ࡱ> 3 jbjb^^ h<h<lLLLL44448l|4t8(,(TTT3331333333,  f_3/333_-LLTT(---3 L8TT1-rLLLL31-|-VT  ,T44- tt 2!-2!-Chapter 5: School The first focus of my work with the Akha beyond medicine was the language, to make it accessible for the children. This became a very long project, of many years. For the first years I tried to combine the effort with a school for the local street children. The expenses were high and in those days I did not have the moneys to support such work properly but a couple schools I did run. Running an Akha School Operating an Akha school started in Maesai and was only something that I could do when I got a chunk of money and the money lasted for enough time. When the money really dried up and I had sold nearly everything that I had, then I had to close it again till I could re-open it. The school also depended on the need of the children at the time, and in this case it was the street Akha beggar children of Maesai. Being able to run a school for them for half a day and then they left again appeared to be the ideal situation for including some learning and stability in their lives, which they did not regularly get. In later years I began to operate a school in the Akha Villages, it started with a night school but the need for a full time school was quite obvious. Later, Pah Nmm Akha was the first village to seriously request an Akha school in addition to Cheh Pah Akha. And it is always easier to start and run something when it is the village's idea than when it is a suggested idea from myself as in the "outside". Teachers Cooks Cleaning Police Traditions languages math Neighborhood attitudes Ah Gaw teaches the night school Schools that are not connected to the reality to the Akha, a vision for the future, and their daily needs. Problems of Running an Akha School fights strangers Lack of resources Food supply Clean up crew Teachers The School 27 and more kids in the school Moving well Not easy for me to control it all in a foreign language. But definitely a force to be dealt with Nick the Kiwi comes in to use the phone but sometimes it is a real bother. He doesnt appear to make note of it. But we got it straightened out. Been so long since I took time to write or get any peace to do so, so I left the school and came down to the old guest house where I can sit peacefrully this evening and do so. Aug 97 The school Ah Nyu, who first spoke english here and used to help me with medicine. She has become the secret mistress of a Thai. That didnt last long and she was a slave to prostitution after that. Her dad went to prison for selling opium. The money goes to her mom who is loud mouthed and shiftless. There is a moral crisis in this region of the world in that everything seems a sell out. I have had to completely revamp my work after Andy McGrath got done with this whole thing. Oh well, it can be laughable at times. School I had spent huge energy building up the school and Andy tearing it down that now I was on a deep energy downturn. Conscious of it I was trying to recharge. To find back some joy. It had been a very negative thing, seperating between friends. Broke In Maesai I am in Maesai and quite alone. There is no business left and the expenses, although meager, keep rolling on. I live on just about nothing. My main worries and concerns are with the rent, paying the help, being able to renew my visa and keeping the kids fed while improving the school for them. The girlfriends are not around for the moment, probably noting the abcense of money. But I am learning to view it as a challenge and am being forced to dig deep into what ever skills I can dig up and work on until I have something that I can sell for money. Girls Come To Learn To Write Akha After I kicked the cook out then I started bringing two girls from the village to work with Moodzer and learn to read and write Akha. Compared to the cooks kids, they were enthusiastic and worked hard. Big change. They made progress quickly and they were sort of welded to the book project as we were wrapping it up now and I was able to adjust the design of the book by seeing what was working for them. The workbook and reader section definitely needed more pictures, the workbook section especially, things to make it intersting. History of the school six years working with the Akha Years of work developing literacy materials from the language . Previous school ran 2 months in 1994. Las school ran about five months. Wont run any more for a while. School was staffed and operated based on principles and experiences, relationships to the people over the last six years. Currently there are 50 plus students in the school with expectation of 100 within two months but not room for more than about fifty. In the future it is expected that the need for these style schools could be duplicated. Running a School I set up a school. I didnt have enough funding so I must close it. I spent a lot of money on that and the teacher Cheri was very good. I was glad to have her work for me even if she did make a few mistakes. I found I had no private life. Soon I had no money either. Then I didnt have the money to buy enough supplies and materials, and decorations to give each child their sense of having some part that was theirs, that was secure. Life for these bridge children was not secure very often and so anything helped. But no one came with funding and the children went away. Money does not come of empty promises which was most all of what I got from westerners. The other Akha found fault because I was not helping them and the non Akha found fault because I wasnt helping their people. I got tired of all those who knew better but hadnt a dime themselves. I tried to do many things to raise money and restart the school but I was unable. So finally I gave up and moved back into the guest house. I gave up on a lot of things. The guy Who came to the school and then died of aids the hospital night angel in maesai, dont do me that kind of favor The Burmese guys said