Homeless child: life
struggle on the border.
By Busarin
The noise starts
as usual late in the morning at the Mae Sai district checkpoint
on the Thai-Burmese border. Souvenir shops, restaurants and
vendors’ stalls along the road are getting ready for another
busy Sunday in anticipation of hundreds of Thai and foreign
tourists coming by on their way to the town of Tachilek, just
across the frontier in Burma.
Under a concrete bridge spanning the river that forms the
natural borderline between the two nations there is the sound
of splashing water. Dozens of adolescent boys are swimming
in the muddy river. But others stand by the bridge sniffing
a white substance from plastic bags, uncaring of anyone who
might pass. Next to them a young man sniffs at a liquid in
a green can labelled “glue”.
At the Doiwaw souvenir shop a trendy teenage boy wearing a
baseball cap and a bag over his shoulder follows tourists
around, trying to sell them music and movie CDs. A girl about
six years old, in hilltribe costume, strolls around with a
baby sleeping on her back.
These are the sights and sounds of the Mae Sai border market.
The youngsters are the homeless children who use the border
bridge, with its flapping Thai and Burmese flags, as their
workplace and their home. Some of them beg for money from
the tourists. Others discreetly sell them pirate CDs.
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