Sawadeeka

The beauty of Thailand echos in my thoughts as I fall asleep floating away from this magical place. My week spent in Thailand was far too short and as we leave I promise myself to return one day. My activities while in the Buddhist country were varied and gave great perspective, however I wish I could have done more. The ship arrived into the Laemchabang port on January 23. Unfortunately, due to the very deep hull of the ship we were unable to dock in Bangkok. So, TSS made arrangements for a shuttle service to take us to and from the boat into the city. Luckily I didn't have to make the 2 hour trip very often. I attended an AFP for the first three days. The first day the entire AFP group visited the Chulalongkorn University, which was our host university for Thailand. We also ate at the world's largest restaurant, whereas we were eating a flying server flew on wires past out window delivering a tray of hot food across the small man made lagoon in the middle of the restaurant. We also were able to take a long boat tour through the river and saw everything from beautifully ornate temples to floating homes made from trash. That night we had to take the two hour bus ride back to the boat.

The next morning my smaller AFP group of 15 loaded the bus and set off for a number of culturally enriching experiences. We visited a small local fishing market, where tourists rarely frequent, and a mortal and pestle making factory (if you can call it that). As we use the term "factory" you would expect a building with machines and a production line of some sort. What we found were a gathering of lean-to's in a gravel lot with men and women sprinkled among them hammering out these necessary items of Thai daily life. With no shoes, protective eyewear, or gloves these workers, who also lived there, chiseled blocks of stone in to smooth works of art. From there we went to Mahachai, a small fishing town, in the Samut Sakhun Province outside of Bangkok. Here we visited a shrimp processing factory that exports nearly 300 kilos of shrimp a day to Japan and the United States. Dressed in blue smocks and boots nearly 100 workers surrounding galvanized steel tables shelled and gutted shrimp. These employees work from 6am to 6pm and are predominately migrants particularly from Burma. Like in the US there are major issues with the border controls and because of the political and civil unrest in Burma many try to flee their home and come to Thailand in hopes of employment. This was one of the good factories, that pays its workers between 160 and 300 baht a day (minimum wage is 150 baht a day).

From here we were invited to the LPN organization. The Labor Rights Promotion Network is an NGO working for equality for migrant workers. For the estimated 200,000 Burmese, Cambodian, and Laotian workers in Thailand few to none will ever become legal citizens. Even their children, born in Thailand, who attend Thai schools, and many times cannot even write their native language, will never be citizen either, nor will they be able to attend higher education. Many of the major problems in Thailand surrounding migrant workers are so similar to those in the US. Because it is illegal for immigrants to go to the hospital many of them do not report the dangers of their work environments, which the LPN has tried to combat by setting up local clinics to which locals can go. Migrants are severely mistreated, many times be abused by the police and locate authorities.

The LPN workers were so giving and wanted us to see everything. And after a very informative presentation we jumped in the back of two load ridder pick up trucks and toured the area. The majority of people living in the area were Burmese and Laotian immigrants. Experiencing a country from the back of a pick-up truck was most definitely the best way to see everything. Visiting a local market we found many people pointing at us and laughing. I have become accustomed to people staring at our group but I had yet to experience laughing, however, upon further questioning I found that most of the people had never seen foreigners before. Elephants were led through the same streets that our trucks and a number of motor bikes whizzed down. Although they invited us to stay for a BBQ and more discussion we had to head back to Bangkok and find a place to sleep.

That night we stayed in a beautiful hostel, which I was not expecting in the least. If you ever come to Thailand stay at the Church of Christ in Thailand. Later a group of us visited Khao San Road which is the major touristy "backpackers paradise" in Bangalamphu. I was surrounded by people from every country I could have imagined, especially Europeans and Australians. It was a new culture unto itself.

The final day of the AFP was spent at Chula University where we had a number of informational academic lectures about the migrant workers we had visited the day before. This information pulled all the experiences together. They were incredibly informative and helped clarify many of our questions.

From the moment I step onto dry land I found the Thai people to be incredibly giving and wonderful. My AFP experience was a delight and one I have grown from exponentially.