My favorite part of my job is that I have an opportunity to travel occasionally. I was assigned to an international detail in Thailand during the first two months of this year. It was wonderful to get to travel to Thailand and to be there long enough to get a taste of the culture. The experience also really opened my eyes to how much I have to be grateful for, I mean things I had never thought about before when counting my blessings. I interviewed refugee families who had fled on foot from Burma to Thailand and were living under very precarious circumstances in a crowded refugee camp in the mountains of Thailand. In the camp, they lived in tiny bamboo huts with either bamboo mats or dirt flooring, no electricity, very little clean water, and few if any possessions. Some of the people had been living in the camp since the early 80s and their children had been born and raised in the camp. Most of those who came from Burma had no education, could not read or write and had very little, if any understanding of why they had to leave Burma. These families had some of the most precious, beautiful children. Some days it could get a little chaotic in the interview room as there were so many children who were antsy and restless, sometimes the older folks couldn't hear the questions being asked and so there was a lot of shouting through an interpreter to get the question across, and of course, with no daipers for the litttle ones there was the occasional accident on the floor of my office and a bare-bummed child for the remainder of the interview. Despite the craziness, it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I am so grateful for the system of government we live under, for the peace and stability we enjoy, for the education we are all provided in this country, and for the unparalleled material comfort we enjoy in this country. I am grateful for a lot more, but we'll just start with that for now.
