Lost Cause

Lost Cause

Getting there and Getting Started

This wasn

Whoa Fox, good stuff, I’m hooked and hankering for the next instalment, if you will.

Only criticism, I’m unsure what year we’re starting at here. When did all this take place?

HG

Before the Internet HG.

Anyway Fox it is certainly pleasant reading. Please continue.

The Waking Dreams of Limbo

The school was large and my role was to provide teacher training and curriculum assistance to the 31 Hmong refugee teachers and the other expat teachers. About 1500 students attended daily. Most of the classes were held in the early morning and finished before we arrived at the camp. The idea was to avoid the heat and have the children go home to help their parents during the day.

Of course everything in the camp was rough from the red mud roads to the dirt floor classroom. But it wasn

Delightfuly evocative. I loved this passage…

[quote]The woman sitting next to him and another in the back were shot dead in the fracas that followed. He delivered the payroll, kept his job and lost himself. I liked him a lot as did many of the others - foreigners and Thais alike. His karma was cursed, however, and he knew it.
[/quote]

That could only have been written by a person who had himself really suffered, an attractive quality in any writer.

If I could offer a bit of constructive criticism it would be of the final two paragraphs which begin with “Of course, like most dreams much of my time was spent in banal pursuits that simply highlighted my own shortcomings and misgivings.” An interesting enough tease to be sure but the “shoe in the mud incident” while amusing enough in it’s own right, doesn’t really serve to illustrate anything about either your shortcomings or your misgivings. Perhaps those two paragraphs could begin with something to the effect that life in the camps wasn’t all pain and hardship. Either that or maybe you could keep the "like most dreams… " part and but then go on to reveal something a little deeper about yourself.

Anyway it’s a thouroghly enjoyable read so far and I am looking forward to the next installment. Thanks. :notworthy:

Thanks bob. It’s just to add some contrast for what’s to follow.

The Touch of Angels

Limbo, as it turns out, for all of us who are destined to end up in the cosmos

Interesting writing, Fox.

[quote]Most of the residents were Hmong, although there were also Hakka and Lisu tribes

Actually Fee I don’t know a good deal about the Hakka. There were only small groups of them in the camp. They were tribes people unlike the many Hakka that otherwise live in Thailand , Taiwan, and other parts of South East Asia.

One of the interesting facets of development in Asia is that it is typical to have peoples like the Hakka living very sophisticated first world lives along side their country cousins who are still living in traditional tribal villages using swidden agricultural practices and hunting for their meat.

Thanks, Fox.

I have a bit of an interest in Hakka culture myself, but I am by no means an expert. Just curious to learn more–and I had not known that there were/are Hakka tribes people in parts of SE Asia.

Once again, thanks for your interesting writing, and I look forward to reading more of it in this thread.

Fox, just caught your story (I’m generally slow as a rule). Fascinating read. Told with a sense of color that EVERYTHING I write tends to lack. A couple of questions, that you can choose to ignore for the sake of continuing the story, if you so desire:

(1) Pursuant to HG’s question - could this story unfold NOW in East Asia? I can see it unwinding 20 years ago, or perhaps less, but now I’m not so sure. More cash and commerce around these days, less UN and aid involvement, and more interest elsewhere from the world community. Just a thought.

(2) The story winds along with what I’d describe as a ‘random jarring grace’ - pockets of genuine humanity and perhaps even fun, juxtaposed against some quite nasty bits of violence and an overall heightened level of tension. Does this make sense to you now? With the benefit of hindsight, can you see the themes more clearly, or does it still seem kind of arbitrary?

Again, no need for extended answers - continuing the story is more important. You’re developing a bit of a readership here…

Hi GT,

I don’t think the same story in terms of large refugee camps existing for twenty or thirty years is going to exist again unless there is a complete breakdown in China. However, there are still long-term camps in Thailand. They are just off the radar of international concern. That is something that suits everybody. Though, I’m sure that the story I’m describing is on a permanent loop in these places.

As for the story, it’s just as I remember it so that’s how I write it. It is going somewhere though. Like a slow train.

The Loei Lock Up

Trouble brewed during the week and vented itself on weekends. The most likely reason for this is that it was a time when the outside influences of aid workers and general staff were at a minimum in the camp, and the refugees were left to their own resources. So that most Mondays were spent putting out fires literally and figuratively. Lee Bang

Oh, How the Worm Turns

Dreams from my experience have a habit of turning south when all compass bearings are pointing north. They crowd in on you. Whilst you are busy with your heroics, somewhere inside your mind the worm is turning. It

Oish! Fox, superb read littered with the rich observations on humanity I’ve come to expect when the lil’ fox with the pink bow is spotted on these boards . . . from your signature on up.

Keep it up! I’m completely hooked.

HG

The Crocodile and the Mouse

One afternoon after playing basketball with some locals in Chiang Khan, I came home to a cornucopia of unheard of luxuries. Platters of seafood, fresh fruit, cured beef, wines, some local beers and a two-liter bottle of Johnny Walker Black were cluttering up my kitchen table. I was impressed and a little concerned that I might have to give it all back as I hadn

Castles in the Sky

The next day, I was left wondering to myself if the evening had been a disaster or an unqualified success and concluded it was both in equal measure. But I had little time to truly absorb its significance because I had to be in Bangkok at the monthly NGOs

Ok…

Started to read those lasts posts but, :snore:

Kind of long.

I’d say that… What’s the topic?

Ok. Sill into the festive season.

Actually, I just started reading the OP’s first post and :snore:

Sorry.