Vaccinating kids in Burma

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We got back from the camping trip near the end of January, and as such, it was time for a trip into one of the Burmese border villages to administer vaccinations. Me, Matte and Mathijs got up at half 5 as requested, to discover everyone else in bed, apart from Dada 2 who was meditating, and therefore being generally uncommunicative. After about half an hour, Dada emerged and we started packing ice blocks into cool boxes to keep the vaccines cold enough for the entire trip. At around 8am (2 hours later than planned), me, Mathijs, Matte, the medic and 2 random Thai guys squeezed into a jeep more designed to look cool than be comfortable - someone had removed the seat cushions in the back and replaced them with speakers. In the end Mathijs had to sit in the front as he was too tall for the back, and one of the Thai guys went in the back with the vaccines.

It turned out that this month we were going to an IDP camp on the Burmese border, which is basically a refugee camp, but the people have been there for over 10 years, and they've put up proper houses and everything. The road to get there was incredibly bumpy as we were deliberately aiming to cross the border near to the IDP and far away from any official Myanmar border crossings. Half an hour in we came to the first checkpoint, and we all had to hide our cameras. The checkpoint was basically a hut at the side of the road, with a bamboo pole blocking the road. The medic showed the official a piece of paper about our vaccines, and he waved us through, not checking any ID or even glancing at us farang. Then we drove for another half hour through the jungle and over a very steep hill that we could just about drive up as someone had thoughtfully put 2 strips of concrete on one side to help grip. Luckily there was nothing coming the other way! Just when we thought the ride would never end, we arrived at the border crossing into Burma. This turned out to be much the same as the checkpoint, with me, Matte and Mathijs not even warranting a second glance from the official. Then we were through and the medic assured us that we had crossed a Mon border into Mon territory, and it was all completely legal. I think that the Myanmar soldiers may have seen it in a slightly different light, but luckily we didn't meet any of them!

The IDP camp turned out to be literally 3 minutes past the border crossing, and looked more like a small village than a refugee camp. There were lots of people living in bamboo houses, a few shops, a school and a hospital. We stopped at the latter, though if it weren't for the sign outside, I wouldn't have guessed what it was, as it looked like a big but slightly wonky version of the bamboo houses. We jumped out the jeep, glad to be off the road as the road through the village was not much better than the one through the jungle. Inside, the hospital wasn't much better. We threw a tarp down in the main room, and started unloading the vaccines and ice. Off the room we were in was a couple of private rooms, and down a creaky, slightly wobbly passage was a big ward, with lots of wooden slabs for patients. The medics' house was out the back, along with the toilet, which was severely lacking in water to wash your hands with. We started setting up the vaccination kit, and pretty soon the room was packed full of people waiting to get their kids vaccinated. Luckily Mathijs had thought to bring a bag full of paper and colouring crayons, and some puppets to keep them amused!

Whilst Mathijs was entertaining the kids, me and Matte got assigned to drug-duty; basically filling the empty syringe packets with drugs for the kids: de-worming tablets, paracetamol, about 8 vitamin A tablets which the nurse made the kids eat all at once, and multivitamins for the next month. The rest of the morning wasn't that exciting, but eventually we had used up all the medicines, and the kids had all received their respective vaccines (BCG, DTP and MMR). We headed up to a hut on the hill behind the hospital for lunch, and then chilled with one of the medics in the front of their accommodation. He told us all about the IDP, and how they still didn't have ownership rights of the land their houses and farms were on, despite having been there over 10 years. He also told us about Burma, and how it is split into sections depending on the tribe that owns the land. We were in the Mon section, which runs right down the East side, and the only reason we were able to get in was because the Mon have managed to mostly keep the Myanmar regime out of their territory so far. Then he offered us more of the stick-type thing called beetlenut that they all seem to chew here, but having found out that it's kindof like tobacco and addictive, we declined and went with the driver of the jeep to look around the village. Seeing as how we weren't technically meant to be there, we weren't allowed out the car, but he drove us down to the local school and back up the main street of shops and houses which was pretty interesting. Then we said goodbye to the Baan Dada medic who would come back the next day, and headed home as we had to be through all the checkpoints before dark.

The rest of the week was spent finishing the garden and pond. We filled the pond up with water by passing buckets along a chain made up of me, Pol, Sean, Mathijs, Matte, Michai and SoOng, from the tap to the pond, which led to the inevitable waterfight, and, rather frighteningly; Pol, Mathijs and Michai dancing topless to Kanye West in the concrete circles meant for the waterlilies. We've been watching How I Met Your Mother in the evenings, and playing a game called Machinarium, which is all handdrawn and pretty addictive. Also, the fun times of office work has unfortunately become quite demanding - to the point where a full clean out of the volunteer house was deemed a welcome break! I don't like to think about the amount of ants we kicked out, but at least it's clean now (just as I leave!).

On Thursday morning, me, Mathijs and Matte left at 7.30 for Kanchana, and M+M continued onto Bangkok where we will watch to kids perform, whilst I stayed in Kanchana to wait for the kids, who Dada swore would leave at 7am, and were still welding the truck back together at 12pm!

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Photos

Cleaning the pool so the fish don't die
Update: All the fish and the turtle have now died. We suspect Michai or the resident Werewolf