe one? None? but the toilet situation/bucket shower set up was like...totally fine. Easy. None of the students complained and seemed to do just fine with the set-up.
Our sleeping arrangements for our stay at BNH school
Okay, more on previous assumptions/actual experience a little later--let me at least give the day-by-day play-by-play so we can remember it in future years. Back to Day 1...
After arriving, meeting the teachers and Principal, and after getting settled in, our group was pretty much free to explore the school grounds and get acquainted with the flow of after school activities. The school has a large concrete pad where students assemble each morning. It also serves as the soccer field, volleyball court, basketball court, and takraw (foot/head volleyball) court. Holy crap, the BNH students are GOOD at sports. More on that later. Our students were immediately drawn to the volleyball court, where many of them/us/me spent the next several hours playing. We have a few former HS volleyball players on this trip, and it was super fun to watch them play with/against the local students--there were some great rallies!
You can see students playing takraw on the left
A view of the main plaza looking uphill at other school buildings
I don't remember what we were served for dinner the first night and neglected to take photos, but trust me, it was good.
BNH Day 2
Man, it's genuinely hard to remember what happened two days ago because I feel like we packed in so much stuff.
We woke up, had breakfast, and joined the older students (grades 7-9 I think? Probably 13-16 year old students) for "English Camp x Westminster."
BNH went all out for English Camp!
Soda, one of the Thai teachers, briefing the students on English Camp
Truth be told, we (Westminster) didn't know what type of service we'd be doing at BNH until we arrived. And while we were very excited to get to focus our energy on building relationships with the students, we definitely felt ill-prepared, but thankfully BNH teachers had already prepared a curriculum and activities for our students to lead. The morning's activities included "telephone," trivia, and a visual arts activity.
A group of Westminster students running a Scooby-Doo themed trivia game to help Thai students learn English
Now that we (Westminster) know that we'll be running English camp each year we visit BNH (which will hopefully be every year!), we are excited to be able to plan and prepare students more effectively by (hopefully) partnering with our TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and Arts Education Faculty to provide resources and possibly some training to our students in advance of our future trip departures.
While my program (Outdoor Education and Leadership) is technically housed in the School of Education at Westminster, my area of expertise is NOT elementary/secondary education (see previous entries that refer to my erm...lack of enthusiasm for kids...) and similarly not TESOL. But it's a great direction for the May Term Thailand Program! It fills a big need for BNH (they currently don't have an English teacher at the school) and it can be a recurring type of service that Westminster can plan and prepare for effectively.
After a break for lunch, the Thai students gave us a tour of the campus, before school ended for the day. After school ended, our students got to work doing health screenings for the Thai kids that board at the school. Similarly to Banyang Kaew, it was an all-hands-on-deck process, with our nursing students + Bright completing the main health assessments while other students took temperature checks, got height/weight, and screened for lice/washed hair.
After health screenings were complete, our group joined for more sports. Let's talk about the BNH students and sports. I mentioned that they were good, but they are like, really, really good. The A team for volleyball is ranked first in the Tak region, and one of the student race-walkers is ranked second nationally! The cafeteria has dozens--maybe even 100?--trophies from team and individual sporting competitions. These students are excellent teammates to one another and incredibly disciplined. Both the A and B volleyball teams smoked our Westminster students...sorry, students. Y'all got smoked. It was really fun to watch the games. And it was especially fun once Thai/Westminster students got integrated onto the same teams so they were more evenly matched. Sports can be such a great bridge builder for relationships--language becomes far less of a barrier (from my perspective) when folks are laughing, having a good time, and working toward the same goal (pun kind of intended).
Sorry I didn't get any pictures of health screenings or sports!
BNH Day 3
We started the second day of English Camp off with two really fun activities. The first was a game of chutes and ladders using English phrases on the large game board:
Thai students would roll dice and advance to the designated space if they could ask and answer the question (in English) correctly
Westminster students were there to help clarify questions and answers and help with pronunciation
The other group game was "treasure hunt," where groups of Thai students had an allotted amount of time to collect as many personal items as possible and bring them back to the group. Their team would score a point if they could correctly identify the item in English.
