And Then There's The Coup...

And so, just like that, Thailand decides to change its visa requirements. The legal visa runs (a �visa run� is a process where you cross the border and then come back in order to gain another one-month stamp in your passport) are being limited to a maximum of two. So, on a tourist visa you can only stay in Thailand for a maximum of 90 days. Then you have to leave the country for at least 90 days. And well, let�s start from October 1st. New month, new rules. No exceptions. Most volunteers stay here on tourist visa, so many of us are affected by this new rules. In fact, it will have a big impact on the Mae Tao Clinic, which is dependant on volunteers. Due to this new system, a lot of people will only be able to stay for a relatively short time, which makes it very hard (not to say impossible) to maintain a continuous flow of foreign input. It affects me as well; I have to finish my activities and leave the clinic several weeks earlier than I had planned. For me it�s just an unexpected change of plans, which you have to deal with. But for all the people here it is yet another obstacle on their way to further development. Although I know that it�s not my own choice to cut them from my little piece of help, I feel very bad to tell them. The powerless disappointment in their eyes is hitting me. And suddenly I realize how much more I got attached to this work, these people, this area more than I thought.

And then, there�s the coup. Another unexpected change, more dust being stirred up, more insecurities, more uncertain and unpredictable factors. The day after the coup, there�s a strange atmosphere at the clinic. They shut down the border, so it is quiet. Unsettling quiet. I have to do my visa run in a few days but again I can not worry about it too much.

What really concerns me, is not my own personal hassle, but much more the people at the clinic; the staff, the patients and their families. I can take a plane out of here if I have to. But they can�t. I am legal here. They�re not. I can go back to my home country, where a safe base awaits me. They can only hope that the Thai army will not follow the path that their colleagues nextdoors are on. And once again I don�t know what to say, when one of the medics make me look at it that way. And again that unforgettable look in those eyes, staring at the horizon. I just sit next to them for a moment, trying to look at the same point, but I know I could never see the same as they do.

A medic has stopped by and asks my help with a patient. Back to work, no time to waste!