Significant Impression...

Over the past month, several people have made a significant impression on me here in Ranong. Let me tell you a little bit about each one.

On Good Friday, I visited a Burmese migrant couple in their mid-twenties,Myo Chi and Sandarhlaing. Sandarhlaing was suffering from AIDS, and I was struck by the beautifully attentive way in which she was being cared for by her husband. They had no family in Ranong, but Myo Chi’s salary was being paid by a generous friend of ours so that he could stay at home and look after his wife.And how wonderfully he did it. I was touched by Myo Chi’s love and courage, and, in the midst of this very sad situation – Sandarhlaing died two days later – by the warm hospitality he showed me.

I was accompanied on this and other visits by one of the MMR family, community outreach team leader Aung Soe. Aung Soe works hard at what I think most of us would find difficult tasks – visiting around the neighbourhood in the heat of the day, washing and feeding the sick and dying, negotiating with health officials, and so on. He does this with real care, respect and dignity – you could call it holiness. Like many of the MMR team, Aung Soe inspires me.

The next impression made on me was by a group of people I never met, though I do know many like them here in this town. You might have read on this website, or in the news, about the 54 Burmese who suffocated whilst being “trafficked” into Thailand through Ranong. Arriving at a pier near our Chanel Community Center under the cover of darkness, 121 men and women were crammed into a container which measured 6 meters by 2.2 meters. They were on their way south when the air ran out and tragedy struck.Life is desperate for many of the Burmese around us here, hence the desperate measures some will take to try to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Some of the victims of a recent attempt to traffick Burmese workers into Thailand

During the recent Songkran festival, I attended a ceremony wherein a friend of ours, Somkeit, was received into a local monastery. A Burmese teacher in a local Thai school, Somkeit is a good friend of MMR and a well-respected figure around Ranong. Many Thai and Burmese spend at least a little time in a monastery at some stage of their lives. It’s school holiday time here at the moment, and Somkeit is spending one week of his vacation as a monk. Like Catholics, Buddhists acknowledge that good living begins with contemplation.

One of the big privileges of life here with MMR is meeting so many interesting people, and to see their goodness shine in the midst of trying circumstances.

Fr Kevin and myself with Somkeirt on the day of his robing as a monk

Fr Damian SM