The class I've been teaching for the last three months is no more. Originally, our plan was that I would volunteer with these guys, who are from the AKSYU, until I went home at Christmas - doing research training, and helping with editing or whatever else came up. But Tuesday night they cracked open the beer after dinner, and announced that there would be no more classes. A surprise going away party for me, I guess they thought beer would soften the blow. Its terribly dissapointing, for so many reasons. But, where they've been living has been operating as sort of a satellite office for their organizations, and there just isn't the funding to keep it open anymore.

Its also incredibly dissapointing to get this news a day after I read this. USAID has awarded the IRC an annual funding of $24.4 million for an "ambitious five-year program aimed at improving education and health services for Burmese refugees and migrants in Thailand." Part of this new program will also include working with local organizations on capacity building in the areas of education and health care.

All of which is excellent, really, but too little, too late for us, I suppose. Hopefully they'll see some benefit from this new initiative in the future, but who can say. It seems to be the basic living expenses they're falling short on - not just the funding for their work. Even with cashed-up donors around, getting a reliable source of money for things like food and housing can be challenging, I think.

I'm not nearly as upset now as when they first told me, it felt a little bit like I was being broken up with. But that was mostly for personal reasons; I really enjoy hanging out with them, chatting about politics and science and family and sometimes about eating family pets. They let me stay there for weeks, with my roommate's cat, when our own house flooded. They even cook for me. One of the three guys who is there during the day is an artist - we've never even spoken because we have no common language. But I still loved to watch when he'd sit outside and paint watercolors. I loved the way they would spontaneously and unselfconsciously burst into song, sometimes a lilting melody in words I don't understand, sometimes a bit off-key, sometimes Celine Dion. But still, it always made me smile.

I don't know where the guys will go to live, or if they'll all move to different places. I'm not sure they know either. But, AKSYU is still operating, and they are planning to move closer to the head office at least . So I guess its not like things are coming to an end, its just certian parts are being put on hold until further notice. Unfortunately for me, I only have a couple months left here.

They have one of their researchers currently in China, he was due to return next month to begin work on a new report, but now it looks like he'll be staying there in Yunnan province. They're considering moving their operations there, citing the difficulties of operating in Thailand. Since the Thai government has made buddies with the SPDC, democracy activists here are having a much harder time getting along. So much for 'constructive engagement', if engaging the SPDC means oppressing the fledgling civil society and opposition movements outside Burma, where does the constructive part come in? How can you push the SPDC to engage in a tripartate dialogue while simultaneously suppressing the third party opposition? Mr. Thaksin, the day democracy activists decide that it would be easier to operate out of China, China for god's sake, is the day you need to seriously re-consider your priorities.