For my first full day here, the CRC had a meeting with the UNHCR to discuss re-opening registration, so I made arrangements to visit with Li from the Kachin Development Organization. We met up after my requisite breakfast of ijagwe, Chinese doughnuts made Burmese style, and sweet milky coffee.

When I was here a year ago, the KDO was just starting to get organized, and they didn't yet have a proper office to operate out of. They had asked me lots of questions about organizing and operating that I'm hardly qualified to answer, and told me that next time I visited, they would be able to show me their office. Li did just that. Besides the advocacy work he does, like helping Kachins with employment, getting referral letters for hospital visits, and networking with other NGOs, they are also starting up a Kachin radio program, and a handicraft program to generate income. He showed me the room where they have their office set up, with a computer on a low table, and a pile of equipment I didn't recognize that was used for their radio program. He asked what I thought of it and I told him it looked just like a student office. He asked if it didn't look like an 'underground' office - I'm not sure I've ever seen an underground office before, but said it probably did.

The first surreal moment of my trip came when he told me about their friend who had died there in the office. They found him where he had laid down in that office, having died in his sleep. He looked to just be in his twenties, but since they couldn't get a post-mortem, they have no idea why he died. Li showed me pictures of their friend and of his funeral.

We spent the rest of the day meeting people around the city. I tagged along on a meeting he already had scheduled with some guys from a local NGO that was putting on a Christmas program, and then afterwards we went to meet other refugee organizations in the area. There are seven ethnic states in Burma - Chin, Kachin, Shan, Karenni, Karen, Mon, and Arakan - and everyone of them now has at least one organization representing their community in Malaysia. All but the Karenni and Arakanese groups are here in the city.

We first went to the Malaysian Karen Organization. We met with the secretary, who has excellent English and generous smile. We had tea in their spacious office and discussed handicraft projects. He's been trying to arrange handicraft training but has had a hard time finding someone to do it in Kuala Lumpur. He's hoping to find someone who can teach them how to do batik painting, so they can produce silk batiks with Karen designs. The KDO has had similar trouble, there was one volunteer who'd given them training in rolling paper for basket weaving, but she left the country without showing them how to get supplies and continue on their own.

The second group we visited was the Mon Refugee Organization. Like all the other groups, their office is just an apartment without furniture. There were about 8 or 9 men sitting in the common room with various states of injuries. One had a full-length plaster splint on his leg, tied on with strips of cloth. Another had his ankle wrapped in what appeared to be gauze and ace bandages about 6 inches thick. The first had his leg broken in a car accident, while the second had recently injured his ankle jumping out of a building to escape a police raid.

Although the MRO has officially been around for a few years, they've only recently organized and set up their office. They are trying to figure out how to collect data on their community so they can begin the process of approaching the UNHCR and other NGOs to advocate for themselves.

Our last stop of the day was with the Shan organization. There are well over a million Shan in Thailand, but in Malaysia, they are one of the smallest groups, with only around 1000 here. They're also the youngest organization - although the executive committee has been formed, they'll only be meeting next week to begin writing their charter, or constitution, as they all refer to it. They don't have an office, so we met in the apartment of the man who I'm guessing will become the coordinator. In his room is the hand knit flag of Shan State, he tells me it was made by a woman who is currently being held in immigration detention. They have it framed under glass and hanging on the wall. Li asks me if I've seen the new flag of Burma, which has recently been created at the national convention. I haven't seen it, and am not even 100% sure what the last flag looks like. He tells me that they removed the 14 stars representing the 7 states and 7 divisions, and replaced them with just one star for the union. The only other flag in this room is that of Malaysia.

Sai Sai* tells me I can ask any questions or as much as I want to know about the Shan in Malaysia. I struggle to get my hot and tired brain to think of questions but as usual, come up short. He asks what advice I have for them and what sort of activities they should undertake, but the best I can say is that it depends on the needs of their community. Before we leave he says that next time I visit, they will have a real office for me to see. Li reminds me that he said the same thing almost exactly a year ago.