Tawitchailand, an educational center in Mae Sot, crossroads of civilizations.
It shows all the faces atypical, marked with a thick paste cosmetic white or yellow. Neither truly Indian nor wholly Chinese or Tibetan, where we already contemplates the geography of Myanmar. There are hundreds to cross the border each day since Myawadii to procure consumer goods at lower prices. Some farangs
* populate the terraces of the restaurants more comfortable, reminiscent of a settlement which has never yet held in the Kingdom of Siam. There are twenty-first century adventurers, mercenaries aid flowing in large air-conditioned 4x4, providing care and financial support, and deciding who will join the host country for refugees.
In the main street after lunch, the cobblestones crawling with Indians, Burmese and Chinese longyi, s'haranguant the front stalls stones, precious and less precious.
Next to TESCO **, east of the city, there are Thai schoolchildren to their beige and white uniform. Perhaps truant.
Behind them, a mong family, whose members are dressed in beautiful black velvet embroidered pajamas, moves languidly toward the market, perhaps unaware that their ancestors formed un jour le peuple le plus influent de ce coin de l’Asie.
Des karens débarquent de l’arrière d’un pick-up en tunique traditionnelle, avec jean. Les femmes aux gencives rougies par le bétel fument d’impressionnants cigares. Il sont venus acheter du matériel agricole.
Plus loin, de jeunes enfants birmans houspillent des touristes pour une poignée de bahts. Ils sont d’apparence indienne ou bengali et habitent un genre de bidon-ville en périphérie, à Tawitchailand.
Cela fait maintenant trois ans que Sister Joy, supérieure philippine des filles de la Charité de Saint Vincent de Paul à Mae Sot, côtoie la communauté Muslim Tawitchailand. She founded a Learning Center which hosts *** twenty full-time students.
Originally it was a Saturday school, where children learned to speak Thai and English. But at the refusal of many schools to accommodate children considered too wild, Sister Joy decided in agreement with the families, the Learning Center to open weekdays in order to make a fully fledged school.
Located in an old barn rented by the month, wooden benches to serve as desks, students sit in front of which the pit. A professor originally from Rangoon to dispense daily elementary education in Burmese, and we continue, Maney, Ruby and me to come on Saturday morning to teach the basics of Thai and some English.
Maney comes from a village near Mae Sot, and Ruby is from Pathein in Burma, where his parents still are. They are both Karen and work as volunteers at the Daughters of Charity. On weekdays, they are caring for a child care center that welcomes children of Burmese workers working in Thailand.
Typically, Maney and I share the some fifty students the weekend in two groups. Ruby's helping us both to bring order and translate what we can not make children. It most often begins with the oldest (7 to 13 years), having them recite the alphabet thai, while with small (4 to 8 years), we sing nursery rhymes in the first half of the morning. After which we share, not before being distributed snack time for recreation.
For most children are undernourished, and some even suffer from deficiencies more specific. Twice a year, Sister Joy arranges visits medical Tawitchailand, and for nearly six hours, each family passes inspection, and medicines are provided.
Despite all our good will, the school Tawitchailand remains suspended. It is obviously not recognized by local authorities, who are also beginning to see an evil eye the emergence of these centers for Burmese children, and could decide not only to close the school permanently, but even to expel the forty families living in the premises illegally.
Many NGOs working in the region generally work more or less informally, and many schools are tolerated as long as there's something for everyone. But it seems that the Governor in place is not very fond of favoritism and the threat of greater firmness flat recently about the area.
However, the province of Mae Sot is forced humanitarian agencies to recognize their contribution to economic development, and it is not unrealistic to assume that the Blur will remain the norm for some time. Until the closure of refugee camps? The fall of the Burmese regime?
* Farang: linguistic assimilation Westerners to farangsets, the French Embassy
of Louis XIV in the eighteenth Thailand.
** TESCO supermarket teaches Anglo-Saxon equivalent of crossroads. ***
learning center: educational center.
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