Lost on Earth

Today I went to the shelter to observe the damage caused by the flood here in Mae Hong Son. The trees have been stripped from the banks and compiled into ugly snarls of branches, mud and garbage. The banks receded towards the OPC shelter about three feet, so that in one area the crumbling bank is almost flush with our pigpen. The water line is completely exposed, hanging preciously over the brown, rushing water.

Kham, Chuen was standing in the river up to his knees, picking up rocks and flinging them towards the nearest bank to reinforce the fragile dirt holding up the pigpen. “I’ll come back and help you!” I called to him. “Mai bpen lai! You should make rest!” he grinned.

I returned after lunch, an hour later. Kham Chuen was sitting up to his chest in the water, looking depressed and miserable, slowly tossing rocks from one side of the river to the other. I walked in and joined him. He told me to go back to the bank because the water was rushing dangerously high and fast. I refused and started tossing rocks alongside him. Two of my 14 year old students moseyed past on their way back from lunch. Seeing their English teacher slopping around in the brown river bothered them, so they stripped off their shirts and joined me. Three more of my students came and helped. Soon a visible wall began to form, subtly directing the patch of the water to the left of the shelter. I looked up from my work to see that a large crowd of people had gathered to watch. Small children, a few women, a lot of men who enjoyed watching, but not helping.

I worked in the river for two hours. It was refreshing, and felt good to do some work where I could actually see a result of my labor. I would have worked longer, but one of my students started yelling suddenly “Oiii! Oh no teacher NO!” and pointing to something bluish and long lying between the rocks. Oh yes, it was an intestine. I am not sure what animal it came from, but it was a really long piece of blue entrails, that looked like it had been recently liberated from its body. I looked at the water swirling around my knees and dripping from my shirt, and fought the urge to start vomiting. We cleared out of the river and I squelched through the rice paddies to my apartment where I marinated in my precious anti-bacterial soap for 15 minutes, before collapsing on my bed and falling asleep.