NATION/WORLD

Sleep in the Hmong refugee camp Ban Vinai was often interrupted by distant wailing and weeping that slowly seemed to get gradually closer and louder. Then one could hear murmurs of a crowd gathering in the dark.

Walking through the Hmong refugee camps of Ban Vinai and Chiang Kham in the late afternoon, could be heard the cry of hungry babies, the wailing of mourners, roosters fighting, the crackling fuzzy public address system in a language few understood, hammers pounding on anvils in the blacksmith shop; different sounds down every path and around every corner.

Among the refugees in the camps of Thailand in the 1980s and 90s, whether from Cambodia, Viet-Nam or Laos, were many men and women who were highly skilled craft makers.

Wandering the winding footpaths and dirt roads in the Hmong refugee camps in northern Thailand decades ago, one encountered men and women busily going about their daily tasks, as we saw in the last installment of this series*. Another level of work activity was just as evident in camp, the everyday chores of children.

When most folks woke up in the predawn hour in Ban Vinai it was to the crowing of competing roosters throughout the hills and valleys in the camp housing tens of thousands of Hmong refugees, many of whom, it seems, had roosters.

Hmong Shamanism, and other traditional healing methods and herbal remedies will be described in a future installment, as we continue to interview the folks who were there.

To supplement the rice, occasional meat and vegetables that the UN rations provided, there were various means, some of which are shown in these photos, taken in Ban Vinai and Chiang Kham refugee camps.

For many of the older folks, food security weighs heavily in their recollections of everything that happened after the war, and details are still very clear in their memories.

This installment focuses on the most important aspect of life in the Hmong refugee camps in northern Thailand in the 1980s, and an even more important necessity. Photos here are from Ban Vinai refugee camp, Loei, Thailand.

In Ban Vinai refugee camp there were, spread out eventually over nine sections or zones (called Centers), nearly 400 buildings, with around 4,000 rooms, which were for families, so rooms typically had from six to twelve family members.