That's what being in Malaysia has been like so far. In Chiang Mai, I would sit on the floor at my Kachin friends' house, and Naw Kham would tell me traditional stories from the Jinghpaw, their tribe. Here in KL, I sit in the kitchen of the CRC offices and Zaw Zaw, a guy about my age who teaches the Chin children math in the afternoons, tells me stories about the times they'd all been arrested by the 'rayalah'. Somehow they are humorous stories. Like the time Roy, a skinny guy with dimples who laughs at nearly everything, escaped one of the raids after the rayalah officers had rounded up a group of people. Standing in the middle of the group, he slowly inched his way toward to the edge, where he ducked into the crowd of spectators and disappeared. Of course, retelling the story is not as funny as imagining Roy's face as he escapes with a sort of exaggerated nonchalance like a character in a black comedy. Roy has already been arrested twice in raids on the CRC office.   more »