Burma, Hospitals, and Hearing Aids

Top picture is Danny, a man of the Chin tribe of Burma that I met just after crossing the Thai border. He had been one of the boat-people, arrested in 1992 after crossing from Bangkok to New York in a cargo ship. he spent 6 months in prison in NY, an experience he says wasn't that bad - he was fed, he could drink as much milk as he wanted, and they gave him a chessboard and books to read. He spent a total of 5 years in the States, so he speaks very good English. he was helping me get the paperwork and transportation to Kentung, a village 3 hours from the Thai border, when we discovered that I had not requested the proper stamp from the Burmese police and was not allowed to leave Chatuliek. Being a border town not unlike Tijuana, Chatuliek is dusty, overpriced, crammed with market stalls selling Gucci and D&G rip-offs, and doezens of kids that keep pestering you to buy cigarettes. So I left after buying some very cheaply priced Australian wine for a friend in Bangkok.

The next photo is some of eth nusing and administratin staff at Mae Fa Luong Hospital at anotehr spot on the Thai-Burma border. I was there to gather some information about undocumented patients (who do not possess government ID and must therefore pay out of pocket for health care) as well as discern how they track health information - this is useful for my job with WHO.

Lastly is a picture of Jake and Tam, the people I'm working with at AFECT, with a few Akha children. We were in thsi village to ask about health care and how peopel went about accessing it, and it is here that I met a woman who is very hard of hearing. She had just the day before been chased by the police because she could not hear them approaching. So for the past coupel of days I have been writing letters to hearing aid companies for donations.