My name is Soe Myint and I was born in Doe Wan in Sa Ma Town, Burma. In my hometown, where I used to live, the government of the Burmese people owned our property, land, houses and dirt. After white people came to our hometown everything got so much better. Karen people finally stood up for themselves to the Burmese. In 1964 everything got worse due to the Karen vs  Burmese war. When I was young everything was calm and amazing. We would go fishing, swimming, play Cane Ball and soccer. I had a lot of fun when I was young, but as I got older things were not so good anymore.

I was raised in the countryside. My house was made out of trees, bamboo, and the roof was built with leaves. I have seven siblings and I am third in line. My siblings and I were poor. We would go fishing, and find water snails in the ocean to sell them later. We would go buy rice with the money we got from selling the snails. Both of my parents did a lot of jobs, such as selling shrimp paste, selling salts, and whatever they could to support the family. I did not get to help my parents, even when I was an adult, and I regret it. My chore was taking care of cows. The only time I have ever gone to school was for about two to three months, when I became a monk (ta pwe po) and I was 12 years old. My uncle was the one who invited me, because he was short of people. My parents could not afford to send all their children to school. To tell the truth I did not like school, because it was not for me. I had fun making money and doing business. I left the house when I was about 13 years old to Tha Ma Taw. I left Tha Ma Taw, because I had to move to Gar Cher which is the border of Thailand. I lived in Thailand for 15 years. I finally got to work on a farm in Ta pu char. I went twice to visit my hometown, when I already had one kid. As I became an adult, I was able to support my family and finally was able to build my house. The roof was made out of metal (tin) instead of leaves. I was able to buy some wood, I had lots of animals, and I planted some rice.

I started to cook at the age of 10. The food I made was rice, curry, and porridge. Karen traditional foods were vegetables, taro, root vegetables, and ta ker paw (rice and bamboo soup). I did not know how to cook everything until I was about 20 years old. No one taught me how to cook and I learned it on my own by looking at others. The Karen food I missed the most was curry nyi ti with chicken. In Do Wan, we didn’t have many Karen clothes back in the day of 1974, but a bit further up from my hometown we did.

I started dating when I was 18 years old, we didn’t do anything but write to each other. My parents did not tell me anything about dating or relationships. My aunt and uncle were the ones who told me to be careful when I am going to date someone. They told me that some marriages did not last long whether was the guy or the girl fault. I met my wife when I was 25 years old in Pa ta Ni ( Karen town). We dated for a year before we got married. My parents did not meet her or even my second wife. With my first wife I got baptized first, then we got married. Before getting married I already had in mind what I wanted to do with my life. For example, what I would do next after building the farm. I had five kids with the first wife, and two kids with my second wife. We did not celebrate anything, because we did not know how. My whole family is Buddhist, except I am Christian. I did not serve in the army, but I got to help cook, prepare food, or plan big events for the  soldiers. To me the Karen tradition seems to be disappearing, and I see less and less such as tight knots or eating together in a big feast.