Teaching OT in faraway places

I must have had a reverse “senior moment”, I remember writing a post about the Burmese Evening at BCNZ put on by the West Auckland Burmese community, with Burmese food and dancing and songs from Karen, Chin and Kachin groups, but when Miriam sent me a notice about it, I can’t find the post anywhere So, here, belatedly, is a link to the invitation, and extracts of the details, it is:

• organised by the Burmese Christian Fellowship,
• on Sunday July 20th from 5pm till 7pm
• $25 per person includes food, entertainment and donation to Cyclone Nargis relief (organised informally through contacts on the spot)
• at Bible College of New Zealand (if it has not changed its name by then 221 Lincoln Rd, Henderson, traffic light entrance opposite Pak N Save, “entrance through the muli-storey brick building at the end of the drive”
• please pay in advance to:
  • Adrienne Coats 837 1507
  • Paul Long 818 3874
  • Khun Aung 630 8975
  • David Thorpe 826 0864

If anyone needs lift from over our way please contact me!

There are two new posts on the Partners blog, both muse on different aspects of providing assistance to cyclone victims. Kath (in the context of underlining how the presence of foreigners can help) tells a heartbreaking story:

What difference could one person like me make? One distraught woman, of a similar age to me, shared how she had heard her mother calling for help from the rice field but both her and her husband were carrying two of their children each trying to keep all heads above the rising water
and were unable to go to her aid. This family lost their home and all of their belongings but fortunately all of their children miraculously survived. However now they are grieving the loss of their mother and grandmother. Who else around her had the strength to listen to her tell
her story over again as if it was the first time, when everyone else had their own tragic story? Instead God supplied the ears of an Australian. I offered reassurance that she had made the right choice as a mother, a gentle squeeze of the hand and a prayer of blessing over their new home and her family. I attempted to instill hope that many on the other side of the world are being moved into action to pray, to give, and to be a voice for the suffering people of Burma.

While Ruth herself, in a longer post mentions the necessarily unsung heros:

those working in Burma, of aid getting through to the survivors despite all the obstacles, and of the brave local community leaders who have been delivering the aid despite the threat of imprisonment or even death at the hand of the military regime.

We may not hear their stories, we certainly won’t know their names, but we should pray for these people, their love and determination in the face of a cruel and powerful “government” is making all the difference in a disaster that has hit the delta region worse than the tsunami did.

It is a simple story, simply told. There is no bloodshed, little horrific violence (and that only mentioned quietly and simply), yet it is powerful. It is told by someone called “May” she seems to suffer from bi-polar disorder (if I understood my quick glance at the rest of her blog rightly) and she tells Thay Htoo’s story, with empathy. Read it. The saddest thing is that it is not really an unusual story.

The Irrawaddy and the Bangkok Post report fighting between the KNLA and the Myanmar Army (as well as their puppet DKBA forces) near Pho Phra. About 200 Karen villagers have taken refuge on the Thai side of the border. The Thai army has sent troops from Mae Sot some 40Kms (25 miles) to the north. It is therefore unlikely that the village will be directly affected, though there are likely to be even more IDP children needing care and education.

The Irrawaddy’s report begins like this:

The Thai army has sent in soldiers from its Mae Sot-based 4th Infantry division to secure its border, while fighting between the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and its breakaway group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) continued near Pob Phra District in Thailand’s Tak Province, according to sources in the area.

The headman of the village of Phadee in Pob Phra District told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the Thai authorities had evacuated more than 200 villagers to Roumthaipattana 8 Village until the fighting finishes.

Meanwhile, about 200 Karen villagers from Burma fled to the Thai side of the border and are currently taking refuge at the local school in Phadee, said sources.

Col Apichet Suesat, commander of the 4th Infantry division, an arm of the Naresuan Task Force, has ordered his troops to protect the villagers and defend any armed groups that flee to Thai territory, according to a report on Thai news website INN on Tuesday.

Please pray both for the general situation and for our friends in the village.

Meanwhile in less extreme news: We have just received Pastor Peacefully’s documents to apply to enrol him in a Carey distance course next semester.

If you can bear it, read one man’s account of cyclone Nargis. Great tragedies are composed of many many stories like this one. But in some ways the saddest thing is that out of his suffering the military will gain.

Thbe Burmese Christian Community in West Auckland are putting on a cultural evening and food. Karen, Chin and Kachin groups are involved this is a great chance to hear their singing, see their dances and taste their food. The evening costs $25 and all profits will go to small-scale local cyclone relief:

Sunday 20th July, 5PM to 7PM
Bible College of NZ
221 Lincoln Road
Henderson (traffic light entrance opposite Pak N Save - entrance to dinner through multi-storey carpark building at the end of the drive).

Please reply to:
Adrienne Coats 837 1507
Khun Aung 630 8975
and if possible arrange to pay in advance!

If you can bear it, watch the ITN report from Mae Sot on the Myanmar military dictators and aid to the cyclone victims. The video: Myanmar’s cyclone refugees is available from the CNN site.

It is so sad. I hope it makes you angry too.

