Hmong Refugee Camp

Right now we are in the Hmong refugee camp in Wat Thamkrabok. I am staying with one of my friend in her sister's home. I went to visit my uncle in his home last night.

"Wat Thamkrabok, meaning Temple of the Bamboo Cave is a Buddhist temple located in the Phrab Phutthabat district of Saraburi province. After the Vietnam War, many Hmong people fled to Thailand from Laos by feared of persecution from the communist government that ruled since 1975. Wat Thamkrabok is a refugee camp where many Hmong people fled to; to avoid repatriation to Laos after several other camps in Thailand were closed due to lack of financial support in the early 1990s. The population in the temple grew to about 16,000."

www.wikipedia.org

Woman walking in the rain

Last night it rained a lot, so today was muddy and dirty! The houses are made of bamboo and has either a hay or metal roof. If you are one of the wealthy people, you might be able to afford something made of cement. There are no pavements, just dirt paths, lots of forest, and mountains that surround the camp.

After the rain

Today I walked to the market with my friends and their cousins. I was excited and wanted to try some of the Hmong food from the vendors. So I tried two bowls of noodles from different vendors and it tasted plain. I remembered it used to taste so good back when I was a child and we lived in Thailand. But I think it's my taste that changed over the years with the abundant and variety of food we have in the U.S.

I also called Cat from the pay phone and asked if she could come get me. I told her I was more than ready to leave. She said she will talk to her mom.

Bathroom and bathing situation

There are no flushable toilets or proper bathing and shower systems. Each family or two shares a small toilet hut right around the corner. It is a squat toilet. You need to bring toilet paper and a bucket of water to pour it down. As far as bathing goes, they have two to three huge clay jars right outside the door filled with water. When bathing, women wear a Thai style tube skirt and tugged it tightly at the chest, then scoop water from the jar over themselves. The men would bathe in their shorts or underwear.

Last night, when two of my friends and I bathed outside, a group of young boys came to court us. This practice is actually normal in Thailand and Laos. They kept on asking us annoying questions even when we didn't want to answer. I kept silent and ignored them. We tried to finish as quickly as we could and went back inside.

Guess what...approximately two hours later, when we were watching TV, and I don't know if it was the same group or not, but they came back! We were inside and they were talking to us through the walls from the outside. They tried to shine a flashlight at us through a crack in the wall. It was still too dark, they couldn't see, so for the next hour, they asked us repeatedly to go meet them outside the door. We never went outside.