Groups naming their items
Masami's group collecting items
Groups collecting and naming their items
We broke for lunch, and then the students took us on a tour of the neighboring village. As part of the tour, we got to learn how a local beverage was made out of sticky rice and got to see the full beverage making process take place.
Learning about the beverage making process in one of the homes in the village
Learning about the beverage making process in one of the homes in the village
Next stop was the home of another villager to learn how local Karen attire (traditional Karen shirts, dresses, sarongs, bags) are woven. Man, these garments were friggin' incredible. Truly stunning. And very labor intensive. We also learned that these items are generally not for sale--this particular home makes them for weddings, celebrations, and helps outfit the students at BNH (there's a day of the week where all students dress in traditional Karen attire). They were so kind to allow our Westminster group to purchase items.
Some of the shirts and dresses woven in the village
Isabel learning to weave using a very different technique than what we saw in Buriram and Chiang Mai
The weaver (in this case, one of our amazing Thai trip leaders, Bright) creates tension or slack in the piece by leaning back and forward
Our tour group
We ended the tour with some smoothies and sodas at a local shop, and I snagged another party t-shirt that is way better than anything ever worn by Jeff Nichols.
After school ended, more sports. :)
After sports ended, it was time to PARTY! The staff at BNH hosted an *amazing* BBQ for our group to celebrate the successful end of English Camp. The Thai students performed a traditional Chin dance demonstration which involves dancers hopping in and out of bamboo poles being clacked together to the beat of a drum. The Thai students invited our group to try it, and speaking from personal experience, it's...a lot harder than the Thai students made it look :)
My photos of the dance demonstration are not great--sorry!
The Thai and Westminster students after the dance demonstration
The BBQ was such a fun culminating celebration to wrap up our time at Ban Nam Home. This journal post really doesn't to the experience justice. To be honest, I was probably most nervous about this stretch of the trip when looking at the itinerary as a whole. I had never been to Ban Nam Hom, and we had been briefed by Han and Noi that this section of the trip would have limited amenities -- no hotel, limited electricity/internet (if at all), bucket showers, bugs--the things one might expect when staying in a very rural, remote village. That said, I do, in fact, camp for a living, but despite relative familiarity with sleeping on the ground, bugs, etc., it can still be difficult to readjust one's mindset after a few weeks of comfortable beds.
Nevertheless, I think I can speak for many members of our group when I say that our stay in Ban Nam Hom was an absolute highlight of the trip for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the teachers and students at the school are the absolute kindest and most welcoming hosts. Their hospitality--ranging from arranging our lodging (which was great! And pretty fun actually!), cooking delicious meals, and organizing a variety of social and educational activities to help us build relationships with the school and village community--was phenomenal.
Some of the BNH faculty with our Westminster students on the final day
I very much hope Westminster/I have an opportunity to return to Ban Nam Hom in the near and far future. Truly a special place and special people.
Which gets us back up to present day. We left BNH in the morning and drove back to Mae Sot. We had plans to cross the border into Myanmar to 1) have an opportunity to visit Myanmar 2) help students having issues with their visas get a new stamp to re-set their 30 day visitation limit, but unfortunately due to safety issues (fighting on the Burmese border), we were not allowed to cross. For the folks with visa issues, Noi worked her standard magic and was able to work with Thai authorities to get them extensions/new stamps without having to cross, but it definitely took some effort. Noi is amazing. Noi, if you ever read this blog, YOU ARE AMAZING!!
We had lunch at the Twins restaurant, came back to the hotel for some down time, and then ate dinner as a group at a restaurant called Khraw Peng Jai. Tomorrow, we make the lonnnnnnng drive back to Bangkok for our final two nights of the trip.
If you made it to the end of this post, you're an absolute legend. Well done.
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