Dancing Elephants

The happiest animals I have ever seen in a zoo are in Singapore. Qibo and I couldn't stop laughing hysterically in the Singapore subway because of all the adorable animals we saw... an elephant that wouldn't stop dancing and smiling, otters that recycle, baboons who peacefully sleep in a grinning zen positions... can't wait to post pics.

Pics!

The neighborhood of our guesthouse
Sleeping baboons

In zen
Happiest elephant I've ever met

The elephant danced the whole time we visited. Here he is shaking his booty.

Singapore

Changi airport in Singapore has free internet! Hello from Singapore!

Thai Schools

But do the migrant schools look like Thai schools? No way. Here's a few pictures of a standard Thai school in Ranong. The ones in Mae Sot are similar. The discrepancies between the Thai schools and the migrant schools are huge.

A school for migrant children in Mae Sot that we had a meeting with today.

This Week in Mae Sot

We just finished meeting with twelve migrant schools here in Mae Sot. Many of these schools began because members of the migrant community saw children in their communities picking up garbage in the streets, begging, or staying home all day without being able to learn anything that could help them in the future. Desperate parents who can't find work often send their children to the streets to earn whatever money they can.

Moreover, the children are vulnerable to trafficking as many children become orphans or their parents suddenly become missing due to arrest and deportation caused by lack of legal documentation, etc. It's really heartbreaking - most of the trafficking is for child labor demands, prostitution, or the drug trade (police don't expect children to carry drugs as much as adults). Without an education, vulnerability to deception and exploitation greatly increase. And what hope for a future can children have without literacy and numeracy skills? The schools are thus vital, but technically "illegal" as migrant people are considered "illegal" here in Thailand. The Thai authorities allow the migrant schools to continue though, as it keeps children off the streets and away from begging or crime. The schools are amazing for their perseverance, resourcefulness, and courage. I admire the people I met in each of them so much! Here are pictures from a few of the schools we visited:

Sawadeeka from Parami School!

Meeting with the headmistress of a night school for children who work during the day.
Nya Li Ah Tah School

Classroom
Greetings from America and Canada

Singing songs together before our meeting with the teachers
Lunch break

Working together with Burmese Migrant Worker Education Committee staff

Talar Aor Klar School

Children at Agape School singing "We are the world"


Some of the teachers at Elpis School. They presented a plaque for the Hussman Foundation.

The children from Elpis gave us over 100 drawings one by one.


Moe Ma Kha School. Serving mostly Muslim children, an often neglected minority group in the area.

Hongsar, our accompanying photographer. I told him he is from the land of Teddy Bears.

Spicy Thai Noodles

They like to eat their food spicy in Thailand. Here is a picture of my bowl of gin kaew. The red specks are HOT chili peppers. My mouth was on fire eating this bowl. I consumed 3 bottles of water trying to finish it.

Here is Sirinate's bowl... I watched in utter amazement as she finished her noodles. I thought I could handle spicy having grown up on kimchi, but the Thais win the gold medal from my point of view.

Random thoughts

In every school we've visited, the number of migrant children is increasing, not decreasing. Thus, their need for funding is increasing and their requests to the Hussman Foundation are more urgent as well. Yet, Qibo and I have to tell them that the foundation's philosophy is to decrease funding by 10-20% each year, so that organizations and schools do not become dependent on one donor and seek other sources of funding. It's really dangerous to depend on one donor b/c anything can happen to the one donor or their policies can change and then the funded organization is in emergency mode. Thus, we've been visiting schools to help them in their capacity building, especially in their report and proposal writing skills. Yet the schools sometimes become confused when they feel like they can't get more money from us. Their needs are so great and are only increasing due to the influx of migrant and IDP students and the rising cost of living and Hussman's philosophy is to decrease, not increase funding each year. So if organizations are not proactive, they can't keep up with the cost difference.

Some schools have risen to the challenge and have amazing programs and seem truly sustainable in the longterm due to their relationship with multiple funders but others still want funding from just Hussman - which is really dangerous for them as an organization (e.g., what if John Hussman dies?). How to bridge that gap...

