Temporary blog pause

I'm going to Burma in a few hours, and have been quite busy lately, though I have many photos to post. I will be posting many, many photos after I return from Burma.

Posting will be paused from Jan 31 to Feb 24. I will also not be checking my email account during this time.

Spot the Problem

There's a dump here in Mae Sot and, like many dumps, it's dirty and it smells. Trucks deliver garbage, and a Hyundai excavator moves things around into very high mounds of trash. Here's a photo of the excavator at work:







The dump in Mae Sot, sadly similar to those in a number of other developing countries, is not only frequented by excavators and garbage trucks. In the uncropped version of this same photo, there's one clear problem. Can you see what it is?




*The photo above is downloadable at high resolution. Click the photo to view the high-res copy, and then right-click on that image and select "save image as" to save it to your computer. Free to keep on your computer, please request permission first if you'd like to use it for anything.*

Over 300 people live on the trash (many of their homes are literally sitting on top of refuse), earning money by picking out recyclable plastic to take to a recycling depot a ways away. They used to earn 5 baht per kilo brought in, but that's now down to 1 baht per kilo (that's CAD 3.6 cents per kilo or CAD 1.6 cents per pound). If you weigh 200 pounds, you'd need to carry your own body weight in recyclable plastic about a mile to earn CAD $3.20. Not the kind of work your average ten year old girl should be doing to help her family survive.

The people living at the dump are illegal migrants from Burma, a country where life is so difficult for them that they are willing to live (if you can call it that) on a garbage dump. They're not pitying themselves and crying, and they're not begging in the streets as some able-bodied people do here. They're working hard, for little pay.

There is no official funding to help pay for better food, warmer clothing (it's VERY cold here at night), better footwear, medicine for the common diseases (tuberculosis, worms, malaria, dengue fever, bronchial infections, etc). Publicity is hard, because too much attention causes the Thai government to periodically send in the police to clear all the people out, who then sneak back in a few days later, rather than try and help the people.

There is one kind man who has been going in multiple times a week for over a year now, doing his best to help the people with some of the worst problems they face. If you feel like donating a small amount of money for his efforts while I'm still in Mae Sot (until the end of this month), send me an email and let me know. There's no charitable donation receipt, so it's up to you if you want to trust me to receive the money from you and withdraw it from my Canadian bank account on this side, then tell you what it was used for.

A number of people are currently working together to try and find a durable solution to help the people on the dump relocate to a new home away from the garbage, earning money doing other things. This planning will take quite some time and is only really in its infancy, so at the moment there is still a significant need to help meet the basic daily needs of these people.

2 weeks in Vancouver - Assorted Photos

I flew into Vancouver December 17 to surprise my family and friends for Christmas, and this is what it looked like from the plane:




Waiting in the car for my sisters, this was what I was looking at:




I bought a shirt for $3 in Bangkok the day before flying out, and my friend Margarita Reyes decided it needed to be Christmassified, so she got out her red and white felt and made a Santa hat to pin on my shirt!




On one of my many walks in the snow, I took a few photos of art drawn in the snow on parked cars:






Waiting for two of many late buses, I took these shots:






I had two physiotherapy sessions while I was in town. My physio says that my knee is doing very well, and I've got some exercises to do to make it even better. This is the view from inside his office on Granville St, while warming up on the stationary bike:




We put up a tree and decorated it really quickly, but it looked really nice.




Mom carved the turkey on Christmas Day, having cooked it as well - it was delicious!




Every year on Boxing Day we have a big family get-together for my mom's side of the family. This year the snow was way too crazy so we held the party on the 28th instead. People:
















On New Year's Eve, I joined a whole bunch of great people to celebrate the end of a very long year. After gathering out at UBC, we went to the King's Head to dance and sing along to Monkeybar's terrific live act.




My friend Sarina even made a surprise guest appearance!




To add to the excitement, my high school English and English Literature teacher, Mrs Nannery, was partying with us! Margarita and Josephine were equally excited.




Stash got to sing along with Steve for a couple songs, which was great.




After the party ended, a group of us went to eat Phở at Kim Penh Xe Lua before we all headed home to bed.



On the night of the 2nd, out at UBC, a couple of raccoons weren't particularly afraid of me, though the snow got in the way of my cheap camera's flash.





On the 3rd I ran around town madly buying a few things and hanging out with some friends, then just after midnight I flew out of Vancouver. I landed back in Thailand on January 5th just before noon and the adventures continued...