My name is Bu Lei and I was born in Te La Nai, Burma. The village I grew up in was small and filled Karen, but not much of Burmese. The Burmese people would come visit to our village sometimes. The house was build out of bamboo, woods and the roof were leaves. I am the oldest sister and have 8 siblings, but 1 passed away. All my siblings got along with me, but I am the closest one to the youngest. My parents were farmers and had a garden. They started working early in the morning and came back in the evening. They would eat early breakfast and for lunch they would eat left over. For myself I would help clean the house and took care of my siblings since I am the oldest child. When I became an adult, I got the chance to help my family with money a little, because I was a teacher.

 I learned how to cook at age 11 years old. At first my parents taught me basic stuff such as how to cook rice and fish paste. Our daily meals were rice, vegetables soup, fish paste and we did not eat much of meat, because we could not afford it. We usually went shopping at (Gah Ma Moe) and it took us from the morning to night time. We would buy dry fishes, salt, and spices, but not vegetables because we planted them at home. I did go to school and I loved the feeling of going to school and also being with friends. When I was with my friends, we would ask each others what kind of career we would like to do. Since back in the day there were not much of games, but the games we played were with Maw Gae (seeds) or jump ropes.

 I did get to keep the Karen clothes that past down from generation which were from my grandma and mom. I still kept the stuff that belong to my dad who passed away. I have never dated, but just visited each others and got married when I was 21 years old in 1984. We met each others at (Koh Lo Glow) and we have 3 children together. At my village we celebrated New Year and we would eat together and go to church together. Back in the day our ancestors the way they celebrated New Year they would put up a grain of rice on the bamboo and gathered the whole village to come eat together. I would go with my mom and sister. My family religion is Christian. I missed the most when I was a child was having fun and went to school.

 My teacher told me one story and he said there was a wild dog and a crow. The crow was flying and the dog saw it and followed the crow, because the dog knew that the crow going to land on the tree where they hung the sugar block. The dog really wanted to eat the sugar block. When the bird landed on the tree the wild dog said, “My dear friend crow, your skin may seem black but you have a really sweet voice.” The wild dog knew that if he kept repeating over and over how sweet the voice of the crow was somehow the sugar block that hung on the tree will fall, because the echoed of the crow noises. Since the wild dog kept saying nice things to the crow and the crow was really happy and proud inside, but he did not show it. The wild dog repeated and said, “My dear friend crow, your skin may seemed black, but you have a really sweet voice.” Finally the crow could not keep it inside any longer and he let it out and made a big noises. The sugar block that hung on the tree fell on the ground. The wild dog got the chance to eat the sugar block. The meaning behind this story was that as a human we have to be patience, listen carefully whether what others have to said was true or not. Otherwise we would not get what we want or not get to eat liked how the crow just let the food been eating by the wild dog.

 The reason we came here because I heard that the United State is a free country, and also thanks to God we got picked to come. When we first got to America there were a few struggles such as not knowing the language and the foods we did not like, because we were not used to it. As we live longer we started liking the food and other things. The reason I like being in the United States, because we do not have to be scared of the police like I was in my village. In my village if the police see people outside the gate, they would arrest us and take us to jail, because they did not want anyone out and but stay in the community.