Camp For Internally Displaced People (IDP)

On our way to the IDP camp, we were escorted by this armed guard. He looks what, sixteen? This kid should be getting his first BB gun, not guarding people with an AK-47.

Regardless of the fact that you can see the nearest Burmese military outpost on the next ridge, I think the guard was just for show. No one in the camp ever seemed concerned about an attack.

The camp was set up on this beautiful ridge. While this means a 10 minute walk down to get water, the high position is far more defensible.

Sai Sem talks with some of the villagers while looking over a house being built for more displaced people.

The villagers, who have no way to buy food, are given rice by a Shan organization. They walk about 6 km (3.7 miles) each way to receive it.

I remember complaining about walking 6 blocks to get my mom some milk. I'm glad I never had to hear "Ken, could you walk three and a half miles to the store and pick me up a 40 pound bag of rice?"

The villagers have no way to make money with one exception: occasionally they are hired to make panels of roof thatch. They have to collect the palm fronds from the jungle, find and split bamboo, and weave the panels at the construction site.

Each 5-foot panel fetches 3 Thai Baht (2.6 cents US).