Gwen in Thailand

About 5.30 am I hear the sounding of chopping as one of the students starts splitting logs in order to get large pieces of kindling for lighting the little brazier. Another starts pounding chillis in a large mortar for breakfast. Groups of five take it in turns to cook each day. It is quite cool at night during this season and I throw on another of the thin cotton patchwork blankets. They are surprisingly heavy but poor at keeping the heat so I try to balance warmth versus weight. I think longingly of my lovely, light duvet at home. Before the sun has burnt off the morning mist, the students are already warming themselves around fires they have started under the coconut palms. I have the luxury of my own room and a rather hard mattress on the floor but they sleep on thin woven mats on wooden platforms, about 10 of them in together, each wrapped in a blanket. That probably does not encourage lying in. The smell of woodsmoke percolates through the shutters and I grab a few more minutes ...

  And so to a guest house in Mae Hong Son for one night. I am trying not to get overexcited at the thought of the luxuries that await- clean, white sheets, a bed, a shower with hot water, an ensuite bathroom, food that is neither rice nor fried.                                 Wats in Mae Hong Son Bu Reh’s friend arrives on his motorbike. He has Thai papers and so can take me to Mae Hong Son. First we go to his sister’s house so and  he can check with her where the guest house is. The sister speaks good English and this provides me with a timely opportunity to check out the situation regarding refugees and dentists.  One of my students Maw Prae Meh, has toothache.  A few days ago, one of her friends tells me ‘Teacher, Maw Prae no sleep. Tooth hurt.’ Maw Prae looks at me with large pain filled eyes while holding a hand to her jaw. ‘Let me look’ ...

The two cats, both skinny and more like overgrown kittens, are highly insulted that I am in their  room. Firstly, I am denying them their preferred route through my window on to the warm tin  roof for their daily nap and secondly, I am using their bed. Their two pronged attack has been  refined to the point that, when I open the door in the morning, one scoots through my legs in order  to vault through the window opening while the other dashes between the mattress on the floor and  the wall. Cue the sight of a demented woman d’un certain age entangled in mosquito net  attempting to evict an uncooperative cat, that then successfully bolts through aforesaid window.  I am not anti-cat per se, merely have fears, rational or otherwise, that they may have worms and  that one of them,  if not both, may be pregnant and may well be anticipating using my chamber for  the accouchement. Being midwife to a cat goes, I feel, well beyond my duties her...

  As we reach Mae Hong Son,     a series of sharp forested ridges emerge, disappearing into the horizon. We are flying over the southern edge of the Shan Hills that stretch from China, through northern Myanmar and into Thailand. The thickly forested steep sides tower over narrow valleys with the occasional glint of light or small patchwork of fields betraying a settlement. Coming in to land, the blue or ochre coloured tin roofs of the houses remind me of Myanmar. A young Thai woman is waiting at the airport to transport me in the family car to the Karenni Social Centre, my home for the next two months. Very chatty, with good English, she lives with her family in Ban Nai Soi , the nearest village to the Centre, about 30 minutes away. Mya is a primary school teacher and has Thai papers, thanks to being born in a Thai hospital whereas her parents, she says, are hill people and so do not have citizenship. This, she explains, is a significant problem for Karenni people such as...

 Hi folks Matt Hancock did it so why can’t I? I mean going to the jungle. Well, it’s one way of avoiding the North Yorkshire winter. There are key differences however. 1. Matt Hancock is male. I am female though my daughter says I have the dress sense of a donkey. 2. Matt Hancock is obnoxious. I hope I am not ...but people often lie 3. Matt Hancock had to do lots of horrible tests. I really hope I don’t have to but I do wish they had done really horrible things to him. Am I undermining 2? 5. Matt Hancock earned loads of money. I won’t. Nothing in fact. Where have I gone wrong? 6. Matt Hancock was/is a Tory. I am absolutely, definitely, without doubt not a Tory and if ever I say anything positive about Tories you will know I really and  finally have lost my mind.  That’s enough about him. It’s all about me now. Mae Hong Son, here I come.