Another random blogging thought. It's hard to see the number of kids in the schools increase everywhere due to fighting in Burma and the collapsed economy. The schools provide literacy and numeracy but don't prepare them for advanced education - they just can't - their funds are limited and they don't have the infrastructure to compete with the Thai schools. Thus, the best that the students can usually attain to is vocational jobs or for the lucky few, work with NGOs, and even those jobs are unreliable b/c they don't have legal documentation to be in Thailand.

Arrests for lack of documentation are common around Mae Sot. Qibo and I constantly see police check points everywhere and we've been questioned four times now to see if we have legal documentation to be in Thailand since we look Asian. Once they hear our accents though, they always let us pass. When arrested, the migrant workers either have to pay a large fine that usually amounts to two months' salary, remain in jail, or if they're lucky, get deported. Families are constantly separated this way.

Anyhow, the root problem is the Burmese military dictatorship's ruthless grip on power even though no one wants them there. Because of their inhumane policies towards their own people (economic policies that boggle the mind, 8.8.88 and the recent Saffron revolution as well as ethnic genocide towards the ethnic minority groups like the Karen and Rohingya), people are leaving Burma by the millions. That exodus will only continue as long as the military dictatorship is in power. Burma and North Korea... how long will those dictators remain in power? So much suffering caused by the decisions of a few... and the aid of international organizations will only be a small drip in the ocean in making a longterm difference if the leadership of those countries do not change.

Mae Sot

Qibo and I are in Mae Sot right now, another border town with a large migrant population from Burma. We traveled by bus for 10 hours back to Bangkok and then bussed it to Mae Sot for another 9 hours. It's constantly raining here and I can hear the loud pitter patter outside as I type. I don't know what the rainy season is like for the migrant families who can only afford to live in tin or bamboo shacks (an estimated 100,000+ people in this area). Somehow, Qibo and I have been lucky enough to sleep in beds and insulated rooms for most of our lives.

It's rainy season in Mae Sot right now. A migrant family's home.

I need to get some sleep though as this week is going to be extremely busy and I barely slept last night as well. We're meeting with several migrant schools that the Hussman Foundation funds each day for the next seven days and then will be bussing it to Chiang Mai to debrief with Sirinate and to write. Sweet dreams everyone. My blog tonight will be short.

A migrant student's drawing from Wattana school: coming to Thailand with his mother.

Migrant Schools

Here comes the cute stuff! The kids of course! The migrant schools are in random places that provide shelter from the rain (it rains most of the year in Ranong). We thus found schools in living rooms, cement-like boxes, and more living rooms.

We met with the teachers from the 4 migrant schools during a Saturday to conduct a Participatory Guided Self-Assessment workshop. Then came individual school visits and meetings which lasted on average 6 hours. One of the most crowded schools was Wattana Learning Center which currently enrolls 114 students. The school is located in a converted living room.

WATTANA

As a living room

As a school

Kindergartners at the back of the classroom.

A few more pics from:

DAW WIN'S NIGHT SCHOOL

The students here go to school in the evening because most of them work during the day.

We randomly interviewed three children, from left to right (Thi Ha - 7 years old, Khine Tha Zin Pyo - 6 years old, and Yee Ko Ko - 12 years old). All three of them worked full time during the day at restaurants and go to work after school ends at the night school which runs from 6-10pm.

Thi Ha had a great smile and kept smiling at us all evening. Up close:

Ranong

Ranong is in the Southern part of Thailand and borders Burma. There are an estimated 100,000 migrant workers in Ranong. People from flee Burma in droves because of the political and economic oppression and mismanagement by the military dictatorship. Overall, an estimated 2 million migrant workers in Thailand. Most of them do not have legal documentation, making them extremely vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

Many migrant workers find work in the fishing and sex industry in Ranong. Children are not able to register in Thai schools so they are left to either work or stay at home alone. The Hussman Foundation and other NGOs have thus been working to support migrant education throughout the Thai-Burma border. Currently, there are 12 registered migrant "learning centers" in Ranong (they are not allowed to be called schools and receive no funding from the Thai government). The Hussman Foundation has been supporting 4 schools in Ranong since last year.

Qibo and I were there as external evaluators to assess certain indicators and to help them think through how they can use their data to create better reports and proposals. We traveled most of the time with Sirinate, an experienced non-profit consultant and Somkiert, our Burmese translator.

Monks at a morning market in Ranong accepting food in exchange for blessings.

Sirinate and Qibo in our guesthouse in Ranong.