Two New Volunteers Reach the Thai Burma Border

webmaster's note:Duane Nelson and Jody Riggs are volunteering at the Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border. Here is the first, of what I am hoping will be many, of his blog posts from the border!


Duane and Jody enroute to the Thai Burma border!

Growing up within an average income family in western Canada I very literally had any opportunity before me if I was willing to look for it and pursue it. Dream it� and do it. No fear, no impossibilities, no cruelty, no guns, no poverty, no hunger, no fences, and no landmines chaining me down.

So, after enjoying a true childhood and proper education and many positive life experiences I have found a dream and a passion which I am pursuing to be a large part of my life work � prosthetics. Currently I am very fortunate to be studying Prosthetics and Orthotics in Vancouver. Within this program I found a very good friend and colleague who shares the same passions as me. Early in the year we began to talk about taking our skills to the developing world for the summer months between terms (and hopefully much more in the future).

We both wanted to do this as a way to give to those that do not have the simple luxury of �dream it� and do it�. Our talk grew into an exciting reality when we came across Clear Path InternationaI on the internet. CPI created an opportunity for us to bring our prosthetics skills to an area of the world in which fear, cruelty, guns, hunger, impossibilities, and landmines are a part of life for the men, women, and children who live here. �Here� is the Thailand/Burma border. Ethnic groups inside Burma have been violently forced from their villages by the military regime and have traveled through a jungle littered with landmines in order to reach some kind of temporary safety.

Thus far we have spent one week here on the border. It has been an overwhelming amount of emotions through my heart and mind everyday. In an instant, a landmine is detonated, forever changing the life of one man or even one child. How do things go on like this everyday in the same world I grew up in?

As prosthetists here, we have quickly learned that at this time it is essential to replace lost arms and legs. However, the greater cause is for enough to be done politically that we no longer have a job here