he went through a lot of girls because he had money but in the end it killed him. He was afraid to go to the Maesai hospital. He said the nurses would give him an injection in the night, they called her the night angel. He curled up in a ball on the floor of the school. Nearly thirty. I had known him for five years. He had bumps on his face, looked really scared, was curled up of the pain of fear. He asked me if I had any medicine that would help. I had none. Finally he went home to Burma and his friends cared for him until he died. It was very sad to see a friend that way. The bees The bees got in my hair. I shed numerous of the one inch long black and orange bastards while they stung my head all up. And then I shed my hair at the barber. Oven Andy was gone, he gave the oven to Charlie, the building was more empty than it had been and life went on. Progress that had been made was lost but much learned as well. Charlie came over and asked me to teach him how to gas the oven which I did but also wanted me to teach him how to bake which I did not. He had the oven and all the gear and supplies crowded into a very small place and was trying to get started. I felt sorry for him even though I didnt like him that much, but learning to bake takes time, I didnt have enough and you cant do it one day. He seemed completely to not notice that the oven had been for the kids. As the years went by I rebuilt, my tiny help growing to where it was helping so many more people. Mothers, Babies and Quick Death Now many Akha women stop with their babies and kids. Some live, some die. It is all very sad. The ones who live seem only to live so they can die later, not so much later even. The old woman Aug 22, 1997 The passing old woman This was a town of passing souls. If you got to know anyone, someone was going to die. Too common it seemed. the old Akha woman with the cane, heck she had bad hearing, I thought in terms of how unfortunate that was. But she didnt mind because she was busy dying. letting the life meat and juice be sucked out of her by Augusts relentless heat, rain and humidity. I bought her coke and rice, willing to answer any request of one in the dying business. She had two kids, one dead and one gone south and a small girl she wanted me to have. I dont know what came of her. Theyd put her in a grave if she was lucky, burnt her if not. God grasps the hands of people like her. She was nothing but did she look forward to passing on, not at all, but solidly held on to the arm of her husband. Id been surprised if she wasnt more than forty plus a little. Her face in a grimmace, the flesh wasted away as if by radiation. It was all I could do to eat right and hang on just to witness it. How different to actually be able to do anything about it. To have been able to offer her hospice care, but these people go till they die. I remembered her for the goodies she bought for the kids at the school, the widows mite if you will. In her yellow dress, cane, ragged hair and beetle nut stained teeth. I never saw her after that or where her daughter went to. There is much to children having to go with just who ever will take them or can feed them. Many poor Akha ending up as servants in houses this way for Thai people, the connections to their family totally lost, not even knowing who they are or from where they have come. Amurh and her ill mother at school Ah Murh's mother died slowly. She came to the school for help and a little food which I gave her and she rested on a mat on the floor upstairs. Ah Murh came by, young and beautiful and full of life and rude to her dying mother. Dirty, thin, withered, lying there on my floor. I bought what I could for her to eat and drink, the small things she asked for. She went home and died in a couple of days on the Burma side. That was all. Later Ah Murh, maybe a year later, came and told me how sorry she was for being cruel to her mother, that she was young, that she didn't know, that the other girls trouncing about made her think she was young and wise, when she was young and foolish and now sad, cause her mother was gone for good. Meeh Sheh Worked for me at school house, from Agaw. She painted pictures for the walls of water colors and paper. Boney Hid all the stuff when I didn't come back on time. I came in the house and all was empty. Then I thought much had been stolen, but no, she was scared of theives so she wrapped all I had that looked of any value in newspaper and hid it behind boxes. I never saw her again. Snake dies in house Always slept in toilet tank, maid was scared. It was a big snake. I think they injured it when they caught it before I rescued it. It just up and died out in the middle of the floor, a Burmese Python, surely three meters long and big around. Store onwner Who was my landlord was skimming the rent, when the landlord died he dropped doing this and my rent went way down. My landlord, stainless gun, dead Always wore it in his belt, drove a little honda car. They said he ran into a tree, but he was killed up in Burma moving drugs, running from the competition. Course I didn't know much about all this at that time. Even though I lived fifty meters away, Burma was a long ways away, a mystery land, trapped in time. The cop visits Yeah, all the kids went running and I came to see what the fuss was and it was a cop. He didn't know what to make of it. He knew me, and could see it was a school. So the teacher told all the kids not to make any trouble for him out on the street with their begging. Sell fax machine Sold my fax machine I brought from the US to the guy who ran the air conditioning shop there at the mini mart on Sailom Joi. Needed the bucks for the school, in those days there weren't many fax machines in town, and now no body wants them. The car barn next to my place and all the gamblers and the thai woman cop who speaks burmese Yeah, that place was behind the first school, the Thai woman cop, everyone went there to gamble. A big empty building right