High in the hills in the North of Thailand, only a few miles from the Burmese border are the refugees - hill tribe people Shan, Lahu and many others - who have manag ed to escape from Burma (Myanmar). I met them in late February when I spent a week at the Seven Fountains Spirituality Centre in Chiangmai, North Thailand on my way for a short sabbatical and to see my sister in Australia. Chiangmai itself I enjoy ed , with its beautiful temples or ‘wats,' as they are known, the saffron-rob ed Buddhist monks, and its busy shopping malls. But it was the two visits to the refugees that really stick in my memory and which made a lasting impression on me.
I was driven up there in a 4-wheel drive vehicle by three young men working for the Jesuit Refugee Service. Before setting out we stock ed with numerous items from a local supermarket. Before long we had left the main road and start ed climbing over the first range of mountains with numerous one-in-four hairpin bends. Our first stop was a makeshift camp where members of the Shan hill-tribe liv ed . The basic unit was a long wooden platform with a cover over it; about five families would live on each platform separat ed from their neighbours by a sheet. I was escort ed around by a young Shan man speaking fluent English. We then drove to a school for refugee children with its own nursery set up in a Buddhist temple. The day end ed with a visit to an elderly Shan women who provide accommodation and further ed ucation for orphan girls and boys.
The next day we pil ed ten 50kg sacks of rice on the back of the truck and drove up into the mountains, but to a different area. Here we came to a village of small individual dwellings, inhabit ed by the Shan and Lahu people. From there we went to a small temple where, in its grounds, a Buddhist monk looks after orphan boys and girls. The children were returning from school and some agre ed to have their photographs taken.
A few days later I left Chiangmai for Australia. From my meeting with these lovely people I was struck by their terrible situation, but also by their unfailing courtesy. Finally I was deeply impress ed by the sterling work done by the JRS.