Life at the Pwo Hostel

 

The Mae Sariang Pwo hostel kids in 1985

The goal for life in the hostel was to replicate the home and village lifestyle to which the students were already accustomed. Of course, being in town with electricity, having schools to attend, and living together with numerous kids with supervision other than parents created definite differences.

Dr. Joyce Cong from the Christian Hosptital
making a house call at the hostel.

Another goal was to promote parental involvement as much as possible. So parents were required to provide rice to contribute to the hostel food supply as well as a financial contribution. Especially for parents in the remote villages, cash was hard to come by so the contribution was limited but important. Labor from parents was also integrated as much as possible in the building projects, especially early on. The hope was to instill a feeling of ownership in the hostel and in the education of their children.

For the kids, life was pretty regimented. The day would start with dressing and washing up for the day,
morning prayers, breakfast, then off to school. Coming home in the afternoon, there was homework time, chores, dinner, maybe a little free time, an evening worship, then off to bed. The day started early and ended pretty early as well.

Sleeping was on mats on the floor or maybe a kapok mattress. The beds were all laid out side by side in a long, open room dormitory style. Each bed had a mosquito net and each person would put their clothes and what few personal belongings they had at the head of their bed. In the mornings, the mattresses/mats were all rolled up and stored up next to the wall to keep as much floor space open as possible.

Meal time in 1986

Meals were prepared in a kitchen housed in a separate small building just outside the hostel. The hostel parents were the main cooks though the students would help. Culturally, a lot of the Pwo Karen food lends itself to being cooked together, stew like, in large pots so it was somewhat easy to prepare the food in large enough quantities to feed everyone.

In the beginning, mats were spread on the floor and students ate, while sitting on the mats. That would have been natural as sitting on the floor to eat would was what they would do at home. I think tables were added later, but a lot of life happened on the floor as the hostel program got started.

A couple fathers and some of the hostel 
kids digging the base for the shower area.

Water was problematic at the hostel. Parents had helped dig several wells, but the water supplied was
never enough. Eventually, the hostel was able to tap into Mae Sariang’s water supply. That made water readily available but of course, there was a cost involved.

Medical care was provided by the Mae Sariang Christian Hospital which was located close by.

During the longer school breaks the students would return home to their home villages. That kept them in touch with their roots as much as possible. Still, with an education they were being prepared for a different way of life and being introduced to a whole new world. It was certainly welcomed but at the same time, I’m sure there were some oversized generation gaps that were formed that families had to work through.

Laundry time at the hostel.

In spite of the challenges and any negatives, we both feel it was a privilege to be a part of the BUS Pwo Hostel and Scholarship programs. Within a few years, students were contributing to their families and villages in numerous ways. Some students were the first in their villages that could read and write Thai which opened communication with the local government and opened doors to take advantage of government programs. Early on, some got Biblical training in Chiang Mai and other places and became evangelists reaching out the Pwo People not only around Mae Sariang, but in other areas of the country as well. The Pwo Karen church was really just getting started in the 1980s but with increasing numbers of graduates as years went by, the quantity of church leaders increased as well as their quality and depth of training. It was a joy to see people we first knew as youngsters in the hostel grow into church and even government leaders. Even to this day, we see Facebook posts of leaders in the Pwo Karen church that we first knew as young kids at the Pwo Hostel.