on the river back in the days when everyone was going to make it rich in the black car market, shipping them to Burma. But then it was empty, those days fast over. So they set up a gambling den instead. This went on for months, a cop standing gaurd out front. Baking oven Rented the first one from Mr. Boom. Wonder if he was the owner of Boom shortime hotel, since it was across the road from his house. He was a quiet man with glasses. Some said Lisaw. I didn't know, he was a member at the church, but stern or untrusting I think one could say. We didn't talk after the hill tirbe disputes began. Meeh Daw And the five baht change she didnt get back, foreigners have lots of money the woman said, buying some bread with it. She bought something from one woman, but the woman knew she worked for me and said it that way. Chicken pie A favorite, top north woman likes, seven eleven woman likes Pharmacy likes the apple pies instead. Sappeeh tauh July 6, 95 Maesai Spicy dinner. Spicy breakfast, rice, greens, meat, bamboo shoots, fish , salted, tea. Sah peeh tauh, an excellent hammered Akha chilli dish for adding to your food. Salt, lime, garlic, gingertop and right good chillis. After a feed I always feel better. These years here a feed I never took for granted. Running Children One time I heard some man yelling outside of my house. When I came to see I saw a tourist policeman turning his motorcycle around and going away. I knew him and from that context was able to surmise that he had been chasing children. After he left I went out and looked especially down near the river. Sure enough there were two children panting and out of breath from runnning so fast to get away. Between the two building there was a car where the policemans motorcycle couldnt go but beyond that there was only the river against the buidings and still quite powerful and deep at this time of year. There was no where else to go except into the water, and I think the children one severn and one ten would have jumped in the river and tried to get away had he come further. Prasit. Koomyo, ow-ow work for me Two Burmese boys came and worked for me until their uncle was able to come and get them. They had no place to stay. Cheri I have a maid now called Cheri. She is the daughter of Sahoo. He is the village headman of Mallegipo Akha village in Burma some 15 miles. He is also the head of the Baptist Society in Burma this district or state. Cherry cleaned up all the mud stains on the walls, and once that was done has taken up as teacher for the kids. I feed them a meal when they come so I hope that it catches on and keeps her busy, because with her limited english and my limited Akha it is boring as she put it to Twammy, her friend from Maesai Plaza Guest House where I stayed for two years. Slowly the kids are catching on. Andy cashes them all out And looses just about everyone as friends Toma worked for Dep as an intern, rich, spoiled japanese girl with a real self righteous attitude She was a girlfriend to Ah May from San Mah Keeh Mai Begging The Story of Ah Dteeh Semi - Daily notes of events here in Maesai. Topic: Recovering a malnurished child, whose parents died, and a blind man was using him for a beggar. I get no less than great delight in relaying to you the following tale. Because Ah Dteeh once lived at our school but the blind man stole him away about a month ago and he is half as big now a month later. As follows. This morning the woman married to the blind man came and told me that she had left him and that she was very concerned for the health of Ah Dtee, that he might die. I went over onto the Burma side and went to the far end of the road and up one hill in a very dirty opium village and there I found our poor Ah Dtee starved down to far less than a dying monkey. I asked them to give him to me but in stout pig headed fashion they would not, so I told them I would go get the police, not knowing if I really could or if they would even help. But I found the one long haired Burmese man who was my friend and he helped explain it to one officer with a photo that I had of Ah Dtee near the railing upstairs. (He looks nothing like that now.) The officer understood full well, and to those who bad mouth Burma they should take note. He went with me to the village, and the hut was locked and abandoned. He knew more than I so he went behind and there in a hut one old woman was busy dying for too much opium and lack of what she should have been doing like eating. Weepingly she begged me not to let her die. I told her she had to be willing to get up and go to Maesai where I could help her. The policeman asked where Ah Dtee had gone to? He asked the man get out and show him which he did. We found Ah Dtee, a bunch of scoffing Akhas sitting around laughing and saying they werent going to let him go with me. Ah Dtee sat squatted there wisely on his haunches. The policeman changed all that, told them they could all go take a hike and I picked Ah Dtee up and carried him down the hill. The policeman took me to a Government office, I registered my Maesai name and address for where I was taking him, went to Immigration andregistered there again, where they were all more than appreciative and kind and then I took him back to our school where Meeh Daw began plying him with food and icecream. He is about half his weight from before, but ours once again, and if you ever have any doubts about what can be helped or accomplish here just come and see for yourself. Volunteer. On another note, the bridge scene appears to have deteriorated with the increasing heat to a very highly organized mafia of sorts. Yesterday three or more girls ganged up on one girl and proceeded to beat and strangle her over a money dispute of some trifling baht. Two of those involved really surprised me as they were well behaved students at our school briefly in the past. One smaller girl was the ringleader, egging the bigger girls on like a small yapping terrier. I drug the girls apart, got