Ask anyone at Mirror Art Group (MAG) anything about Ama and chances are they will pause, think about it for a while and then respond: “He is very quiet. He's shy.” Countless times I received this same response with few answers beyond, “He is Akha, he's not a citizen and I think he's from Ban Jalae Village.” I finally asked him for the favor of an interview to find out more about his citizenship and his life.

We share Ama's story with the TCP website because his story is not uncommon and perhaps not very different from other hilltribe people in Northern Thailand. His situation and life has largely been affected by the poverty and lack of education that comes with his non-citizen status. Because Ama left home at a very young age in search of work, he never experienced the educational campaigns that TCP has since brought to the villages of his area. Ama knows little not only about his own past but about his rights and the benefits that would come from citizenship.

Ama is the resident handyman, “Mr. Fix Everything” at the MAG and he certainly is mysterious but he's also quietly quite a character. Some days he'll walk around in the scorching heat with a wool hat, sunglasses and a hot pink bandanna covering his face, all you see is a sliver of skin between his eyes and the bandanna. I'm not sure if this is functional or style. Last week, he spent an entire day with a plastic hardhat helmet on his head. He wore it backwards, intentionally I'm sure, and when I asked why he was wearing it today he said, “No reason.”

Ama does not speak any English and everyone at MAG says he's never shown an interest in learning. As some of the foreign volunteers here held English class for the hilltribe tour guides, Ama quietly came over and sat down. He listened and though he shook his head when I asked him to participate I could see him mouthing the words that everyone else was saying out loud. I pulled him aside and we began with numbers. Since then, we've spent many evenings practicing counting and he can now reach 100. Ama is illiterate so he does this all from memory.

I am not surprised that Ama learns quickly. He has an excellent memory. All of the staff at Mirror Art ask me about Ama's English classes and I am surprised that this is such a big deal. They are pleased that he is interested in learning and they are eager to know about his progress. As quiet as he is, he's won the hearts of many at Mirror Art and everyone is happy to see him learning. I sense that his lack of education makes him even more shy in expressing interest in learning anything beyond the trades that he knows already.

Ama was born in Myanmar ( Burma ) as far as he knows. He does not know when he was born. His family migrated to Ban Jalae Village (presumably due to the unstable and violent situation in Myanmar ) but he does not know when they moved there or specifically why.

Ama grew up speaking Akha with his family and his village. His parents do not speak Thai and Ama never attended school. I ask how he learned the Thai language and he seems confused by the question. He says he doesn't really remember how he learned, he learned by working in Chiang Rai City as a vendor. He says he left home at age 10 to work and learned Thai then. Though I ask for more details he is unable to provide them. For him it is simple, he needed to learn the language and so he did.

Ama has to think a while when I ask how many siblings he has. In total, 6 sisters and 2 brothers. Like Ama, most of his siblings never went to school. One of his younger sisters, however, is currently enrolled in a school in Chiang Rai City. I ask what school and he pauses, then flashes a rare grin saying he never thought to ask her. Later in the conversation, he casually mentions that the money he earns working at the MAG he sends to his sister to pay her tuition. He seems very matter of fact about this. When I ask why Ama never went to school he shrugs, because he's lazy he says. I have trouble describing a child who leaves home at age 10 to work as “lazy” but I don't pursue the matter.

Ama came to live at MAG about 4 years ago. At age 13 he began work for several years in construction. He eventually returned to the villages where he was hired by MAG as a guard to the drug campaign camps that Mirror Art held. The camps would last approximately a month and Ama stood guard at the door to monitor who came and went. He worked on 3 or 4 of these camps and was then hired full time by MAG where he has lived since. Here, he works on anything that needs to be built, fixed (including electrical things, motorbikes and cars) or moved. I ask how he learned the work that he does: he learned by watching. He understands that his job comes with the responsibility not only to work but to learn as many skills as he can. Like his ability to speak Thai, again I probe for more details on his learning, he repeatedly responds with “I don't know,” but eventually grins, looks up for one of the few moments in our entire interview and says, “I'm clever, I guess.”

We finally talk about citizenship, the original point of the interview that he agreed to. I ask if he has any documentation, any papers, a driver's license, anything. “Mai mee. I don't have any.” He adds that if any papers exist, they are somewhere in Myanmar. Then he asks me a question. Why do I ask about his citizenship? This surprises me. I assumed living and working here he knew something of the work that Mirror Art does. His understanding of the organization is minimal and he was unaware of the Thai Citizenship Project's campaign and work. When I explain it to him he nods. I ask if he wants citizenship and he says, “If the government grants me citizenship, I will take it. If not…” he shrugs without looking up from his hands.

Ama rides a motorbike in and out of the MAG campus constantly to run errands and pick up necessary supplies for his various projects. But he says that he always stays in the village area. He does not venture the 17 kilometers to Chiang Rai City because without papers and without a license he would face insurmountable fines if he was caught. Recently, Ama was in a motorbike accident and was unable to go to see any doctor because non-citizens cannot access the medical insurance system. He limped around Mirror Art for several days unable to do much work.

I ask if Ama likes his work and again he says, “I don't know.” For him, it's not a matter of like or dislike, it's just work. He admits that sometimes he gets bored. Beyond this, there are few options for Ama. He cannot travel outside of this restricted area to seek any other job because he does not have papers. He cannot receive scholarships to study to bring his skill level and knowledge to a level that challenges and engages him more.

Education was not an option for Ama. How much his leaving home was his choice or his parents is unclear. It's very much his choice to live outside of his village now. He knows little about Akha traditions and Akha culture because of his absence. The opportunities afforded other children throughout Thailand have been denied to so many hilltribe and non-citizen peoples. Ama quietly shows us what the effects of such denials of human rights are and reminds us of why Thai Citizenship Project does this work.

Ama's answers throughout the interview are brief and mumbled. One of the few times that he gave a more in depth answer was when talking about the skills he's learned around the MAG. When I ask if it was difficult to learn he shakes his head then calmly looks me in the eye. “I have to believe that I am able to learn it, able to do it and then I can.”