I didn't take any photos on the actual border where Thailand stares into Myawaddy. It would be easy and dramatic to claim that it was because it would have been dangerous, etc., but in fact I could easily have taken all the photos I wanted, I just didn't see anything I hadn't shot before. So the picture above is of Thoo Mwe Khee post-ten project which we visited later in the day.
But before we get there, a few words about the border. It is closed, of course. So there are no lorries or minibuses belting back and forth. This is costing Thailand dear. Explanations are available. One is that the Burmese government is somehow upset by changes to the embankments on the Thai side of the river. Well, maybe. Another is that the bridge has a crack in the middle so large that neither side dares let lorries cross until remedial work has been completed. Mmmm. Those of us old enough to remember the building of the Humber bridge in UK know how easy it is for a perfectly good bridge to be perfectly scuppered by poor soil mechanics. But on the whole, I think the most likely explanation is that the bridge is closed because the SPDC don't want visitors in Myawaddy - or indeed, anywhere else in Karen state. No doubt they have their reasons, see below.
We went to Thoo Mwe Khee school to see its Post ten project - this is simply a project to offer education for young people who have graduated Grade 10 at school but who have nowhere else to continue learning because the school stops at Grade 10. The idea is to get them to university entrance standard, especially in English since the university they are most likely to attend is an international university which teaches in English. We met some really wonderful young people whose English was excellent. Fluent, clear, and with wider vocabulary than many pupils the same age in UK. This has been achieved in conditions which most UK pupils could hardly imagine. Little food, no security, no comfort, no TV, no night clubs, no alcohol, no parents in some cases and - and this is the biggest deprivation - virtually no books! If anybody deserves the chance of university education, it is these young people. Unfortunately the cost is about $5000 U.S. per annum, so as far beyond their financial reach as the average Rubens or Picasso.
Thoo Mwe Khee is very close to the border. Studies at the school have been in earshot of fighting and shelling which has been happening almost daily on the Burma side since November. Recently a group of 32 men, women and children, who had fled Burma for sanctuary in Thailand, returned to tend their rice paddies on the Burma side. They returned to Burma every day, but slept in Thailand. One day they were ambushed, and all were killed. Men, women and four children. One of the children, aged 7, was shot in the back, presumably whilst fleeing the ambush. Now you can see why, perhaps, it is better for the SPDC that the bridge stays closed.
Driving with our irrepressible Aussie guide, Shirley, on a road which runs right by the border, at times just a few yards from Burma, we were struck by how peaceful and beautiful is this part of the world. At times there were Thai military checkpoints - which I have to say I find completely reassuring - staffed by cheerful, competent and polite Thai military. It is easy to forget their guns are loaded.
There is a horrifying picture of a dog from Burma which came with its owner to Thailand for safety. Obviously he went home for reasons of his own, but when he returned to Thailand it was minus one leg. The dog is a land mine victim. His owner, who is distraught, says they owe a huge debt to the dog, because he has shown the village that it is not safe to go home. This place is as indiscriminately brutal as it is stunningly beautiful.
On a happier note, we finished the day with a visit to Hsa Thoo Lei's new school vegetable garden. Quite simply the best school farm I have ever seen. Neat, tidy, productive and tended by an enthusiastic group of pupils, enthusiastic not least because they are allowed to use the little Kubota tractor. But they approached watering and other manual jobs with enthusiasm and care. The farm is relatively new, but is already making a significant contribution to the school kitchen. Hsa Thoo Lei does many things well, but this is an especially good example.
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