A special visit to a Karen refugee camp

We felt privileged to be invited to visit a Karen refugee camp today with our Burmese friends.It was a 7.00am start which is not our best time of day but we made it in time. We needed to show passports at a checkpoint and our friends showed their work permits. The two hour journey passed quickly and we were soon approaching the first section of the camp which was zone A. There were two further zones and we were stunned at the size of the camp which holds 30,000 refugees. Each zone holds 10,000 people!

Entering Camp

We entered the gates and were immediately met by our friend's father who has an important role here and wound our way through the camp, passing fresh food stalls, bamboo houses, a wide variety of interesting stalls-in fact everything you might see in a town or village. Smiling faces greeted us everywhere.

Stalls

We felt relaxed and welcomed. The amazing Burmese refugees have built up a warm and caring community where everyone knows and supports each other.There is a hospital in camp as well as many schools and additional facilities like barbers and dressmakers. Resourceful families have thought of every need as some of them they have lived in camp for 20 years!

School Life

We were invited on a tour of the camp and visited a number of schools where teachers and a nursery headteacher graciously showed us where their pupils learn and pointed out a shared football and play area.

Open Space for Sports

We received outstanding hospitality and are truly overwhelmed by this experience. We are so thankful to our friends for taking time to share this day with us.

These photographs will give you a snapshot of our unforgettable day . However, we must not forget that these refugee families have been forced to leave their own country and are displaced people who have lost their freedom and many of their human rights. As we left the camp we knew that they had not lost their dignity or hope for their childrens future.

Community Spirit

Arriving home on the back of a motorbike-taxi!

Across the Freedom Bridge to Burma

It's the weekend already and we have planned to visit Dr Cynthias clinic as we have heard so many inspiring stories about the dedicated help and treatment that all Burmese people receive here. Patients come from all over, including Mae Sot and many risk coming across from Burma to benefit from the free medical care and much needed medicine. We were humbled to see this great work in action and as it was vaccination day we saw lots of mums and new born babies waiting for innoculations.

World renowned Dr Cynthias clinic

We witnessed a number of disturbing sights from the bus as we headed to the Freedom Bridge and we have spent time talking about this and trying to make sense of it all. Clutching our passports we passed through the Tak immigration checkpoint and walked over into Burma or the union of Myanmar as it is now called.

Passing through immigration into Myanmar

We moved on to the next checkpoint and paid for a days visa and the officials took our passports to ensure our return. To say that we were a little disconcerted to hand over our passports is an understatement. However as we had no choice we forced ourselves out of the office still not convinced! We then had our temperatures taken to detect if we had swine flu! As I had a Thai phone with me I then quickly phoned an American resident I had made a connection with last year and was reassured to hear this was normal practice. Feeling relieved we walked for miles in the scorching heat to absorb this new experience...we were actually in Burma!

We spotted a Bhuddist temple and went in to enjoy some peace and calm from the bustling streets. We were soon surrounded by lots of lovely children in smart uniforms obviously on a lunch break from the local school.

Relaxing at lunchtime in the temple.

We followed the trail of children back to The Basic Education High School in the hope of meeting some teachers and introducing ourselves and talking about Say Ta Nar. The children were mesmerised by us and we caused real excitement on the campus. Children were waving to us and giggling around us and pointing fingers as we tried to find their teachers. We did eventually find three teachers but they were unable to speak English and had no idea what we were trying to say and looked bemused. Disappointed at this we realised we should leave and with a smile and our best 'Mingla Ba' we continued on our journey.

The Basic Education High School

We moved further into town hoping to get a better sense of the every day communities and we were not disappointed. We saw lots of the market stalls and streets where families were living and again we were a source of amazement for many people who smiled and shouted to us on our travels.

Some sights from our travels

We heard the lovely singing voices of children and we were soon standing outside a Bhuddist school. We were so pleased to have discovered two schools in the three hours we stayed across the border.

The local Buddist school

After collecting our precious passports we had our temperatures taken again and we were informed by the clerk that we were 'normal'. Little did he know! We wondered if we would have been sent back if we had had a temperature.

Under the bridge

We struggled across the bridge flagging in the heat and saw a family in a tyre making their way towards the Thai border. This is a sight I witnessed last year as families try to find a better life for their children. There are so many harrowing sights around the area of the Friendship Bridge and we found ourselves feeling quite emotional and reflective about everything we had experienced. A Saturday we will not forget.

A good Friday for us all

We took every resource we had to school today which included loads of additional card and stationary bought locally last night. We have mastered the art of cycling with full back packs and baskets overflowing. And yes Natasha has a new bike! I am sure we must be a talking point as we plough through the traffic every day.Claire sings songs from Mamma Mia , Natasha always looks calm and dignified and I talk for Scotland to every poor cyclist who draws up beside me at traffic lights.
We arrived at the gates of Say Ta Nar to the heart warming welcome of the whole school and immediately went underneath the house to spend some time and share gifts with the kindergarten.

