Best Friend from Memory Journey by Tanaad

Memoir Essay:

Sri picking up rice and Kao checking the map. They are forestry officers of the Phachi River Wildlife Sanctuary, Ratchaburi that took care of us in the forest.
( See this memoir photo at thanrasa.com/memoryjourney-en )

Sri belongs to the Airngara unit while Kao belongs to the Nongtadang unit. My videographer friend and I were camping at the mouth of a creek named “Pivor”, when I planned to record some videos and sounds for my project. I assumed that the Phachi River in Thailand is connected with the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar through some creeks in this Wildlife Sanctuary area that adjoin the Thailand-Myanmar border. A human could cross between this area more freely before Siam (Thailand) and British-Burma made the official border line in 1868.

Sri and Kao, sometimes have conversation in Karen Language because they have ancestry with from Karen people who originate from hills in between the Thailand-Myanmar border. One night, we had dinner and conversation about their life. Before we could eat dinner, we had to cool but the moisture made it so hard to light a fire, so we struggled to produce some wind and increase the chances of our sparks catching fire. Sri also brought “40 degree” Thai rice whisky that he would sip to relax and for the belief that drinking alcohol is to respect the forest guardian spirit. During the conversation Kao heard the sound of thunder from far away and compared each thunder sound that he heard to identify the wind’s route and predicted that rain will not fall heavy around this area but instead into the city so not to worry too much and cross the river back in the next day.

Sri and Kao also expressed their opinions about some injustice in their Wildlife Sanctuary. Kao almost quit from the Wildlife Sanctuary but Sri prevented him and told him to stay more as a good friend, Kao was disappointed by a commander that said something bad to him and his parents after he struggled working so hard. He also worked with low wages and the lack of economical opportunity he needs to bear with it. Sri told me that Kao is so smart and also has good knowledge in electronic devices. For Sri, he really respects Kao as one of his best friends in the Wildlife Sanctuary. They also talked about “Suer”, a Forestry Officer in the Suanpueng unit as another one good honest friend that they respected as a brother. They said Suer would oppose even the director of the Wildlife Sanctuary if something did not make sense to him. Sri also told me that he is the only Karen person in his unit so is sometimes kept on watch by another people in his unit. He was also disappointed often by a commander that occasionally said something disrespectful even though he worked hard patrolling in the forest.

When the rain was still falling down and everyone was asleep, Kao went to check the water level at the Phachi River that we crossed to our camp site to make sure that we could still cross back the next day. He checked a mark on a wood stick that he pined down into the river. If the water reached too high of a level we would need to cross that night abruptly, otherwise we can’t cross back in the next day and would need to wait more than a day for the water level to decrease.

After we woke up in early morning, we went to record sounds and videos, Kao told us how the name “Pivor” came to this creek. He said the hills around here had hill tribes, especially Karen People that evacuated from Burmese government, who were here until the Thai Military relocated them to the lower areas in the 80s, where they would need to verify their identity to Thai Government. They grew rice in their farm called “E-vorg” rice and the Thai officer maybe mistakenly heard tribal people say “Pivor-pard” around this area and named it in the map as “Pivor” creek. Eventually we reached the Pachi river; fortunately, the water level in Pachi river had decreased and we could cross back easily.

thanrasa.com/memoryjourney

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2.	Best Friend	3:41

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from Memory Journey, released June 24, 2019

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