The Teacher from Thailand

Pam posing with lilies in her front yard

(All quotes are direct from the original conversation).
I was introduced to Pam while working on a video documenting project with CHAA (Community Health for Asian Americans). I was immediately drawn to Pam’s vibrant and warm personality. CHAA chose Pam to give the organization insight into the Thai community in the Bay Area. While filming, I learned about Pam’s personal journey from Thailand to America.

The Interview

Pam’s name in Thailand was Punchakarn. She is from the Khao Wong District, Kalasin Province in northeastern Thailand. Both of her parents were teachers, and Pam herself was a public school teacher in Thailand for 17 years before leaving that job to teach for two years at the school her family established and ran.  Pam was very passionate when she spoke of her school, which is a private school for students but also provides free education for those coming from poor families. She told me how her school also provides support for students who have been rejected by other institutions. She recalled one student who had been performing poorly at his former school and had behavioral problems. When his parents moved him to Pam’s school, he improved and received good grades. He is now ranked first in the school. “He got all grade A in every subject and his reading is compared to a 6 grader right now. So I am very proud of our school,” Pam said with a smile on her face.

Visiting Pam at her home

Unfortunately, her school fell into debt due to economic difficulties in Thailand. The government cut its budget, so the school soon faced money troubles. Because of this, Pam decided to come to the US to earn more income for the school. To her, the United States provided the opportunity to make enough money to pay off the debts sooner, and she felt that she could use her English skills to accomplish this.

When Pam first came to America, she was undocumented and came to Los Angeles, where she worked at a Thai restaurant. Pam recalls, “Working in a Thai restaurant was very hard because I had to work 12-14 hours continuously with no break.  I  worked from 10:30 in the morning until 11:30 at night. I almost died the first week because I felt so exhausted. I went back to the place where I lived and just slept.   I didn’t want to eat at all for many days. I felt very bad both physically and mentally. I almost gave up many times but I didn’t.  I had to encourage myself so that I could keep working.  I told myself that no Pam, you can not give up because you have some big goals to accomplish.  I tried to keep moving forward, but it was very very tough”.

Outside of her apartment

During her time in L.A., Pam faced what she considered to be the most difficult time in her life. She was let go from the Thai restaurant due to slow business.  She had no money for rent or food. Pam recalls, “I got to the point where I only had 50 cents left in my pocket. 50 cents! Maybe it was time to go back home because I didn’t see a future here. However I tried to think about how I could survive.  Therefore I decided to borrow five dollars from my housemate and bought a day pass ticket." She explained, “In L.A. with a day pass, you can get unlimited rides on any bus or subway all day long until midnight. I got on the bus to try to find a job for the day so that I could have some money to survive. Fortunately I found a restaurant job for the day.  They said, 'today our head chef was sick so we need you.’ That day I worked as an assistant chef with the owner, and got paid 70 dollars. I used some of it to buy food and then saved some of it for the bus fare so that I could have an opportunity to find more work.”  Pam recalled another time when she was very sick for four days. This was during the time of the Songkram Thai festival in L.A.  Despite her illness, Pam forced herself to attend the festival, where she fatefully met her future employer, who paid for her plane ticket from L.A. to Oakland to have her work as a translator on a publishing project.

Bebe's Story

I've been interested in learning more about the Karen people from Burma ever since my adopted parents, Michael Shafer and Evelind Schecter, established a nonprofit called Warm Heart Worldwide ( http://www.warmheartworldwide.org/ ) that works primarily with Karen people in Northern Thailand. The Karen (pronounced kah-REN) are a minority group that has faced and continues to face intense political oppression from the Burmese military government, causing many of them to escape to the Thai/Burma border as refugees. The border has thousands of Karen who populate several different camps along the border.

Listening to a church sermon in Karen

Bebe is a young Karen woman whom I met in Oakland. After we met, she invited me to her church to learn more about the Karen community here. As Bebe took me through the halls of the church and introduced me to her family, I was a bit overwhelmed by how warm and open the people were around me. More than anything, however, I was interested in hearing Bebe's story. I finally got the chance during lunch, where I had awesome Burmese and Thai food (for me one of the best parts of intercultural connecting is definitely the food!).

Bebe talking to her mother and grandmother

Bebe began by telling me about how her father first came to Thailand from Burma by accident. At sixteen years old, he and some friends crossed the border, then were not allowed back in. He left his old life behind without his family having any clue about his whereabouts. Later, he and Bebe's mother met at the Thai/Burma border and Bebe was subsequently born in the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand. The Mae La camp was set up by the United Nations and is the largest refugee camp in Thailand, with over 45,000 Burmese refugees. Bebe explained how in the camp, families received food every fifteen days, and would get donated clothes, mostly from Japan.

  Karen girls waiting to go into church

When it came to housing, Bebe recalled how, unlike America where “you can live forever,” they had to build a house every year because the homes were made out of bamboo that had to be replaced due to damage caused by heavy rains. Bebe would climb on her house along with her mother to help rebuild.

Walking down the hall of the Burmese Baptist Church

She also explained that the UN didn't provide income for the refugees; they were just given food and a place to live. As a result, her parents worked in the fields to make money. Since there weren't many jobs available outside the camp, people often worked in the fields planting vegetables. Generally though, there weren't really jobs available on the outside, so most young people would work inside the camps after graduating high school.

Origami crane folded by Bebe

Bebe said that many young people would also marry early because they don't know what else to do. Bebe did attend school while in the camp; there were about 22 schools in her camp alone. The schools are not connected with the UN, though. Different schools had different sponsors and different connections.