A Land of Mine?

                                                                                                                           Wat Thamkrabok

     You are in front of a small Hmong village, Wat Thamkrabok, in the middle of nowhere in Thailand. The minute you step off the car, you see Thai soldiers with M16A1 rifles wearing the Thai version of Woodland BDUs everywhere by the main gate. Their eyes were as fierce as if they were going into a war with the Hmong villagers. Outside of the gate, there is a long line of villagers who are waiting to enter the village. Some of them are sleeping under the trees, exhausted from work. Babies are crying everywhere. Inside of the gate, there is also a long line of villagers who are waiting to get out of the village to go to work too. Each one of them is holding an identification card to show to the soldiers. To the far left side of the gate, you see an endless wall of barbed wire. On the right side of the gate, you notice another wall of barbed wire that stretches all the way up to the mountains. These barbed wire walls are meant to protect the outsiders from entering the village, and they are meant to prevent the Hmong villagers from escaping. These Hmong villagers are waiting to be repatriated back to Laos because they are illegal immigrants who escaped the “secret war” in Laos during the Vietnam War.

      When you walk past the main gate, you see that there is a huge burning trash heap on the left side of the road, where children with bare feet and seniors are digging plastic bottles and metals out of the trash to sell. Human waste and dead bodies of animals are everywhere. After a careful observation, you see thousands of flies flying on top of the dead animals, and thousands of maggots are eating the animals’ flesh. The wind brings the smell of charred trash and animals through your mouth and exits through your nose. If this were your first time to inhale the smell, you would be sick for a few days.

     When you walk further into the village, you see, standing on top of a large mass of cement, a huge statue of the current Thai king facing the Hmong village. Looking at the head of the statue, it is wearing a pair of huge glasses with a broken right lens. One of my friends broke the lens accidently with a slingshot when he missed shooting a bird that stood on top of the statue’s head.  This statue is very sacred for the Thai people. Thai monks and people believe that the statue helps to bring a long life for the king.  

Children and young adults are playing soccer beside and behind the statue. Suddenly, at 6:00 p.m., you hear three “bee” sounds and then a song is played.  Everyone in the village, including the soldiers, stands still until the Thai national anthem ends. Those who don’t stop and stand still when the Thai national anthem is being playing face consequences to do push ups and picking up trash for a few days.

      When the song has ended, people continue with their tasks.  This is what you see everyday in the refugee camp.  This is where you lived for 14 years. To the Thai soldiers and government, you are like the burning dead animals in the trash heap. Everywhere you look, you feel like you are in the trash heap and the maggots are eating you alive. This is a place where you call prison when you realize how much opportunity and freedom you have in America.