Agong Chermu is Akha from the Pukho Village in the Chiang Rai province of Thailand. He is 41 years old and works as a tour guide for Mirror Art Group's Ecotours. He is married to A-do Mayu and has two children. His son, Anoolat is 8 years old and attends school locally. His daughter, Seliform, is 12 years old and attends school in Bangkok on scholarship (available to her because she is a citizen). A-do, Anoolat and Seliform are all citizens but Agong is not.

Agong speaks Akha, Thai (Southern and Northern Thai), Lahu and English. He is literate in Akha and Lahu and is able to read and write some Thai and some English. Agong and I conducted our entire interview in English. Amazingly enough, Agong has never attended school. His Akha literacy comes as a result of the Christian and Catholic missionaries in his village. He has learned the Thai language from a non-formal education center that the government has established in his village. Villagers from a nearby village descend to his village every Sunday and hold Thai language classes. His English he has learned from his work at the Mirror Art Group and he studies and works very hard to improve it. His skill level is so high that he is able to aid other hilltribe tour guides at Mirror Art Group with their English language. In addition to his work at the Mirror Art Group, Agong serves as an advisor in the Roman Catholic Church to his villagers.

Agong explains that his family was able to gain its citizenship when the Thai Citizenship Project came to his village to work with them on gaining this right. He, however, was absent because he had left home in search of work and missed out on this opportunity. He has since submitted papers through the Thai Citizenship Project to receive his citizenship but has been waiting for over two years for it to be processed.

Though Agong holds a Green ID Card, meaning he is registered in the government's records, his life is significantly limited by his non-citizen status. He is unable to own land, own a motorbike (the popular and these days necessary form of transportation for most hilltribe people) and he is unable to leave the Chiang Rai Province. In fact, since he does not have a license for the motorbike he rides, he is unable to travel to nearby Chiang Rai City. If he is caught without the license that he is denied he is subject to hefty fines that he would be unable to pay. He says that citizenship is important for work, he is unable to travel for work and faces the daily dangers that come with existing in this country without citizenship. His and his family's lives are precarious because of his lack of citizenship.

When I ask Agong what he wants readers to know about his life and about the issues of citizenship in Thailand he says:

"I want to tell anyone who reads this that citizenship is very important to me. I like my work at Mirror Art very much and I don't have citizenship and I cannot go anywhere."