Is it?
Or is it a self-sustaining system?
When I brought Astrid, a physiotherapist from Italy, into Mae La refugee camp today, the circle of inspiration showed some nice piece of work again. The situation on the Thai/Burma border is complicated, to say the least. When you�re here for a while, you get to face more and more difficulties, problems, limitations. The official regulations, mutual relations between ethnic groups, military groups and aid organizations, safety issues-both visible and underground. Sometimes it�s tempting to put your hands in the air and desparairingly say �I can�t change the world�. But in fact, you can. You can change personal worlds, one at a time, a little bit at least.
The preparations were done: through intensive interviews I assessed the handicaps, possibilities, limitations, needs and interests of the landmine accident survivors in the Care Villa. Many of them lost their hands and eyes on a landmine, which makes up for one of the most extensive limitations you can get.The idea was there: we cannot give these guys back their hands, their eyes, their lives the way it used to be. But we can encourage them to bring back a little joy, a bit of fun, some challenges and to make one day a bit different than the other.
At first, Astrid wasn�t so sure. �What can I do?� she wondered, when I had asked her to go with me to the Care Villa. I knew that the guys would catch her heart, would stay in her mind, when only she had a chance to get to know them. So I suggested: �Let�s just go and meet, and then we�ll see�.
And so we went, in the local sawngtaew, we jumped off a dirt road, and walked into the camp. I had visited this place so many times before, but for Astrid it was the first time. As I remembered my first visit, we passed the bridge. My favorite site of the camp: here you can see a little joy. The kids are playing, the women gossiping, the man smoking and watching the river go by.
Within a short while, my plan worked out. As we talked to the people in the Care Villa, Astrid�s eyes started to sparkle. Mordecai began to smile. Not because of fun, satisfaction or happiness. It was this typical sparkling out of inspiration. Inspiration to literally bring back some life in the camp, and some joy in life. A fresh breeze blew through the Care Villa, the guys got excited when we told them about our plans: we will try to do some kind of sports acitvity with teams of 1 blind and 1 seeing person (a friend, relative or neighbour). That way, hopefully the guys will be challenged to be both physically and socially active. Let�s break down this negative circle of limitations and replace it by the positive circle of inspiration. Mordecai�s smile, Astrid�s sparkling eyes and the excitement of the Care Villa men, brought back the enthusiasm, the challenge, the dedication that I felt so strongly, especially in my first weeks here.
On the way back, I have this song in my mind:
�I can give you reasons why
this sounds so good,
if you just try
just step into our world with me
then you will see
Just for one day in my life,
Just for one day if you try
And you would see the difference�
History repeats itself and a circle wouldn�t be a circle if it wasn�t round. For me, it all started when I got in touch with Imbert. Pat wrote about it in one of her great blogs: Imbert is the one to blame; the one who got both of us into this work, into this world. Since I got to know more people involved with CPI, I got more and more inspired by their dedication to the work we do. Regularly I receive emails from them, telling how much they appreciate the work I do here at the border. It�s very nice to hear, a welcome support, but it always gives me this out-of-place kind of feeling. It should be the other way around. Without them, there was no CPI. The same goes for the donors: they are the one to be thankful to. Without them, there would be no way to do this job. So thank you very much for inspiring me; I hope I can keep inspiring you, so we could keep the circle going together.
Lobke Dijkstra,
physical therapist and CPI representative at the Thai/Burma border
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