My name is Moh Loh and I am 69  years old. My family was from No Maw. My grandparents were farmers, and they were not rich. My parents were also farmers and had a little business that sold products such as the things they grew in their farm. I was born in Chi Doh Pu, and the house was very poor. When I was young I had to take care of my siblings, while my parents were at the farm. The things I did to help my parents were taking care of pigs and grinding rice in the mortar. I have 10 siblings and I am eighth in line. All my siblings were nice to each other. All of our siblings had duties to do such as cooking, taking care of cows, and carrying water to the house. My mom showed me how to cook and the rest I would learn on my own. While learning from her I tried my very best. The most important food we made was spicy paste and rice soup with bamboo.

When we had free time as a family, we would talk because there was nothing else to do. My friends were my cousins, and when we would get together we would go to different places and to church together. My religion is Christian and we worship on Saturday. On Christmas Day we would exchange gifts and go to different places with friends. We did not celebrate birthdays in the family. My hometown was nice, we lived in the jungle back in the day, and we planted nicotine fields. We usually went shopping at Gi Doh, it took us a long time to get there. To go shopping we went on wagon wheels. We began riding there in the morning, and we would get home at night time. The only big city I went to was Chi Ching. I felt like I would get lost. The city seemed nicer, but I did not want to stay, because I did not know how to go around those places and it was different for me. To tell the truth I liked the village better.

I have never been to school, or even seen a school until later when I was an adult. When I got older, there was no chance for me to go to school, because I had to work. If I had a chance to go to school it would have been nice. In my household there was no one who went to school. As I got older, I felt like we had no education and people looked down on us. When girls or boys are smart people think highly of them. When I was a kid, the game I used to play with my friends was pretending to make food in coconut shell with dirt. I have never seen or played sports.

My relationship with my parents when I was an adult was good. I could not help my parents with money, because I did not have any. Instead of helping them out, my parents had to help me. I started dating at 18 years old and I got married at 20 years old. It was an arranged marriage. My parents’ advice to me about relationships was that I should find someone who is not lazy and that could support the family. The first time I met my husband he came to visit me at my house. I liked him because he was not lazy. He was a very simple guy and he did not have an education either. I liked him at first sight, and we both liked each other. We did not do anything when I got together with my husband, but just talked. My husband was from Noh Maw. He used to live in Pi Ta Ca, and later came to live with an uncle and aunt there. After we got married we did just like every other couples do, such as take care of the kids and argued sometimes. I have four children, and now they are around 40 or more years old. The hardest things while taking care of my children was when they got sick, I had to grind rice while carried them at my back. I taught my children not to drink, not to use drugs, and to not steal. All my children got along, but as they got older they went their separate ways. One of my kids lives in Texas, other in California and two are still living at Mae La Camp. We did not have anything to pass on to our kids. There was no one in my family that was a soldier.

We came to America because the Burmese soldiers came to shoot and torture our village and we had to flee in the forest while carrying my daughter’s in a  piggyback form. There were no peaceful times because we had to runaway. When we got to America it was a really good opportunity for us. We did not have to worry about everyday meals like we did in Noh Maw. We got to eat a lot of good food. Since I got to America everything has changed for me, because of the way people live in this new culture.