Thank you Primary 1 for your card and presents

We talked to the children about Pirniehall nursery and infant classes and handed over their pictures and gifts of pencils and an interesting incense mobile! Claire and Natasha had fun showing the little ones how to use their chunky calculators and there were lots of smiling faces and an excited air in the kindergarten as we returned upstairs to teach.

We love our calculators!!

The upper school were on alert waiting for us and within minutes they were engaged in pairs talking and planning their writing on the whiteboards that we had introduced earlier.

Children fully engaged in their writing on whiteboards.

They produced great Say Ta Nar booklets and drawings that we will be sharing with Pirniehall in the new session. Claire has now taught three great songs and it is amazing to hear how well they are singing them already. Pho Cho arrived at this point with Neesha and the baby.The good news was that all was well and everyone clapped and hugged at the relief of seeing this lovely family looking happy and together again.

Claire in full flow!

Claire's new toys go down a storm!

We were encouraged to continue with our planned day and after eating a tasty lunch made for us by the tireless and resilient Neesha , we started the afternoon session. Natasha demonstrated a lesson based on the work of Matisse using pastels and charcoal and the children created lovely art work which is now proudly displayed in school.They then enjoyed participating in active langauge games to develop their word skills.

Loving the different Art and Language games

While this was happening I chatted to the older pupils and discussed the stunning photographs they took last year of their homes and local community. They all received a Nothing Special booklet with some of their published photographs and were excited to see themselves in print. Pho Cho helped explain about our Eco project and that we wanted to find out more about SayTa Nar and their Global footprint. We handed out cameras so that they could start capturing images that represented how they take care of their environment to compare with our ongoing work at Pirniehall.

An interesting Eco discussion.

At the end of the day Pho Cho played guitar as the children sang enthusiastically to their Scottish teachers before leaving for the weekend. See you Monday teachers!

The baby enjoys the music too.

Teachers were heading for the laundry and to update the blog. We have an exciting weekend planned with lots of early starts and although we are exhausted we will enjoy every experience.

Singing a Pirnie favourite - We like!

Working with the children is a highlight

We hopped on to our trusty bikes and arrived at Say Ta Nar weighed down by calculators and books we planned to use. We were met by a distressed looking Pho Cho who told us that his baby son had been taken to hospital after a clinic visit. Neesha was already staying with him and Pho Cho was anxious to join his family. He apologised profusely about leaving us but we fully understood and urged him to go. We were now in charge of grades 4,5,6,7 and 8 for the day! Claire and Nastasha were well planned for the morning as we knew this was an allocated teaching slot. All day teaching on day one was more of a challenge than we had expected as we had only brought some of our resources. However Pirniehall teachers think on their feet and the whole day was soon organised. Claire and Natasha were keen to engage children in active learning and working in pairs and groups rather than whole class teaching.


The children loved the calculators

As the day progressed the children received their calculators and enjoyed some challenging activities and of course they were delighted to take the calculators home. They played with them excitedly at lunch break.They learned two great songs that are Pirniehall favourites and were soon singing with gusto lead by Claire.


Trying something new - group discussions.

They went on to a listening and talking task in pairs, modelled by the teachers and in groups discussed and asked questions about Pirniehall booklets prepared by Natasha and Claire with their own classes . They wrote letters based on these discussions and produced lovely related art work. Phew! A lot of teaching for one day. Thank goodness we had our interpreter who was invaluable and a great grade 8 pupil who translated well for us. The children were marvellous and were so interested and creative. They showed their love of learning and were clearly loving the novelty of having their Scottish teachers all day!


Children are fascinated reading and discussing life at Pirniehall.

Lunch was interesting without Pho Cho and Neesha but I decided to help out serving the rice for 120 children and took the job seriously as I was worried about my big portions and running out but all was well. Not such a quiet lunch room today!


Head Teacher serves lunch! A special moment with his Scottish teacher

The children left at 3.00pm with their usual 'see you tomorrow teacher' and I decided to go on the bus taking the children home. It was wonderful to see where the children lived and get a sense of their community.The children and parents were at all times so happy and smiling and the children clearly looking forward to school tomorrow.


Children returning home


Mum collects child from the bus 'See you tomorrow teacher!'

Claire and Natasha and I jumped on to our bikes feeling exhausted but with a real sense of achievement. We think we will be in charge of these grades again tomorrow so are off to our favourite internet cafe to debrief and plan. We will not talk about Natasha's pedal falling off her bike...twice!

Tickety Boo!

Everything has gone so well on our long journey to Mae Sot with no delays and baggage retrieved safely in Chiang Mai. Or as Natasha would say `everything has gone tickety boo` which has become our new catchphrase. We travelled Edinburgh to Paris to Bangkok to Chiang Mai and then the final six hour bus journey to Mae Sot. We had no time to make a visit Dr Thein Lwein school in Chiang Mai as we had to catch the one bus leaving for Mae Sot , but hope to fit it in on our return.