I’ve found a new toy for converting photos to video clips (Animoto) it is fairly easy to use, and produces surprisingly good results. Here’s my first attempt, to explain why the school matters, and why helping them finish the roof for the boys’ dorm matters:

Though I had to jump through hoops to get it onto WordPress, it would have been easy on a Blogger blog - it just goes to show you can’t win (or loose) all the time

Everyone gets stuck in building the new dorm

Stu (of Partners) has been at PhoPra helping with the start of work on the dorm. He sent some pictures, and news of the project. First the corrections and apologies: the roof was not needed to replace the roof on the existing dorm, rather work could not start on the new dorm till there was money to put the roof on (otherwise in the rainy season the work and materials risk getting spoilt while waiting for money for the roof.
One of the old dorms is seen in the background
What you see in these pictures is work starting on the brand new solid, dry dorm. The pictures also give a good idea of the communal nature of such a building project among the Karen.

At the builders’ merchant

So, the money we raised won’t after all be used to replace an old leaf roof, but rather to enable work to be started (and almost finished - just another $1,500 needed from somewhere [a topic for prayer there?])

Pastor Peacefully

Here (on the left) is pastor Peacefully of the Bethel Baptist Church and some of the team. On the right an artistic shot of some cinder blocks shows the hills of Burma in the background.

Cinder blocks and the Karen hills

These are the hills that the families of the village and the children in the school have been chased from by the soldiers of the Myanmar military dictators.

Stu writes of one lad (in the photo on the right) who became special for him.

Last month his home was burnt to the ground by Burma Army. He just came to the Poppra School. I sat him on my knee and had a translator. “Are you afraid”, I asked “Yes” he said. “What of” I asked. “Of the fire” he replied. I then spent the next half hour explaining how Jesus could help him when he was afraid. I told him to call them name Jesus when he saw the flames in his mind. It was the first time he had ever heard of Jesus, he is from a Buddhist family. The little boy was never further than about 10 metres away from me for the next 3 days. I called him “My little shadow”.

There are seventy boys currently in the existing dorm (left).

So, to all of you who helped by contributing to the Party with a Purpose - THANK YOU!

The NY Times has a report “Weeks After Cyclone in Myanmar, Even Farmers Wait for Food” in case you do not have time to read it here are a few extracts:

Few of those who wait say they have received anything from the government, other than threats.

“They said if we don’t break our huts and disappear, they will shoot us,” one man in the village of Thee Kone said over the weekend before a police jeep approached. “But as you can see, it’s raining now. We are pleading to the police to give us one more day and we will be gone far, far from the road, as they wish.”

Or again:

Villagers in the region, which previously provided much of the rice for the country of 48 million, now squat along miles of roads, holding out bowls to the occasional passing cars bringing food and other supplies. Children keep a vigil, rushing to the vehicles for handouts, sometimes thrusting their arms inside the cars’ windows.

“I don’t know how the government is helping us,” said [... in ...], a delta town 30 miles south of Yangon, Myanmar’s main city. He said the only aid he had seen was delivered by other Burmese citizens.

“I am no beggar, so I didn’t eat anything in the past two days,” he said, leaning against a roadside palm tree. “Besides, you shouldn’t compete with kids for begged food.”

If you can bear pictures Mizzima has lots.

The party on Sunday went pretty well, people all seemed to enjoy Nathan and Tommy’s Karen-style food (it does help having professional chefs - thank you guys!). We raised over $2000 on the night which with some late arrivals is now up to about $2,500. The money is going towards a new roof for the girls dormitory at the school for IDP children in the village that lives in Thailand on rented land. The location means it is safe from the Myanmar Government army, and (since it is right on the border) accessible to the children of IDPs in Burma and people in the refugee camps.

However, the location also means that it gets no official support. It exists on what the village can supply together with help from a couple of charities. The Body Shop (Children on the Edge) provides rice for everyday, veges twice a week, fish paste or beans also twice a week, and meat about once a month. At least that was the case when we were there, rising food prices may have shrunk what they can buy Another group was helping with permanent buildings.

They have pulled back (at least at present) leaving the school with an urgent need to replace the roof on the girls dormitory. The leaf roofs only last two years and this one is overdue for replacement. The rains have started - remember the cyclone that passed through Burma?

The church needs about NZ$4,000 to finish the roof. We have collected NZ$2,500… If anyone who hasn’t contributed would like to please transfer the money to:

Partners Relief and Development at Westpac Bank (Upper Hutt branch) 03 0774 0598181 000 and label the gift “Phopra Dorm”.

Canadians wishing to obtain a receipt for tax purposes should make donations at the Partners Canada website. www.partnersworld.ca

Americans wishing to obtain a receipt for tax purposes should make donations at the Partners USA website. www.partnersworld.org

Norwegians can find the information needed to make donations in Norway at: www.partnersnorge.no

Australians can find the information needed to make donations in Australia at: www.partnersworld.org.au

UK Residents can find the information needed to make donations in the UK at: www.partnersworld.org.uk

PS: I promise this blog will not become a series of requests for money - but this need is urgent, and if you have been reading the posts you probably understand why I’d really love to help get this done

We still have lots more video and photos to post, and I still have not written anything like all the reflection pieces I hope to about our experiences!