the one free, her face styfled and red, and then they turned on me but I was rescued by one Thai man and one man who rushed over from Customs and shooed them all home. The bigger girls all hurling abuses from the bridge for interupting the throttling of the other girl. The whole village is down there. All these kids come to get quick money for their parents opium habits and it brings out the worst in human character. Today we got some sort of happy official visit from an Akha and some Thai government people. They were very glad to see what was happening and took photos and the grand tour, posing with all the children. Since I wasnt there (over getting Ah Dtee) they said they would come back tomorrow. Apparently they wanted to help me get registered. Because of our past experience I was very concerned, but the girls assured me that they got nothing but a good feeling from the people. Then as I typed this the bloke of a blind man showed up with the little sister and the opium wench to get back Ah Dtee for the purpose of begging, wether he died or not, so I promptly summoned the Maesai Police who showed up enmasse and asked him to leave. The little boy and his sister had no father or mother and this blind man had somehow seized upon them to guide him for begging and fed the little boy nothing it would seem. We confirmed this from numerous neighbors. Ah Dteeh Dies Skin Itch 1997 When Andy established his policy of doling out money daily to the kids without thought for the context of this it started a rotation of the children away from the school and my work with them for many years towards his own sugar daddy routine. I felt at the time that this sent the wrong message to many of the kids, that there would be favorites, and that some of the kids would only be loosers in the end. The kids did rotate toward Andy, I moved to another building and Ah Dteeh, the small tiny boy from Burma, decided not to stay with me and the cook but move back to the village and think in terms of Andy. Health care quality is very poor in this region of maesai be it the clinics or hospital, that I can understand how none of these people want to touch anothers disease or even come close to it. They risk contracting even a simple illness which can lead to weakness and death under these conditions. Maybe us foreigners can afford bigger risks, maybe not. The case of Ah Dteeh was an example, no one wanting their young ones to contract his scabie infestation. This was after Ah Dteeh left and when he got too ill they took him to the Maesai hospital where he died of chronic runs and wasting. A Chinese charity accepted his body for burial. He was first to contact me for help and I had asked the Burmese police to let him stay with me. I had many photos of him and got him back in health, and his uncle agreed finally to let him stay there at the school, but the dole of money caused him to think that money could replace care and work at providing for him, people's time. Andy had money but not time. But after leaving the guest house where I now cared for him, he headed back to the other side to see Andy and get what he could. But he was soon roming and I saw him with his older sister going through the mud and trash under the bridge. I look back at it and think that I should not have given in to his sentiment to leave, but encouraged him to stay, but I was tired of all the abuse from a bunch of kids who thought they had it better elsewhere. I knew what the consequences would be. To each his own. Ah Dteeh left. And then when Andy wasn't there for him, he died. You can't have it both ways. Many of the girls who wanted all the attention and money, took as much as they could, and then when they had worn out their welcome, they too were out in the cold and many of them became hookers. I didn't see them any more after years, they dispersed, for a long time across from the Wang Thong Hotel in the massage house but then gone. My point to Andy was that you don't give people money you give them care and then you make them do something to show that they are willing to invest in their own future as well. Without this it is useless. Ah Dteeh Dies. Andy was a gentleman who came to Maesai and wanted to help with my idea for a school. I ran everything long term, and when I got money I pumped it into setting the foundation. The agreement was that I would get help for the first year and then become independent of any funding. But Andy felt that it was good to give out small moneys and I disagreed with him on this. I felt that in such poverty situation, it was best to provide for people long term stable resources rather than easy money on demand. As it was the women were feeding the children breakfast when they came. They took writing classes till noon, and then ate again all they could and went home or onto the streets to beg for a few hours. Various children spent their time being cute for Andy so they could go to the market and buy something, which was disruptive to all the children who were embarassed to be in the game. The workers resented this also and so I was caught from both sides. I felt in time that it would undo much effort that I had invested. At any rate, I could not operate that way and so parted company and went back to the guest house. Everything was sold, was soon dispersed to here and there. The kids thought that Andy always had money, and had no more time for me. I suppose on one level I could say it hurt, but as well, there was no long term care for the kids, none of the cycles were broken, and most of the girls still went on into prostitution anyway. Course no one ever asked me what I was doing or how I was going to go about it. I had a long term investment in the children's lives, I was there every day and I was trying to build something up for them. But since money was king, there was no longer reward in trying to be of help. Neither was there any sense in trying to build anything for them in the way of schooling only to hear on