Tues – Aug 21 -2007 – 22:00 – Mae Usu, Thailand
Today I was in Burma for like 2 or 3 hours. We had to renew our visas for thailand. we ate, and walked around, and prayed while we walked around. it’s quite a different place than thailand. stark difference actually. a lot dirtier. poorer. according to ray it’s bad news over there. the government and military kills christians and Karen people, because they are not of the Burmese bloodline. [ethnic cleansing pretty much] there’s just a bunch of stupid, nit-picky rules like a church has to be in a building older than 1990. not church can be on a main road.
We talked to a monk on the bridge back to thailand, he straight up asked me, “What do you think of Burma?” I said something like I’ve heard it’s bad, but I was only there for 2 hours or so. I asked him what he thought of Burma, he said he had to keep his mouth shut about it, or he could go to prison. He has family in the government, so he knows about the bad stuff that goes on. [he ended up leaving the conversation abruptly when he said he saw who he thought was a Burmese intelligence guy taking pictures of us]
I noticed later that I had taken a picture of the monk before we even talked
Walking around that market…seeing how dirty it was…reminded me of Villa El Salvador [in Lima]. and just how worse it is than Thailand. It was good to prayer walk a little…I definitely feel for them. I thought for a second that God, may call me back there someday…but that was just a quick thought.
I have since found out from a couple of other sources (one being Telfer, who said he did some research) that it is indeed bad there. Apparently, it is one of the poorest countries in the world. Which coincides with this picture…
this was in the middle of an intersection near the market
…it is one of the world’s largest suppliers of black market opium, is apparently loaded with natural resources but for some reason doesn’t profit from that. The military apparently rules the country to some high degree. There’s a guy from Burma who has won a Nobel peace prize…but is continually arrested by the corrupt government.
This river is the border of Thailand and Burma (on the right). That’s an innertube, that is somekind of illegal ferry service. There was one guy paddling it and another guy fully clothed just chillin on there. I don’t know why, but this guy was sneaking into Burma…not Thailand. They’re lucky that ain’t the Rio Grande.
Eventhough most of our time in Burma was kind of a downer…we managed to have some fun on tuk-tuk’s.
*All the information I put in here about Burma…I have just heard second hand from Ray, Rapee, Telfer and a couple of actual Burmese people. Other than hearing the actual Burmese people say stuff, and what the monk told us, I have not done any research on the actual stuff. So…it may not all be completely accurate. BUT…be rest assured that it is pretty darn close to accurate, if not all accurate.
So please be praying for the country of Burma. It’s not a good situation, and our Christian brothers and sisters are being persecuted and/or killed constantly. Do some research on your own and learn more about it for yourself.
