As a Dragon year of 2012, mid-April to June in Mae-La were the scorching months with the heat bouncing off the streets that caused an illusion of wavering images of temporary houses made of bamboo with thatched teak-leave roofs and barbed wire engulfing the camp. There I was, standing in front of the main gate of Mae-La Refugees camp, situated on the Thailand-Burma Border, with a hat cocooned on my head and with my neckerchief as the sweat surfaced on my forehead trickled down to my eyes stung by mixture of salty sweat and the bridge of my nose flowed like rivulets down my face. As heat licked and coiled around my body like a serpent, my clothes was soaking my sweat that it looked like a map of some foreign land formed on my back as whole body was drenching in sweat. Scorchingly hot, even grasses under the barbed wired stood still as if they were too hot to move.
Penetrating the heat, a mid-thirtyish man who was well-built and thunderous with tanned skinned came out of the main gate and walked in strides towards me.
“Ni Ler Gay, I am Pah Di Moo. Welcome to Mae-La camp”, greeted me in Karen language with a stentorian voice. His thunderous presence made my heart pounding, twisting and sinking fast with nerves as it was my first time in front of the stranger in foreign land.
“Ni Ler Gay, Pah Di Moo. I am Thae Oo Khaing. Nice to meet you”, replied him back in Karen language with my mumbling and cracking voice as my nerves got into me. When he told me that he was my host family and his family members are waiting for me at home with a smile that just seems so genuinely sweet as his lips lifted upward by showing his perfectly aligned teeth and his dimples on his cheeks crinkled made my nerves and anxiety flowed away slowly.
As I passed couple of temporary houses, I saw a bamboo house with a climbing vine growing around the house. A mid-thirtyish woman, who had a short and slim figure with long black hair that reflected like a shining black silk under the sun rays. She warmly welcomed me with her shining dark-brown eyes and with her sweet and small voice, “I am Moe Moo, Pah Di Moo’s wife”. She introduced me with her two daughters, a 15 and a 12. The two daughters seemed to get his father’s genuine smiles with dimples on their cheeks and everything else they got from their mother.
Moe Moo showed me my room and prepared for dinner. She cooked the fish curry completely by feel, without using measuring cups or teaspoons. Dinner was simple with traditional side dishes of fish paste and chilies and some boiled vegetable; however, it was extremely delicious as I tore off a bit of fish from the main dish and put it on my white rice and brought a small portion with my five fingers to my mouth. I felt like the food were delicious even though they were simple as I had a chance to eat mindfully while listening to Moe Moo’s story of fleeing from the soldiers that made her family to eat some forest vegetable with salt only.
That night, Moe Moo came to give me a match and some small candles while holding the candlelight. As I could not fall asleep, I stared at the candlelight. Slowly, the wick of the candle got blackened and the wax turned to liquid that ran down the side of the candle and then onto the small mud plate. The sound of the clicking of gecko lizard and the shrill cries of the cicadas whose sharp high-pitched sounds pierce through the tranquil night became more distinct as if they were like a lullaby for me. Not long after, their shrill cries got softer as I yawned and my eyes lids became heavier and heavier until they shut.
Smelled like a rubber being burnt woke me up suddenly in the middle of the night. As I looked out from the window, people were running with water baskets to put out the flame as there was a hug fire near our house. The fired engulfed my neighbor house from all sides a fire-breathing dragon was inside the house, puffing away the flame. The flames were louder than I expected as the temporary materials of the house such as teak planks, bamboo or thatched leaves were a very good fuel for fire. The radiant heat was intense and scorching that bones in my legs were melting as if I could barely move. Pah Dee Moo came and told me not to get worried. He told me it was Ah Tee whose house got burnt down. Not long after, the Thai fire fighter arrived and the flame was put out. I tried to listen for the lullaby, but it was gone as the night was totally quiet again as if nothing were happened.
The lines of the sun that shot for my eyelids awaked me. The sun shone brightly through small holes of thatched leaves with shimmering beams of soft light across the roofs were like sprinkled glitter by someone and the sound of birds chattering and the whirring of bird wings created a peaceful morning.
I brought my toothbrush and toothpaste to a manual water pump near Ah Tee’s house. I asked him whether he was OK. His reply made me speechless.
“It was just a house. If it got burnt down, I could just rebuild it again as it was not the first time I experienced watching my house got burnt down. I had seen the whole village got burn down because of the Burmese military soldiers.”, replied me with his deep and calm voice. I was so touched by his positive attitudes towards life. I quickly finished off cleansing and prepared to my first afternoon English teaching class for young adults.
In the haze of afternoon combining with fear of first day teaching, I could feel my loose blouse started to cling to my back in places. The sudden endless ‘what if’ questions came to my mind like what if students were throwing around the paper planes and what if they did not listen to me. As I entered the room, there were around 30 new faces with age ranging from 12 to 17 greeting me with their inexhaustible energy and calling me “Tha Ra Mu” so as to give respect to the teacher with their chubby smiles as I entered the room. They were quite attentive and followed every direction for playing a Candy Introduction game. There was one student called Mu Mu. She was like a Touch-Me-Not mimosa plant whose leaves were closed and got shrunk when they were touched. She was extremely shy. When I called out her to play the game, only her cheek that got blush responded me. However, slowly Mu Mu tried to introduce herself with her soft voice. I was so touched by their attitude of how attentive and discipline they were in the class with respect to teacher.
After 30 minutes had passed, one student came to the class while catching his breath. He has two inches thick half dried mud under his flip flop, and the stench of stale sweat walked in with him as he walked into the room. His facial features were rounded with buck teeth that stuck out, and he smiled broadly like a bunny. I initially thought that he might be the black sheep of the class. When the class was dismissed after an hour, I ask him why he was late.
“As I am the oldest son of my family, I had to go to the forest to find Bamboo shoots for dinner for my family as the ration received was not enough to fee a large family of eight.”, replied me with his crack voice as if he had hit puberty. My first impression of him flew away. He indeed managed to come to the class even though he was struggling for his family livelihood. I could see how eager he was to learn. I reminded him that being punctual was a crucial ingredient to your success in life. From that moment on, Saw Htoo came to the class on time. Besides, Mu Mu also came out from her shell of shyness.
Months passed by.
There I was, standing and waiting the car in front of the main gate to go back home. Even though it was schoringly hot, all I could think about was my living and teaching experiences in the camp. Living with Pah Dee Moo’s family made me to realize how generous and hospitality they were even though they did not have much. They made me to realize that I did not need to have so many things in order to be generous. All I need was a genuineness and sincerity. They made me to realize that a person could not be judged from his physical appearance as Pah Dee Moo might look strenuous, but he was kind and genuine inside. His wife might had gone through a tough life, but she was still a warm person. On top of that, getting to know with Ah Tee made me to have positive attitude towards life regardless of any stormy moments. Again, teaching with 30 students, especially Saw Htoo and Mu Mu made me to realize that they were eager to learn even though the place where they were living may not be prosperous enough. All in all, those unique and priceless experiences that I got from living and teaching in Mae-La camp helped me find my path and became a catalyst to walk on my passion of becoming a teacher with a sincere heart and positive attitude to conquer any mountains of challenges.