a daily basis "Andy, he's got money, the other guy has none." The girls who were best at winning favor abused the other children, striking them and telling them to go away, that this was their "hoard". And so it was. Most of them work in the sex house across from the Wang Tong now. Naturally if money was the measure of my work or the measure of anything, I wouldn't have been here. Andy came back every month or so. There was a clamor while he was here, passing whatever out, and then it was back to begging or prostitution. I couldn't figure how it penciled over the long term except for the favored kids. Ah Dteeh was staying at the building at the time, didn't want to come with me, since I "had no money" so he went home. I saw him under the bridge one day, on the other side, mucking around in the dirt with his sister. Back right where he started, two months later he was dead. At any rate, since Andy now owned the bridge, and I didn't need abuse from kids I had helped and kept alive for years, just because I wasn't awash in cash, I made my way off to work in the mountains, maybe my passing wasn't even noticed. May 30, 1997 The School and Work Every day here is busy. Not just busy but so many different tasks to tend to and mostly in foreign language. People coming in and out. Bills to pay for the school, money to find. Today I got Andy Harris's $100. Then off to buy rice and art supplies for the kids. New canvasses. Carried in one hand on motorbike back from Chi. Rai, a full hour like that. Also bought some more paints, and some linseed oil. Stopped at Afect, Dapa and computer store as well. Stopped at Italian restaurant only to be shocked to find out that Gabriel had died. No one seemed to care, the cooks stole the restaurant from his Lahu wife, the man from Eden House took all his apartment furnishings it is said and his wife hung herself. She had no ID card and Gabriel didn't think of this. Ah Gah from Pah Meeh Akha called. He wanted me to testify in court for his brother about the shooting on the ridge road near Bala Akha where the police man was killed and the other one hurt. I passed. Asaw Nimit stopped by. He always wanted to shop lift something. Meeh Daw went out to buy more rice. I hung paintins that Ah Meeh and the others did up on the walls. Gas for the motorbike. Stopped by Martin and Gois. He later gets deported who knows why. Nick the Kiwi comes by. Ah Dteeh is getting better. Blane Jackman is coming in from the states. His first trip. Took Ah Dteeh for a ride, bought computer paper and some kitchen gear. And this was a slow day. Plus all the computer and email time. May 31, 1997 Blane came today. Brought most of my writing, most of my language work, a gps that didn't work, spurs, roper's lasso, food items, candy, and good cheer. Blane was a great guy. Good to have him here. We went together into Burma to Pah Laen Akha where the Akha guy who looked like Clint Eastwood from Nimit's villag lived. We stopped by world vision in Burma to fix their computer. A Sunday in June Maesai 1997 Getting some rest today. Always getting pushed by needs of others be it as individuals or as the schoool and the work to run it. So nice to have a day off. Then on Thursday Andy went with me to Chiangmai where we bought bakery gear, I used it one day, he got disappointed and we both quit. That was that. No more school, no more of it, and I moved back to the guest house done with competing with the kids for Andy and his money. July 97 Andy is gone I walk down to the house to settle my thoughts and write at one of the wooden tables in the wooden deck of the guest house, back here after the closing of the school. Meeh Daw and Ah Dteeh came with me but then Ah Dteeh went home and died a little while later. Two kids came by, Meeh Daw put a dressing on a Lahu Kid's head and I pulled stitches out of the head of another, odd. Now Blane is seeing the reality of the work here. No phones, no money. We finished the school teaching for one month in the empty building of the landlord's across the street from the guest house. I asked Blane what he thought and he said he could see how hard it was. It was easy to complain in this job, you had to be clever, not talk too much about it and keep your faith and hopefullness. The city was about to put concrete on the road here of Sailom Joi now. I thought of work ideas. Zera could work with me but he didn't and never had time to listen. I always felt like he was running a scam because he couldn't agree to work on one thing together. I got some donation and helped by two Akha women carts. They paid back half but hit on hard times so I forgave the rest. They sold mangoes from the carts and I saw those carts for many years helping their lives and they always gave me fruit and thanked me. I think now as I look back on it those carts were a good deal, but have them pay it all back, but still a good deal if you ask me. When I decided to drop the rest of what they had to pay back, only cost, Meeh Daw was not happy, like it was skin off her nose. July 24, 1997 School Moves to new building The kids were back in the school in the new building, for the rest of the time before their school started on the burma side again. Aug. 97 Blane has gone back. He was a great help and great company though it took a lot of energy to explain a lot of things to him and some he could not cope with but he was a good guy. A good hearted patient person. Akha Publications Mooh Dzurh Akha comics the Akha Calendar beauty queens The Gang of Six The Cook Meeh jooh and ahmeeh took computer classes, didn't want any more Meeh Daw Dec 1998 A tragic figure, Meeh Daw farms her kids out to be prostitutes. Meeh Juuh goes to a burmese Karaoke first and then on the Thai side to the Wang Thong Hotel Massage. It takes a willing parent. She did it of anger and stubborness. Rather than have her kids learn more in school. The Case of Meeh Daw I think that my cook, Meeh Daw, was a real classic case in regards to the results of the