The hospital compound is quiet, except for the sound of the cicadas. When I begin walking to the main building through the dried leaves scattered on the ground, I see two women. The older woman, about sixty, is walking with a limp. She is wearing a yellow shirt and tattered sarong. A younger woman walks slowly beside her with the assistance of a walker.

I greet the older woman when I catch up to them. “Good morning aunt. How are you?” I ask politely.

“Why are you here?” was her reply. 

Before I answered, she said, “My daughter is practicing walking. So, I am walking with her.” 

She looked at me with a warm smile and was very friendly. 

She spoke in Burmese but with an ethnic accent.

“Aunt, are you Pakanyaw (are you Karen)?” I asked.

“Are you a Karen? Can you speak Karen?” she asked excitedly, with an even bigger smile.

I told her I am not a Karen. 

The other woman looked surprised, but was busy trying to walk a few more steps with the walker.

The woman explained she is a Karen, from Tavoy Township area and she can speak Burmese a little bit. Both women asked not to be identified.
We seemed to be hitting it off and quickly becoming friends. Her warmth and openness fascinated me.

We all continued walking across the compound very slowly, keeping pace with the walker.

A Thai nurse, wearing a white lab coat, approached us, speaking to the woman in Thai and gave her something to put in her room. 

She just nodded to the nurse. 

“I become a monkey when arrived at this hospital,” she told me. 

“I don’t understand Thai and the staff does not understand our language. I have had to use body language when I communicate with them since we arrived 9 months ago. So, I am like a monkey,” she explained to me patiently.

“I came here to get medical treatment for my daughter,” she said, gesturing to the woman with the walker. 

“She has been paralyzed (from the waist down) since she was 17 years old. Now she is 35. A western missionary brought us to the hospital,” she said.

Her daughter could not walk at all before the recent surgery in Thailand.

However, she was in serious need of medical treatment herself, which she was not able to receive inside Burma. She was shot twice in the right leg when the Burmese Army attacked her village in 1996. She has been suffering because of bullet fragments lodged in her thigh for about fifteen years.

“I got injury when the Burmese Army attacked the KNLA’s brigade No.4. I got this wound when I ran to the jungle because the Burmese Army burned down my village,” she said.

“It was impossible to get medical treatment at that time because we were afraid to go back our village. We had to hide in the jungle. I was sick for a while because of this injury. Medics from KNLA gave me medical care. They didn’t do surgery (to remove the fragments). I feel a lot of pain from my injury when the rain comes. I feel pain in my legs when I walk.”

Sayar Sai, a Shan missionary, told BNI in a recent interview the Mc Kean hospital, in Chiang Mai, where they are being treated, provides medical care to Burmese patients needing free care because they cannot afford to pay for the treatment. 

“There are 7 Burmese patients in the hospital at this time,” he said.

“They are brought here because it is so difficult get medical treatment in their own country. Every year, Burmese patients who need surgery and who need a long stay to recover, as well as lepers, come to this Thai hospital for care,” he said

The woman told me, “I am worried about my daughter and my husband.” 

“He is eighty years old and I had to leave him in the jungle. I cannot contact him,” she said with obvious concern.

“I grew up in the middle of armed conflicts (between the Burmese Army and the Karen National Liberation Army). I had to move from place to place because of the war. My village was burnt down by Burmese soldiers. My garden was also destroyed and our food supply was confiscated. If I live in my village, I will be killed,” she told me.

She and her family were forced to leave their farm and became IDPs (internally displaced persons) when the Burmese Army attacked their village in 1996. Since the time, they have been running for their lives. 

She said there are many Karen IDP’s hiding in the jungle. They are victims of well documented human rights violations at the hands of the military junta, which has ruled Burma since 1962. 

“Now we have no farm. We can only live at a certain place for a month because the Burmese Army will attack the new location and burn down our new village. They burn down our houses, our village, and destroy our farms. We are always on the run. We cannot build a permanent house. We have to live wherever we can. We put our lives in the hands of God. We pray for better life. We pray to have a home again someday,” she said.

The uncertainty will continue for her family. She is not sure where they will go after they leave the hospital. 

“Even if my leg recovers and I can walk again, I think we will have to return to the jungle to live, because we have no home,” she said.

She is relieved her daughter has had surgery and can now walk a little. Her own thigh has been X-rayed and she will have surgery to remove the bullets after her daughter recovers, because she is needed to help care for her. 

However, I can see in her eyes that she is very worried about her daughter and her husband. 

“I am happy because my daughter already had surgery. She can only walk a little- but I am happy for that. I don’t know what will happen after I have the surgery on my thigh. We will still have to run from the war in the jungle. So, I am only happy in half my heart,” she said.

“I am happy to be here. I don’t need to run, but I miss my husband. He is very old,” she said.

“I also worry about my daughter. I really want to see my daughter walking before we die.”