Pirniehall meets Say Ta Nar

Pho Cho, Neesha and their children along with our interpreter met us at the bus station and we were all excited to see each other. We all headed for our newly found accomodation as our original hotel had ,out of the blue , decided to paint their rooms during July! Luckily our artist friend had contacted our interpreter to save the day and she organised alternative rooms and bikes. We appreciated this thoughtfulness! I kept this little surprise from the girls until we were sitting calm and relaxed with a caffe latte in Paris airport. C`est tres bien! Wait till they see the rooms!

Is this it?!

Say Ta Nar school had an unexpected holiday as it is a religious festival and is opening again just as we arrive. Perfect timing and another tickety boo moment! We then went on an evening walk to orientate ourselves and found a favourite restaurant from last year fondly referred to as `Canadian Daves`, run by Dave and his lovely family. He told us he knew we were coming because he had read the blog. We were very impressed and felt like we had arrived.
Next morning we were awakened by the happy builders and were soon met by Neesha and some of our students who brought us our bikes! My family will be waiting with bated breath to see how their mum manages without them , as Lewis always kept a protective rear guard to keep an eye open for potential hazards, shouting encouraging words like `watch out for the truck` or `you`re too close to the motorbike`. Alan kept us right with directions and Calum just enjoyed a kamikaze journey through the traffic every day. I think I`ll surprise them but watch this space as I have not been on a bike since last year. Claire and Natasha seem quite confident as we head out into the traffic to have breakfast with Pho Cho`s family at Say Ta Nar.

Breakfast at Say Ta Nar
How exciting to arrive at Say Ta Nar! Successful first bike journey and a delicious breakfast with our Burmese friends. We talked animatedly about the children and the school to catch up on news and talk about our own teaching projects. Pho Cho has 120 pupils now and an additional teacher increasing their staff to five. He has added new resources including a new computer, whiteboards , with Pirniehall support. He looks forward to our teaching input and has allocated us plenty of teaching slots. We then handed out some of our presents to the family who are always so gracious and happy to be remembered.

Pho Cho likes his Scotland T-shirt

It is good to be able to share our 'Nothing Special' photographic booklets that reflect the communtiy in both Pirniehall and Say Ta Nar.

Team Pirnie are returning to Say Ta Nar July `09

Welcome back to our Pirniehall blog as the next intrepid team prepare to visit our partner school Say Ta Nar! Team Pirnie take over from the Gillespies who had the privilege of working with our Burmese children last year.

We have been awarded a British Council grant to allow us to continue with our successful Global partnership projects. Claire and Natasha who teach at Pirniehall , look forward to travelling to Mae Sot and sharing in this exciting work. I`m happy to say they will soon be blogging so watch this space! We travel to Thailand tomorrow!



Team Pirnie - Claire Mitchell , Mary Gillespie and Natasha Millar

Visit to British Council Bangkok

With my cousin outside BC Bangkok

At the end of our stay in Thailand we had the opportunity to have a meeting with representatives of the British Council Bangkok, organised by the Director John Whitehead. He had set up a generous morning meeting with Pred Evans, Director of Education, Matumon Katerenchuk, Education Partnerships Manager and Kewalin Lomwong Education Partnerships Officer. They were an impressive team who showed interest and enthusiasm for the schools partnership and were keen to hear all the details about the time we had spent in Say Ta Nar in Mae Sot. Team Gillespie talked enthusiastically about the children, Headteacher and teachers and the great learning experiences we all shared. As well as talking about the positive curricular developments we were also able to share concerns about the future of the Burmese children who were stateless and had no rights. We were able to talk about issues like future funding for the Burmese migrant schools and highlighted Hlee Bee school whose funding ends in October.

During the morning discussions the team asked lots of questions about all aspects of the visit, took notes and were keen to be involved and explore different ways they could assist our global partnerships.

The British Council team were so positive and interested that we all left feeling very good about the meeting and believing that there would be ongoing communication. Lewis has been asked to write about his Mae Sot experiences for the Asian Dialogues programme.
Since arriving home we have exchanged emails with the team and they are keen to keep in touch.



Remembering 8.8.88
To mark the 20th anniversary of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma in 1988 we joined many other supporters, including politicians, in an amnesty internatinal campaign on August 8th at the City Chambers. We all joined together to form a large saffron ribbon and had a minute silence to remember the political prisoners and the continuing struggle of the Burmese people under a brutal and oppressive dictatorship . This was happening in different locations across the country. We then went into the City Chambers and watched a special performance of a powerful and memorable play called The Burma Play: A comedy of terror , performed by the northern international theatre company. It is on as part of the Edinburgh Festival at St John`s church on Princes Street and it is a must to see. Here is an Amnesty International link showing photographs of the saffron ribbon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amnestyscotland