My name is Ten Net and I was born in Ga Tan in Burma. I used to lived in the jungle. There were a lot of trees, mountain, and rivers. Everything around me was green and the water tasted so sweet. My house was built with wood, bamboo and the roof was leaves. I have one brother and he is still in Burma. I am the oldest in the family. We were both farmers and got along really well. Sometimes, my little brother would like to send me some roots and other things to the United States.

When I was young, I helped out taking care of my brother and also took care of cows. While taking care of cows, I would get hurt, got bruises, got mosquitoes bites, and leech bites. When it was lunch time, I had to rush eating, because I had to take care of the cows. They did not have school at the time when I was little. I had never heard of school or seen it until later when I was 20 years old. When we were young we would play maw ga and we went swimming in the river. As a kid we would get sick a lot and the medication our parents gave us were made out of roots. At that time there were no hospitals.

My parents were farmers, and in the cotton business. We would start working at 7:00 A.M and finish at 3:00 P.M. It was a really hard life. I started working at the farm when I was 18 years old. I did not get to help my parents with any money and the money was called chi man. One thing I remember is my family gave us traditional clothes that were made out of cotton. My mom taught me how to cook at eight years old. I knew how to make fry fish, vegetables, and soup. Our traditional Karen food was spicy and made into a paste, and also rice soup with bamboo.

I have never dated. At age 19 years old, I moved to Tawn Oo. At that time, I was planning to go find work outside of the village, but I was not thinking about dating anyone. My parents mentioned about a girl that she did not have any parent. My mom pushed me to marry her and to love her. I decided to stay because my parents and grandfather adored her very much. They thought she was a good girl for me. The first time I met her I did not like her, because she was fat and had a short neck. I got married at 31 years old and it was an arranged marriage. She moved to my house and we all lived together with my mother’s side of the family. I have three boys with her. I taught my children to go to school a lot and life will be better for them. The things that satisfy me the most are getting to see my children grow and later it is their turn to do the same and take care of  us.

 To go shopping for food was a long way to go. We would get there at noon, but come back home at night. That was why we planted our own vegetables at our house, so we did not have to go that far.

The hardest thing in life was when we had to run away from Burmese people, thieves, and the Japanese. When I was young we had to run away every night. Even when I was already an adult, I still had to run. Our grandparents would tell us to cook fast and eat fast, because you would never know what time we have to run away. We did not celebrate anything at my hometown, until I moved to Mae La Camp. In Mae La Camp we celebrated Mother’s Day, Refugee’s Day, and Christmas. Mae La Camp was ok for us, but the U.S is better. My religion is Christian (Seventh Day Adventist).