Stories From Refugees: A Clinic Medic Reflects
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Planet Care
801 Cedar Street
Suite 200
Berkeley, CA 94710
510-594-4027
info@planetcare.org
Maung Maung Tinn is a thin man with a large smile. His English is perfect, if accented, but he is unsure of it. He repeats himself often to be certain his point is understood, and punctuates his speech with gestures: a wave to the sky, a fist to heart. At one point he became so emotional that his eyes filled with tears; he excused himself, got a drink of water, and left the tea shop to stand in the rain, looking out past the rice fields.
I've been at the clinic 10 years. There have been many changes, but the attitude is the same. This is good if it is a good attitude, bad if it is a bad attitude. I want to go [back to visit Burma] but I have stayed too long at the clinic. The Burmese government will see me as political, so it is not safe. But sometimes I look at the mountains [of Burma] and I get teary.
Even if we do not see the police, we know [Thailand] is not our country. Superficially, we can go outside. But being illegal is heavy in our hearts. I can pretend that I am strong, I am happy. But I'm homesick. Most people cry, outside or inside. You need home, need family.
Sometimes patients come to the clinic, and no friends come with them. Sometimes patients die, and no family is with them. We don't ask for expensive things, but we should have the important things. When we get sick, we should be at home. When we die, we should be with family.
After ten years, when I look at Burmese patients, their situation is the same as mine was. If anything, it is worse. The Burmese government won't let them improve, won't give them education.
Without education, patients come and die when they should not die. If a patient has malaria, it is too complicated to come to the clinic [right away]. They take the [malaria medication] tablet for two days and feel better. But the parasite is only weakened. Two days later, they have cerebral malaria. There is no education, no chance to learn better.
A young refugee girl with a painful eye infection; luckily, this infection was caught in time.Once I saw a child with conjunctivitis in one eye. The mother had treated it with breast milk, which is traditional. I called [GHAP doctor] Tom Lee over, and he explained that the child was already blind in that eye. I told the mother that next time she must take the child to get health care. She shrugged, "I will try myself." What if the other eye gets infected? Then both eyes are blind. This is because there is no education.
[Even at the clinic, maintaining education can be difficult.] Senior medics leave, and there is a gap between them and the junior medics. Sometime we don't know why they leave. [Often, medics leave because they are required to move to Thailand's refugee camps.] I stay because I have a chance to take care of my people. I will do whatever I can.
(As told to Courtney Rowe in the summer of 2005.)
Copyright Planet Care
