July 2008-- Tankee’s parents, Toy and Tona, are from a village 2 kilometers outside of the Shan State city of Lankur. They first thought of the idea of moving to Thailand because others in the village had done so.

“Life was okay,” they said at first, but it was difficult to earn enough money to feed themselves, let alone a family of three. Although they worked as farmers, they often had to prepare food for soldiers from the Burmese military junta. Sometimes, Tankee’s father was forced to act as a porter for the junta army, and occasionally the work was so hard that one of the laborers died.

To make matters worse, the Shan military often hid in the village’s surrounding forest, and they, too, sometimes demanded money from local farmers. Tankee’s parents were caught at the crossroads of two armies, when they themselves had no wish to fight.

When they moved to Thailand, they left Tankee’s older sister, then 3 years old, with her grandmother in Burma. They first settled in a Karen longneck village in the jungle for one year. Later, they moved to another town, and tried to earn a living there. They can’t remember how many times they moved the first few years, except that it was a lot.

Eventually, they settled in a town where other Shan migrant families also gathered, and Tankee was born three years later.

Tankee’s older sister, who was left behind, gets by with her grandmother, her new husband, and the remittances Tankee’s parents send home through friends.

Tankee herself is now 14 years old, and she lives in a one-room hut with her parents. They hope to visit relatives in Burma this year—if they can receive permission from their bosses, who would also need to escort them to the border and attest to their guest worker status in Thailand. It would be the first family reunion in 3 years.

The family is occasionally harassed by locals, and life in Thailand is economically precarious, but it is clearly preferable to their old life in Shan state simply because they are not in constant physical danger.

Tankee is in the 8th-grade and loves it. There are no classes she doesn’t like. During the hot season school vacation, Tankee works to earn some extra money and helps her parents to pay for extra, after-school programs and tutoring. Even in the BRP refugee community, where levels of enthusiasm for school are high, Tankee’s determination and sacrifice stands out.

At first, Tankee struggled to fit in, in school. Even now, children occasionally taunt her by claiming that she should not have the right to go to school, because she is Shan. She tries to comfort herself by talking things through with her parents and friends, but statements like these, especially between classes and during lunch, sometimes sting. Nevertheless, Tankee has made Thai friends at school: She’s in a group of 9 seemingly inseparable girls, of which 2 are Shan Burmese refugees.

Partly because her favorite subject is English, she hopes to become a tour guide when she grows up. She’s keen on talking to people of different cultures, learn new languages, and one day, maybe even travel herself.

Her academic achievement serves as a point of pride not just for Tankee but for the entire family; Tankee’s parents have spoken to her teachers and beam when recounting their praises, that she is amazing “even compared to the Thai students.” They hope to allow her to study “for as long as possible.”