missionaries. People messing around in communities, taking away people's sense of control and being who they were by asking them to be someone they are not. Her kids were somewhat apart from other kids from her iron rule but it was rather bankrupt in many ways, particularly the end. Only the oldest one knew how to work in the fields. None of them knew how to sew, sing, or dance of their culture. The village had been catholic after a while, a small band, and then switched to protestant when the preacher did. Made a mess of it. And yet they also had a very limited understanding of God. To boot I fouind the cook the most judgemental of people I know, very much a score keeper. Christianity seemed to be an element of being better than everyone else without substance. Christianity looked to be rooted in destroying the old and replacing it with nothing but mindless consumption and servitude. After all, her kids did seem to know about that quite well. Many parallels with Booti, the flat village, in what they/she wanted and what they got. All flash, not much knowledge, though Booti was way ahead. The only possible consideration was that possibly they had escaped both the promiscuity (I thought that now) of the christian villages. Theirs was considered christian anyway. But it was riddled with drugs, and hooking. Some died of aids. The Cook I thnk she meant to break me that last time, I h oped so much for her one daughter who had so much flair, that it would get pointed in the right direction. I think she did it to spite me. In the morning with her increasingly typical long face she told me that she sent the daughter back to work at the Thai restaurant on the side street. This was a nowhere move. Rather than hpoe, convenient despair. I had done tons for her, but she relished stampoing on the goals I had to make something come out well. I told her I and her would no longer be talking. If she couldn't perceive what I was trying to do or would intentionally wreck it, I didn't need it any more. I really cared about her kids, she was a widow, and that is how it was. She was angry. She wanted to control my house, my money, who I saw, where I went, who my visitors were and what Akha I helped. Well none came any more so it was easy on the latter part. My one american friend called her the green mango woman because she was so sour. She liked to claim she was Christian without knowing what that meant. It didn't pencil. There were as many adictsand prostitutes and totally inept people in her village as any other and she could use some learning of the ways of kindness for others, especially for her kids. I think mothers have to learn to love their kids. I could hear when she dug down in the gravel and began to use that voice to hack on them. What a lovely endearing sound that was. Her youngest daughter is happy in the house this morning, I step into the kitchen and wack, end of that little fun face. Oh she was joking around her mother said, so she slapped the girl of 8. With her gravel voice she could cut like a knife. She was really no different than the 6 girls, the gang of 6 as I called them. Consolidating everything for herself and driving all competitors away even though it wasn't hers. So I terminated her work and in the end we weren't so close friends though I stopped by her house after she got married. She got married to a Burmese motorcycle taxi driver I was told but also to an Akha man. She farmed Meeh Jooh and Ah Meeh both out to be prostitutes for a couple of years and messed up their lives, that was the unbelieveable part, really was. Fighting with the Mouth Meeh Daw says that those who fight with the mouth have peaceful hearts of friends. Those who don't fight with the mouth have hearts of enemies. I can see that. Those who fight with mouths have hearts that are straight. Those who don't fight with words of mouth hold the words of dirt inside and have a bent heart like a bent tree. Avoiders we might call them, but I like their discription better. When done fighting with words of the mouth the anger is finished. Fighting to resolve something leaves a light heart. The Death of Meeh Daw's brother Keng Tung, found dead. You see, he worked for this Shan family in Keng Tung for a year, but his dad needed him back on the mountain to help with the owrk, so he came with the other brother to get him. The Shan man said that he would have all his stuff packed and be ready to leave in the morning. But in the morning when they came back to pick him up he was gone. The Shan man said he didn't know where he went off to. The father and brother looked all over and then found him dead, floating face down in the water near there, a stream. They were so gripped with fear that they fled back to the mountain and didn't even try to get his body out of the water. Word was that in years to come both the Shan man and his wife died in their young 50's. People now relate that the Shan often killed the Akha with impunity. Meeh Daw The cook and I went up to Keng Tung. She saw her memories and I saw my dreams. As a child she played on the road at the north end of the valley from Keng Tung. Then she married and moved to tachilek where she lived for twenty years. This was her first time home twenty years later. We went to the big annual dance festival. She very enjoyed the dance of the new year and met many old friends there. Towards the end of the dance the local young Christian akha tried to fit in but one could see that they were uncomfortable but trying. Most of them came from the local Catholic crowd where most all of the culture had been destroyed by the Catholic Church. I met the retired police chief in a coffee shop. He gave me a $3 impression. I suppose he had participated in a few events over the years. The road was not fixed. Someone was still taking the road money. Roads pay for themselves. The teachings of Budda or at least what people itnerpreted them as really didnt make much sense. The chickens at the market were dead