Elissa's Life Story: October 2009

Happy Halloween! Not much halloween activity going on here but it is time for Loi Krathong or the Lantern Festival. According to Wikipedia:

Loy Krathong is held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November. "Loi" means "to float". "Krathong" is a raft about a handspan in diameter traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk (although modern-day versions use specially made bread 'flowers' and may use styrofoam), decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, incense sticks etc. During the night of the full moon, many people will release a small raft like this on a river.

Here at my hotel there was a celebration with traditional dancing and wonderful food although the real festival isn't until next week. I will be up north next week where I hear from the locals that the festival is quite beautiful. It was fun to have an introduction to the festival here at the hotel. After all the food and dance we all put our "lanterns" into the water. It was really quite beautiful.

Ok, so i've been in Thailand for just over a week now and it has been an incredible experience so far! I'm living in a hotel in Bangkok (BKK) that is located just a 10 minute walk from my office. The first week of work has been a bit mind boggling. Here is a run down of my job:

I work for an organization that processes refugees. We help refugees in our region (Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, China, and a few more I can't remember) who have been referred to the United States refugee resettlement program by the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This means that the family/individual has fled their country due to persecution they experienced or that they fear will take place based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group or political opinion. They are so fearful for their lives that they are unable or unwilling to return to their county of origin. So, they have sought asylum in another country. The UNHCR takes a look at thier case and determines what will happen to them. The first and best option is always to help people return to their country of origin. Unfortunately that is not always possible. Next the UNHCR will assess if the individual/family can stay in the country they have sought asylum. Will the host country give them opportunities for work, education and citizenship? Unfortunately is also not always possible. So, the last option is to refer them to another country for resettlement. The US is one of about 10 countries in the world that offers this opportunity to refugees.

So, when a refugee in our region is referred to the US for resettlement we help the refugees put their information together to prepare them for an interveiw with the US governement to see if they qualify for the US program and if they are approved for US entry. Once they are approved we put the refugees through a 3-5 day orientation class to prepare them for life in the US.

I hope all that makes sense. It's hard to explain the process in just a few words and I don't want to bore you too much but i do want to give you a good idea of what i'm involved in. It really is amazing work.

So, this week i've been focusing on learning the details of the process refugees go through in order to come to the US...it's very extensive. Next week I'll head to a refugee camp to interveiw refugees and start their paper trail. I think i'll stop with that for now. Here is a link where you can see the Thai-Burma boarder and where all the refugee camps are. Most of the refugees we work with are from Burma. http://www.tbbc.org/camps/camps.htm