We arrived safely in Mae Sot yesterday at 6pm, after a lovely bus journey through the mountains surrounding Mae Sot. We were amazed at the beauty of the mountains on the last lap of the journey between Tak and Mae Sot. The first 4 hrs are through flat land and then you enter a place that always reminds me (Sheila) of the Scottish highlands. Irvine and Fiona had the front seats on the bus, which gave them a great view of the scenery and the mad driver's antics. He drove perpetually on the wrong side of the road and was determined to overtake the Bangkok to Mae Sot bus. We also saw a really horrible accident coming down the mountain road where a lorry had swerved off the road. Scary.
Coming into Mae Sot is always exciting. Seeing familiar places on the landscape
, knowing loads of our friends will be waiting for us at the bus station. Leaving Chiang Mai, I declared that sitting on the Mae Sot bus in Chiang Mai waiting to leave CM to go to Mae Sot is one of my favourite places in the world - full of hope and excitement - whereon my travelling companions all offered to scatter my ashes on the bus one day! Great to have friends like this!
Sure enough, there they all were led by Thazin, our Burmese Headteacher and our Guardian Angel. Teachers and students from the school and children of Thazin's extended family who run the school - all so eager to see us. After a beautiful reunion and many introductions of Teacher Irvine to everyone, we all piled into a big pick up truck. Sheila and Geoff inside with Thazin, Irvine and Fiona and our 14 bags and 4 teachers and many children on the open back. Yen Yen , the young teacher set off on his motorbike with the 2 children! Off to our Rujira Hotel, right next door to Hle Bee School.
We are never ever allowed to carry any bags. Little tiny Toto set off with the biggest suitcase, determined to carry it upstairs! The children are always awed by the beds in the rooms and by the magnificent toilets. Fair to say we were less awed. We have 3 double rooms and Irvine very very generously gave his room to Geoff and I as we are staying 2 weeks. It has windows all round. His is smaller and darker. Thank you Irvine. However, we all have air conditioning and a fridge and a TV and it is very clean. I did lie in bed in a tupour/tupor of exhausting imaginging mosquitos all over me so got up and sprayed Jungle Formula liberally before scolding myself, "Sheila Laing, you could be sleeping in the street on top of a chest freezer, like the guy you saw tonight, so get to sleep and be grateful!" And that's what I did. Slept for 11hours. Everything always looks so much better the day after the first night!
Today is a lovely day. Cloudy and sunny. Irvine and Fiona got up and left at 8.30am to visit the homes of 3 or 4 children of Hle Bee School. They will blog this when they get back. We could hear them playing hopscotch/peevers in the street with Hle Bee children when they were waiting for Guardian Angel to bring their bikes. Then it went quiet and we knew they'd gone. Right noisy pair they are.
BAck to yesterday.....
When we arrived, we dumped bags. There is never time to settle in because our friends always want us to go straight to school so we can see everyone else who lives in the school and see the changes in the school building.
Irvine was very taken aback when coming in to our rooms to see a book by an old classmate of his, Irvine Welsh!
The school is now full of buildings, having been greatly extended. In one place there are 2 new buildings made of concrete. 1 has 2 classrooms and 1 is a room for teachers. The school have also taken over the big house that was right by their grounds and Yen Yen, the young teacher, lives there with the contruction workers. The new playground is fabulous and I can just imagine our more active Forthview children having a ball there. Photos will follow.
However, Yen Yen is teaching Grade 1 with 42 children and no desks! He is only just out of high school himself. He has impeccable English but no teaching experience so it must be extremely difficult for him. Hle Bee doesn't have a teacher for the Grade 3 class to Thazin and a variety of others are teaching them.
Thazin tell us that the new funder found last year has now come to the end of their funding commitment and so the money some of us raised over the last year will have to be used for salaries, rent, transport etc. And they face an uncertain future again. Thazin just keeps going on with hope and trust that it will work out and it has so far......
Thazin herself has lost 4 kilos in the last month because she is so busy. She is very thin but actually is looking great, despite the fact that she went to be a nun for a month and shaved her hair. She now has a hairstyle that looks like Twiggy's from the 60s. In fact, she looks like Twiggy from the 60s! She was so happy to hear me laugh HA HA HA! She has been waiting to hear this for a year!! Nobody every said that to me before!!
After seeing the school, we set off for a 20 min walk to town for tea about 7pm. It was starting to get dark and was very clammy. We walked past a paddy field, which moved Irvine hugely as he'd never seen one before. Then we walked through the huge market.
The market in Mae Sot bombards you with sights and smells you have never ever seen or could imagine. I felt quite sorry for Irvine having to process so much in such a few hours. He was feeling very overwhelmed with it all. Our few days in Chiang Mai were really helpful in introducing Irvine and re-aquainting the rest of us with Asian culture. Going through Mae Sot market slams you right into the middle of local Burmese culture.
Then into Ban Thai restaurant for beer and food and a chance for Irvine to ask Guardian Angel some of the stream of questions he said were flooding his mind. It's so so good to see him again. He is a dearly loved friend and has been just brilliant in getting everything ready so we are comfortable when we arrive and for our stay.
The walk back through the market in the dark at 9pm was full of pungent smells and strange sights. This is where I saw the young man sleeping on a freezer. Was that his home? Many dogs runnning around us. A trip to 7/11 for water. Then home to Rujira to crash in bed and Guardian Angel rode off on his motor bike to his own home.
What a day! It felt like it lasted a week!
