Thein Tay Oo. The man about town. A self-styled god of rock. Doesn't like being called Thein Tay Oo. Thein Tay Oo (ooops) wants everyone to call him - and is always on hand to remind people to call him when they forget - Jon Bon Jovi. Oh yes. Shade-wearing, rider-style-jeans-wearing, hair-gel-wearing, this refugee JBJ probably doesn't realise the other JBJ isn't actually very cool at all. Still, this Thein Tay Oo (ooops again) is a lovely guy, one of my best friends in the camp and a dedicated teacher of maths to the students of Yaung Ni Oo. He's a great student, a great laugh, a great smiler and (to my frequent but banter-esque chastisement) a great cheroot-smoker with a great husky voice that renders any comparison with the other JBJ obsolete whenever he opens his mouth to sing along to whatever bootleg soft rock classic he's got plugged into his ears. I could write about this dude and his blaze of glory all day - he's a man on the lookout for love, which one might say, he gives a bad name; still, ultimately - with the name - he's half way there.

Ever wondered what did happen to Indiana Jones? Well, here he is, alive and well, sitting in the Mae La Oon tea shop. Yes, its Yaung Ni Oo deputy headteacher Nay Htun. And it turns out that Nay Htun has in his past been an actual Indiana Jones-type figure. A soldier for ten or so years with the ABSDF before turning teacher, he became famous on the northern border (Kachin state) for his command. Up until recently (when he finally got what he wanted and was allowed to go on the teacher training course over the summer) he was my housemate, and a fine and extremely funny guy (he embues his English with a rare and at a turn light-hearted emotion) to share the darker hours with. We'd often spend hours nattering away about this or that, blah or blah or blah He fled to the border following his participation at the head of the infamous White/Red Bridge incident of early 1988, where he was shot at, escaped, but witnessed the killing of fellow students by the then State Law and Order Restoration Council - sparking the nationwide protests of 8/8/88 and the eventual elections which saw the National League for Democracy sweep to power in all but the renamed State Peace and Development Council's eyes.

One of the most welcoming faces around the camp, Naw Mu Hay is a teacher at Yaung Ni Oo, and has played host to my visits on many occassions. Previously afraid of talking with foreigners, she's now first into conversation with them, and has been one of the most consistent and enthusiastic attenders of my classes. Her two kids are great - particularly her fearless son (featured here) who you can hear shouting 'En-Geh-Lan' from the other side of the mountain as he catches sight of me, and who is prone to excited handshaking and extremely generous sweet-sharing (or at least swapping) (her daughter tends to burst into tears when she sees me, so I’m bound to be partial). A serious advocate of my speaking nothing but English in her company, Naw Mu Hay is somewhat of a bully (in a jokey, friendly, but kinda dictatorial way) in class, organising other students in such a way that makes you recognise the effective and respected teacher in her. The last two weeks have alas seen her departure from Mae La Oon to join her husband in Mae Sot - a teacher at Dr Cynthia Maung's school there. I hope to catch up with her family there before I leave for the UK; word has it they'll be applying for third country repatriation soon.

Somewhere in the film JFK Joe Pesci talks about someone who's like a puzzle wrapped up by a riddle trapped inside an enigma (or something along those lines). Ganan fits this bill to the tee. An extremely bright student, he's a recently-graduated teacher at the school who's completed six months' 'Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking' training in Chiang Mai. He's by far and away the most capable of my students when it comes to self-study, and as such has massive potential to continue studying to a higher level - perhaps even university. He's always inviting me round to 'big house' for the evening, and takes a keen interest in what I'm up to and what my future holds. Unfortunately he's also an alcoholic (at the age of 21 - though he claims he can stop at the drop of a hat), is drunk in the middle of the day more often than not, is almost incapable of sharing learning with others, and is pretty lacklustre when it comes to attendance. He first told me (when I was in slightly naive 'accept all that is told you' mode) that all his family had been killed by the SPDC inside Burma - though it turns out they're all alive and well and he was (of course) joking. It's tricky. We've given him lots of carrots, and its clear he holds a massive desire to make something different of his life (jealousy of scholarship-bound Oo Ni Kay and Htwe Yee would seem to confirm this), yet there is little response to make you want to help him further. It's frustrating... there are a zillion factors at play here, and I can't reduce it all down to a nicely packaged paragraph. In a month or so he hears whether he's been successful in the ICFC examination and interview - if so he'll be Chiang Mai bound for two years' collegiate study. In the meantime it's my job to give him some extra tuition. Let's hope things and he settle(s) down a bit.