already so a long as you did not order the killing you wrerent doing so? Certainly your demand for meat was an order. And I dont know what the Thais would do if alcolhol consumption was a violation of the five precepts. What about sellin a mans daughter? Meeh Daw was a sad person. I had not seen a more tragic person in my life, someone who so worked against themselves. She was a very selfish person, very self righteous as well, and though she didnt live very far from the edge she would not hesitate to condemn or judge another, how bad they were, this kind of lack of character or that kind, and their brother did this and that and on and on. I dont know why her kids are better than some but she is certainly not a gracious person, certainly not a loving person. She has not much room for others. Reality is that many of the others are worse. But she has recieved a lot of benefit from me and you would think that would mellow her, the security, but no, she was just like the 6 girls, "all of it for me and just so the rest of you wont think you will get any fuck you all." She doesnt hesitate to tell me how unhappy she is, what a bad time she had when we went some where and so forth. Not at all, on the contrary the more misery she can put around the better. They claim to be Christian but they know nothing about it. She has a destructive steak and would seem to steal sucess and joy from her own children, dream crusher, joy theif, as I call her. She has this long face, with this big lip that insists the clouds will never end during your day if she can help it. She has grown her root very deep. She was the kind who had the capacity to do a job but leave no one any joy around her. At some point you have to quit doing what seems to make sense and go for the joy, even if it will only be your own, otherwise it all just gets to be a burden and is no fun any more. I have put up with her to help her kids but think that now even this is over because she will certainly burn them down too and it is just a matter of putting it off. It is beyond me that someone can not recognize the good that they are getting and become just this jealous selfish person but this was very much the 6 girls attitude as well. Meeh Daw was no different. She had worked for me for a year, cook, house keeper. She had her good side, she knew a lot about the culture and could convey it but she also had her cranky side, her "green mango" side, as I called it and that part got worse and worse with time to where I really didn't enjoy coming home. But finally, after lots of work and investment in her kids it was time to go. She argued with one of the writers and I asked her to pack and leave and that was the last time we really spoke. We met once, she seemed mystified as to what happened and why but I figured that if she didn't know by then, no amount of talking would make it work out. That was too bad, I hate to end relationships and give up the connection with friends but it would seem that it comes to that. One time she said to me, why did you give me a stove? The kids dont know how to work it and I am afraid there will be a fire. I said, well why did you say you wanted it if you dont want it? I didnt, my kids wanted it, but I didnt and you didnt ask me. What do you mean you didnt ask me, you were there at the shop when I got it. I asked your kids, you were there, if you didnt want it why didnt you speak up, I could have saved the 5,000 baht. You have a tongue. If you would have said you didnt want it I wouldnt have gotten it, but you said nothing. Then today you tell me I did a bad thing. So I loose in two ways, the money and then the stove is bad. Hey I am beginning to be afraid to do anything for fear that somehow tomorrow it will be my fault. So if it burns your house down tomorrow is that my fault? I suppose so. When I looked back at this I had to laugh. You favor my kids not me, you this, you that, you think my kids are big and I am small and on and on in this competition with the kids. With youth I think really. Hey, I was beginning to give up on this one. No matter what you did it was reason for complaint with the akha, not appreciation, not even for your intent, just you didnt do this and you didnt do that right. Hey, I was slow but I was learning, and quite frankly I thought it was getting difficult to teach anything. You really do get to this point where you dont want to give any more because you will be the bad guy and you are the monkey that they all talk about and I was ready, really ready to go to Africa. Just how did he mean that the poor you will have always? He certainly did not say Blessed are the poor He said, Blessed are the poor in spirit not necessarily the same. Meeh daws trip to Wah Dtah Poh and Keng Tung Wah Dtah Poh is the western junction from where one takes the trail to Loh Meeh Shaw mountain where so many of the old Akha villages are. I tried to get to Wah Dtah Poh junction at the bridge there but just before it there was a new imigration check point and they caught me. They really chewed Meeh Daw out and then they sent me back, she and her friend went on and visited the villages by themselves. They were looking for different items for me and said that they found none of what I wanted. The man who went with her had three wives with some thirteen kids. He was like a country gentleman. He had 13 or more kids. He ran his house orderly but his second wife didn't like the third wife so much and she had a little hut of her own attatched to the big adobe house. He knew how to have excellent beatle nut wrapped and so I would have him order for me as it always came out sweet. He was also a good singer, once he got ahead of me on the trail to a village and began to sing out beautifully in Akha ballads about being in love with a young girl. He always wore a dark suit coat of blue and a hat of black like a fedora. The three of us go to a mountain village, where the headman's daughter wants to remarry. She is up talking to all the