Courage: Thailand

Hearing stories have this amazing way of transporting usfrom eager listeners to supporting characters in the words being brought tolife before us. I am currently addicted to the show “Once Upon A Time”. Afriend of mine and I are both into the show and can’t get enough of it. It’s tothe point where when I sleep at night, I dream about the characters—theirlives, stories, where the plot is headed, and I happen to be involved somehow.I’m never a major character, but someone who is around viewing the happeningseager to lend a hand, an ear, or sometimes, even a little magic.

Magic, as people say, is all around us. I guess it’s what weview magic to be which varies. The idea of magic can be described as thewhimsical beauty in the creation around us. The grand ideas people have, theway they are put to action with nothing more than a leap of faith, the power coming from withinto change your circumstance, or the circumstances of those around you, for thebetter —that is truly incredible and could easily be classified as magic. 

When our team of volunteers visit the drop-in centre, acommon question is how kids are able to cross the border from Myanmar toThailand—to cross over from being at risk for exploitation, exploited or livingin the garbage dump to the safe haven of the drop-in centre or hopefully thechildren’s home. There’s a bridge which connects the twocountries. This bridge is comparable to any other border crossing—security oneach side. You must show your passport, pay any fees that may exist, fill out immigrationforms, all the generic stuff. What makes this crossing different is the bridge itselfis sort of a ‘no-man’s land’, if you will. The bridge is between the two placesand leaves you in transit from one place to the next. The bridge belongs to noone—except the individuals who sit on the sidewalks and beg, the kids whoare selling easy-buy items or the children who play beneath in the water.

Myanmar on one side, Thailand on the other.

The river below has kids swimming in and across it. As I’msure it comes as no surprise, these kids are often referred to as ‘bridgekids’. As kids who either play beneath the bridge, or beg on the bridge, thesekids are often stateless with no side really taking responsibility for wherethey should be.  Parents are often eithernot around or the ones encouraging the kids to do the begging or selling of cigarettesor other items to make a quick buck for their family.

So, how do these at risk children or those stuck inunimaginable situations, when seeking safety, get across the border to come tothe drop-in centre or to the children’s home? There’s a wonderful lady who aidsthose children and brings them across the border from Burma to Thailand. As aformer Catholic Nun, she has quite an interesting background and a whole lot ofspunk. As you can imagine, she has to bring these children across with nopassport and often not even one single piece of identification.  When asking how she does what can be viewed as the impossible, the response from the workers at thedrop-in centre is simple; “Just courage, just be brave to do what you have todo. If you have evidence you won’t hurt the child there can be negotiation overbringing the child across. Just in the right place at the right time.”

“Just courage, just be brave to do what you have to do.”

In a recent episode of Once Upon A Time the Wicked Witch ofthe West is attempting to travel back in time. To do so, she needs certainitems for her spell. These items include a brain, a heart, innocence (which isportrayed as a new-born baby) and courage. Courage is one of the main requirements for magic to reach its full potential and transport the witch back in timeto re-create her destiny.

In the story of the worker I can easily see how hercourage is like magic; how her courage finds her in the right place at theright time to receive compassion and understanding so she can bring across children to safety in Thailand. Against all odds she prevails and is ableto save children from the understandably described as evil situations they arein. Even more like magic, in passing from Myanmar to Thailand in what is an instant in comparison to the length of life's journey, the lives of these children will have a future brighter than anyone could have imagined.