Careful, this head teacher is armed and dangerous.

Ko Oo is a great student in the elementary class - sharp, honest and committed (if - tut tut - sometimes a little late for lessons), and always on hand to help out fellow students. He's a member of the 'big house' clan and a really nice guy - one of many I'd love to get to know better if only there was just a bit more time.

He's recently left the camp for Mae Sot, but prior to that Kon Than Ton was one of my most frequent lesson attenders. He's faced five years of prison inside Burma which has left him unable to undertake manual labour due to the serious damage inflicted on his internal organs through Insein's torturous methods. On a happier note, he won a bit of the Thai lottery a month and a half back, netting him a whopping 5000 baht - two thirds of a teacher's annual salary in the camp... the teashop profits never had it so good.

Teachers taking a well earned rest amidst the cool wateryness.

My first experience of ABSDF personnel, Snake (real name Myint Oo) was on hand at the bus stop on my inaugral Mae Sariang arrival to chauffeur me to the office in preparation for my Mae La Oon beginnings. He's married to New Zealander Katie (co-ordinator of an educational NGO out here), speaks pretty good English, holds realistic, open and honest opinions about the intricacies and contradictions of life on the border, has a wonderful giggle-esque laugh, and is in my book a top ABSDF dog. His unenviable job is to co-ordinate goings-on between Section 13 and the Mae Sariang office - a nitty-gritty, wheeling-dealing duty which has him permanently living on the hop, split between the permanent incoming calls of the office and the organisational flux of camp life. As with all office workers and male ABSDF members, he's a (former) soldier who has seen years of border fighting. When in Burma he was, apparently, a major soccer star.

Sai San Ko is one of ABSDF's wireless operator troop. He's currently working in Mae La Oon following a stint at the Mae Sariang office which unfortunately ended in a drunken moped accident, broken fingers, and the inability to work for a couple of months. Like the other wireless guys, his job is indispensable and provides the only method of reliable, emergency communication between the organisation's major encampments - Mae La Oon, Mae Sariang, Mae Sot and Wege (the military HQ over in Burma). It's a tough, somewhat monotonous job - six days a week the operator must be on hand at 9am, 11am, 1am, 3am and 5am to receive and send important messages. Sai San Ko usually fills the time inbetween drinking copious amounts of alcohol (usually home brewed rice wine), effortlessly strumming the guitar, listening to Enrique Englasias' 'Hero', slowly perusing an English book or two (he took a six-month English course in Chiang Mai), or belting out songs at the top of his voice with other under-challenged early twenty-somethings in the Section.

Ni Myu Tiyke is the indispensable man of the Mae Sariang office. He's the one who speaks fluent Thai, knows how to get anything, has links with all the right people, is able to keep the relevant Thai authorities sweet to the presence of the Burmese in the town - and he's an extremely nice, engaging guy who's been a great support to me - as one person said to me: 'isn't he just the coolest guy ever?'. Yes.
And all this makes it all the more disasterous that he's currently sitting in a Thai jail facing a prison sentence of over six months - for helping to transport an ABSDF central committee member between Mae Sariang and Chiang Mai (as the location for a central committee meeting was changed to Mae La Oon at the last minute), thus aggrevating the terms of his status in Thailand - that he mustn't leave Mae Sariang. After being waved down, the committee member was able to get away with an on-the-spot bribe of 4000 baht, but Ni Myu Tiyke - not having that kind of money there and then - was taken in. Now ensconsed within the mechanics of the Thai justice system, word has it it'll take 50,000 baht (that's 750 pounds) to get him out.