By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
MAS Mai often ironically laughs, his wife Kha Re Mar will shed tears when they recall their close-run escape from Myanmar followed by being locked in a Thai refugee camp for 10 years.
Seven years since settling with their four children in Springvale, they still know of family and friends living behind the camp’s fence.
They estimate there are about 400,000 in seven such camps in Thailand.
Mr Mai described their camp as an unsanitary jail where children languish without education.
“It’s hard to survive. Every day you see the same faces. The food and water were not safe. There were diseases like malaria.”
Ms Mar said she sends money to her nephew and niece in the camp.
In the past few years, it has been possible to contact them on one of the camp’s four phones.
Ms Mar tearfully recalls her terror as she waited for an hour with her sick, thirsty children, aged four and two, at the Thai border gate.
For three days they had trekked 45 kilometres without food and water through tropical jungle.
They had left behind everything they owned as their town Kyaikdon was obliterated by the Burmese army.
As she waited for UN clearance into Thai territory, she could hear nearby gunfire raging behind her.
When they crossed the border, they sheltered under make-shift tents made of banana leaves.
The seedy banana species became a staple of their diet, along with rice, salt and oil.
The Springvale pair are one of the lucky camp residents who have been resettled, swept up in a mass refugee intake into Australia.
With the help of charity Urban Neighbours of Hope, they set up Free Burma Cafe – which the pair now independently run and own.
“It’s like a dream,” Mr Mai said of the past horrors as he stands in his cafe’s curry-wafting kitchen.
“I think about it like yesterday,” his wife adds.
In the dining area hangs a portrait of democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi who leads a pro-democracy movement in their homeland.
Ms Mar said she’s continually happy to be in Springvale, though it took time to get used to using gas and electricity.
“This country is a good future for me and my children.
“I’m thinking I never had opportunities like this before. Life is so good.”
