Winding Down, 1-11-08, Thai/Burma Border Trip, Winter 2007-08

By Jodi

We hopped in the van for one last excursion. Nung, our dear driver, was taking us to a waterfall. First, he said, we'd see his mother.

She lived at a refugee camp but was in the nearby hospital getting tested for her resettlement in Australia. We quickly met her, and left Nung to talk with her and his family, while the International Organization for Migration bus nearby sat to take her and a group of other refugees being resettled back to her camp. We felt in the air an ambivalence to resettlement. Nung was not going to Australia, though he told us he'd go visit her. And people idealize resettlement, getting out of the refugee camp with its bamboo shacks, but often find the transition to a developed country with slick flush toilets, huge supermarkets, refrigerators and the absence of familiarity and community difficult.

After he kissed his mom goodbye, he drove us to the waterfall, a gorgeous spot where we climbed the rocks, swam, hiked and enjoyed a glorious sunset against the banana trees. (Was there anything sweeter than Thailand's tiny bananas?) Heading back to Mae Sot for our last night, we wound down the mountain, past a huge hill tribes market, road construction workers wearing bandanas over their faces to keep out the dust, and the mountains and Burma in the distance. We couldn’t think of a more fitting end to our trip. We had lots to think about and an enormous amount of follow-up to make this not just a learning experience but a meaningful trip for the Burmese struggle. Still, the social justice aspect of the trip, with 14 committed fellow students and one professor who got along well and surrounded by this utterly glorious country: We couldn’t think of a better way to spend our winter vacation of 2007-08 than our Alt Break to the Thai/Burma border.

We thank our fantastic student leaders, Caitlin Burnett and Anna Koval, who did a phenomenal job pulling together every detail of the entire trip; our professor, Dan Chong; and Shoshanna Sumka and the community service office for this opportunity.