Color archive, Summer 1997, Roll 2, Frame 37 (July 24, 1997)
The camp was about thirty minutes away on foot. Thirty minutes should have taken us pretty close to the river that marks the border between Burma and Thailand, but we didn't see it. The camp was certainly larger, holding about three thousand people, as opposed to eighty at the ABSDF camp. The structures were also larger and more worn down, and there were a lot more children and teenagers. The ABSDF camp was a refugee camp, but it was also a political headquarter for a movement comprised of ethnic Burman. This camp was a refugee camp of Karen who left Burma to escape persecution by the Burmese military.
Our contact at the camp was a woman who appeared to be in her fifties, but was probably in her forties, and spoke English pretty well. We went to her home where she fed us and where she gave us an interview that Madoka videotaped. The interview was about her experiences and how she got to camp and what she did prior. She also translated the stories of several other people including her sister who had recently arrived from Burma.
After the interviews, during which a Thai soldier, who was apparently sympathetic and friendly, dropped in, the woman took us around the camp. We visited the school, the chapel, and the hospital. The camp was composed of Christian Karen, thus the chapel. The last thing the woman told us before we left was to not forget about them.
Frame 29
Frame 30
Frame 31
Frame 32
Madoka and I walked back to the ABSDF camp with our guides. We were tired and dirty. I tried bathing in the river with the students and made the most of it. It had started raining the night before and it rained intermittently through the day, and apparently the increase of water flow makes the river muddy. I only had one shirt which was getting pretty ripe, but it felt good to feel water and run soap over myself.
Frame 33
They fed us and the students came over again at night to play music. Madoka and I both recorded the session and were glad to have remembered to do so, even though the second night wasn't quite as good as the first. They were all so good and they played together so well that it was uncanny, but I guess after nine years in the jungle with no other entertainment, they're going to get good and be able to play together really well. Five guitars would be playing at once and it still worked. One person would plunk out a bass line while one would riff out a lead part and they would just jam.
There was one refugee named Moren who had a great voice and was into music more than the others. The others were really good, but they weren't as focused on it as he was. I think that if they were all back in Rangoon, the others may or may not be doing music - at most it would be just a diversion or a hobby. Moren, I think would be doing music seriously.
