My name is Naw Pi and I was from (Maw Goe). Where I used to live there were a lot of wars and there were a lot of problems. I have four siblings and I am the second child. The oldest one is Naw Say Paw, Naw Pi, Haw Thi Gi and Naw Mi Dah. My parents were farmers and business people. When Burmese soldiers came to invade our hometown, we could not do anything. By the time it got dark we did not even have time to cook or eat. It took us a year to farm.

My mom was the one who gave birth to me, but I did not get the chance to do anything in return. As I became an adult, I got to help my dad with money. I would live with someone and work as a servant. I knew how to cook at 10 years old and that time I was also taking care of cows. Since I worked at other people’s houses, I had to learn all of these on my own. The foods I missed the most were bamboo shoot, Ta gu daw, de chaw, and vegetables. At that time they did not have food markets, but there was a place called (Ga Ma Moo) where we would buy chili and it took us 2 hours to get there.

I did not go to school. If I had a chance to go to school, I would become a doctor or a nurse. Since I did not go to school, I am nothing right now. When I was with my friends, we would talk about not having the chance to go to school, because our parents could not afford to pay for our school. Now, we are going to be servants and look after cows. I never had the chance to visit the city. I did not inherit anything from anybody.

I was 12 years old when I started helping my family. I never dated before my husband. I did not know anything about relationships. The traditional marriage for us was to tie knots and nothing else. The most satisfying thing during marriage was love. have five kids in total, but one passed away. I taught my children, the reason we came to United States, so that they will have a chance to go to school and we will give them all of our support. If they are not working, at least they are going to school. As parents, we might not know a lot of things, but we want our kids to learn and make a lot of improvement in their lives. I had no ideas about any type of celebrations, whether it is Christmas, Birthday or Karen New Years. My religion is Buddhism.

The reasons I came to America, because we needed a lot of help and there were a lot struggles in my life. I came so that my kids can have an education, and we will support them in any way we can. I might not know a lot of stuff about an education, but I want my kids to at least know more than I do. There were a few struggles we had to go through when we got to America by not knowing the language here.