Burma border trip

Evangelical Church of Bangkok [ECB] had May as missions month, and a team was sent to Mae Sot - a border town beside Myanmar [Burma]. The team with Nathan leading had 3 subteams: Construction, Compasio [orphans] and the Medical team.

Our activities included building a multi-purpose hall for the primary school for migrant [illegal] Burmese, giving free medical checkup and medicines, entertaining the orphans at Compasio with art crafts and face painting, feeding the Burmese beggars and street kids, singing at a funeral service... among others.

This trip humbled us and gave us the chance to plan for future projects to uplift the plight of the people who had no country that they could call their own, didn't have the full basic human rights and who still had to know about the guy who died on the cross so that they could share with his inheritance to the riches of the universe.

The pictures will show how we spent the two days there and how we wished we could stay longer.

Vans for the trip... this photo will show how dark and rainy that night was. Nathan our team leader set 7 pm as our ETD but we were only able to leave 2 hours later.

The mural comes to life! This orphan kid unconscious of the spectacle that he made, stares right into my camera lens as we drive past the school for Burmese migrants in Thai soil.

Compasio safehouse were Burmese orphans find refuge and love.

Nokia [girl] & Saja [boy] welcome us. The hair style is typical. It saves on shampoo and deters infestation by lice.

Leanne with a Compasio orphan. This Aussie is good at painting and she delighted the kids with bright face paints.

A multi-purpose shelter beside the primary school for Burmese migrant children. The building team was led by Ferdie a Filipino architect.

That's Ferdie putting on the roofing.

Noya with a rusty desk. this Thai lady didnt mind the grime and perfectly did the desk in an hour...

A days work and the building is almost done. The next day we had a party for the kids in this building.

I missed my granddaughter and had to have this photo taken. Isn't she adorable? and yet her existence is illegal on Thai and Burma soil... but not in heavenly palaces.

Karen mothers and kids wait while we set up clinic.

Becky applies anti-lice shampoo. This Korean, a member of my team was the official laboratory technician on site... tasting not testing was the norm and she chewed on the betel nut and puffed on the rolled leaves that the Burmese smoked. A printout of the results of her test will be shown in a few years.

Becky puffing hard

Janine annihilating the lice. This American member of my team doubled as a pseudo-pharmacist by repacking the medicines.

The shampoo

The addicting concoction. the black thing is a tobacco leaf soaked in honey, the cream to red chunks are betel nut, the white cream is lime paste and these are wrapped up in a leaf and kept in the molar recesses of the mouth and bitten every now and then to release a red juice. Almost all if not all legal aged Burmese have this perpetually in their mouth.

Deworming queue. Note the white powder on their faces. It is made from ground tamarind and limestone powder and serves as a sunblock.

Treating the Karen kids to ice cream after the deworming... is that allowed?

A macho patient with tattoos to ward off disease.

a close up of the tattoos. it didnt help him in anyway coz he had to come to me for treatment.

Street folk in their business address. They trek home to Burma in the afternoon, cross the river [border] and come the same way back to Mae Sot in Thailand in the morning to beg.Free lunch. We gathered them from all over Mae Sot on a vacant sidewalk by a Burmese restaurant and gave each one a sumptuous lunch. The sight was really heart-rendering and I wish I could feed them every meal.

A sigh of relief after the painful ordeal of washing and dressing the wound. The moment I turned my back this kid pulled out all the dressing.

Street urchins in paint

Leanne painting the kids faces

This kid couldnt get a clear view of the action.

Sunday morning worship on a dam. That's Bill reading the Bible. He's a USN Apache helicopter pilot stationed at the US embassy at BKK.

Very fine weather.. Hallelujah!

Karen students at the christian school

The old monk is the deceased pastor’s brother.

We were asked to sing in the funeral service of the pioneer/founder of the Burmese ministry in Mae Sot.

Compasio orphans had a special dinner on the night that we left. We had it at the best resto in Mae Sot.

Leanne making sure the sweet painted lady doesn't eat everything.

Janine feeding a Burmnese soldier

Group picture after dinner

Leanne and Becky with the Thailand-Myanmar Friendship bridge in the background. The river is called Moei and the Thailand half is already silted. Myawaddy, Myanmar is the town in the far end of the bridge.