men building a house in the village, checking out her chances. She just left one marriage and can only return back to her father's house for 13 days. Later that day we end back up in Keng Tung at the dance for the end of the new year. The streets are dark and cold and the traditional Akha dance is hard to hear the music for because of all the stupid vendors who are selling all the crap and running some kind of music stage on the other side. The traditional dance is always held at the old high school grounds. There are old people who dance and sing. Over at the Catholic Mission a woman named Booh Chooh is also a very good singer, and she sings beautifully. I had her sing a number of songs in the church for me one time where the accoustics were excellent because of the heavy adobe walls. Booh Chooh lived in a part of Joseph called Soon Sat Goh. I think her husband died. She remarried and then her daughter got married and they both had a new child at the same time. Visiting Keng Tung really is a step back in time, everything effected by the oldness and timelessness of the place. There are many old beautiful doors. But now as the road to Maesai and China gets better and closer to being well finished the whole region is about to significantly change, the hill peoples will be looted of who they are, and life will move on towards the complete commercialization of all areas, and the computerization of all life after that. Man is not headed in the right direction. Ah Daw's was a trader woman I had known for a long time. She is married to a bastard at best, and he serves as family money spender and guard dog, drunk and stupid most all of the time. I often stopped at her house up in the Catholic Village Joseph. It was very poor and never got any new blood in the ideas with time. Just poor, just catholic and not much of the culture left or allowed. Meeh Daws story about some dirt from the floor of the mans bed Meeh Daw and the five baht change Once I went to with Meeh Daw to the market, she bought something but the woman kept her five baht change and said that foreigners had lots of money and so she bought cookies with it. Meeh Daw's Brother, The Policeman He was ambushing a caravan of chinese drug runners, himself and 20 other cops against a caravan of horses with nearly a hundred men guarding two hundred horses with opium and so forth. Naturally he got the worst end of the deal. He was shot and killed, the caravan went on.  PAGE 19  PAGE 19   !C\r@ E %#E##)$**--. ./3/'0400022%363)44 66b7k7D8P888::0=J===&@?@i@o@A!AR$Rhhnn#p?pqrxCxxxyyyyyyz z zKzLz]zt{{)3nH 5nH 5aO   # $a$$`a$$a$O   #  # / ". es!"D\]s=<{D 0%? @ '&i,#O  # / ". es!"D\]s$`a$$a$s=<{D 0%? @ E z""$#$`a$$a$@ E z""$#%#E#z###$$*$%'L(()G)***F+Z,h,---.. .@.// /4/'0(050000222$3%363(4)44 6 66a7b7k7C8D8P888888899:::;/=0=J====>@%@&@?@i@j@o@@$az3o;V$#%#E#z###$$*$%'L(()G)***F+Z,h,---.. .@.$`a$$a$@.// /4/'0(050000222$3%363(4)44 6 66a7b7k7C8D8P8$`a$$a$P888888899:::;/=0=J====>@%@&@?@i@j@o@@A$`a$$a$@AA A A!ANAAABB8CuEF8GGHHIJ-LMONrO-PP.QRRR R%RSSTUWZ*\\\]_b ccd_eefghhhh;iijkllmGm^mmmmnWnpnnnnnnVomo"p#p4p@pYpp    # : . "  Y  PAA A A!ANAAABB8CuEF8GGHHIJ-LMONrO-PP.QRRR R$`a$$a$ R%RSSTUWZ*\\\]_b ccd_eefghhhh;iijk$a$$`a$$a$kllmGm^mmmmnWnpnnnnnnVomo"p#p4p@pYpprqqqq$a$$`a$prqqqqrr ssFt uRukuvwwxx'xDxxxxxyyyyyyyyyyzz zKzLzUz^zz{{C{s{t{{||r}}~~8)*3ρԄ%:lp!"BY2wx o d   ; ` {    b  Pqrr ssFt uRukuvwwxx'xDxxxxxyyyyyyyyy$`a$$a$yyzz zKzLzUz^zz{{C{s{t{{||r}}~~8)*3ρԄ%$`a$$a$%:lp!"BY2wxЏc$a$$`a$"Xx8eٲڲ׳ 0J5mH0J5j0J5U5xЏcїΘAjhXĤĥ89fYmЪ)ܫIre̱ٲڲ׳V )  l   d AcїΘAjhXĤĥ89fYmЪ)$a$$`a$)ܫIre̱ٲڲ׳$a$$a$$a$$`a$$a$$a$& 00 / =!"#8$8%|HHL XG(HH(d'` i6@6NormaldhOJQJkH'mH 6@6 Heading 1$dh@&58@8 Heading 2$<@&588 Heading 3$<@&CJ<A@<Default Paragraph Font,@,Header  !, @,Footer  !.)@. Page NumberOJQJ0Y"0 Document Map-D  2 Style1 B Style2(zzzzzzzz z z z z zzzzzzzD!4)k1P9GB%L_X;crks8z< n . }   \m s$#@.P8A Rkqy%c)]_`bcdfghjklopq@ @px^aein !!8@0( N=:x B S  ?GM   a h PZ !!$$$$I%M%q&u&''''''''( (((.*4***----d.h.~..//_0g000K1P1b1f1g1j1x1|1222222+3.3/3334383U3[333335566>666'7-7076787=778!8*8y999999j:n:z:}:::::::; ;F;L;b;m; <<="===2?6?@@AAUAYAAAAABBBBC CMCZCCCCCCC$E)EEEFFGGBIFIJJJJJJKK LLMMNNNN"O*OOPEPKPlPqPPPSS|TTVW(W.WgZqZ``ddtdyd{dd2e6eeeeeeeRfVfffffffff ggg gtgxggggggghhhhhh?iDiiiiiiiii/j:jjjk kllllllllm m!m$m9m=mmmNnSnn oBoHoIoLokoooqqqqrrrrssss ttttttLtPtQtTtotstttwttttttttt6uAuuuuuuuuu>xDxWxbxyy#z(zzzzz5{9{d{h{||||~~GKtxy}!"%iq/349BFGKuy׆ۆMQx|}@HKO.9ȍ/7v|;@MQRU)-9=>BKNOSTW\`aefijnor PZKT(2eijo"&'+ɩϩڬެ߬Z^ Matthew McDanielWHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Parts Finished:06 Chapter 6 The SchoolMatthew McDanielWHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Parts Finished:06 Chapter 6 The SchoolMatthew McDaniel_Hard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:01-07 Maesai:06 The SchoolMatthew McDanielhHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:01-07 Part 1 - Maesai:06 The SchoolMatthew McDanielhHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:01-07 Part 1 - Maesai:06 The SchoolMatthew McDanielkHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters:01-08 Part 1 - Maesai:05 The School 21Matthew McDaniel:Hard Drive:Temporary Items:AutoRecovery save of 05 The SchMatthew McDaniel:Hard Drive:Temporary Items:AutoRecovery save of 05 The SchMatthew McDanieluHard Drive:Desktop Folder:Akha Story: Master: Akha Story Chapters 953 pages:01-08 Part 1 - Maesai:05 The School 21XXXXXX`Macintosh HD:Desktop Folder:Akha Story Master Most Recent:01-07 Part 1 - Maesai:05 The School 21 hh^h`.@hh^h`.@80^8`0.  @H2P @GTimes New Roman5Symbol3 Arial3TimesMNew Century Schlbk"1hNJ&㊆pM:I3$0dFlorenceMatthew McDanielXXXXXX Oh+'0d   , 8DLT\' Florencet lorMatthew McDanielrdattNormal XXXXXX 112Microsoft Word 9.0d@`@$=m,@rN¼M: ՜.+,0  hp  'The Akha Heritage FoundationFo3I  Florence Title  !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrtuvwxyz{|}~Root Entry FEF1Tables2!WordDocumentSummaryInformation(DocumentSummaryInformation8CompObjX FMicrosoft Word DocumentNB6WWord.Document.8