My name is Law Mae and I was born in Burma called Te Ko Mu Der. The village I grew up in surrounding me were big mountains and farms, which they planted in the forest. The whole house I used to lived in built out of bamboos and the walls also made out of bamboos. I have 5 siblings. 5 boys and 1 girl. All my siblings still in Burma, because none of my siblings wanted to move far from their hometown and parents. My siblings were farmers. I am the closet to my oldest brother named Pa Taw Dee and he already had a child. My parents worked in the garden and cut weeds/grasses. The rice fields they planted were in the jungle and gigantic mountains surrounding it. Both of my parents lived a simple life and their daily routine were going to the rice fields. They started planted rice in April to December, which they finished. 

When I was young I woke up early in the morning to cook, grind rice by using the mortar and fed pigs, carry water from the well and later fed chicken. After I finished my chores at home, I would take my basket and a knife to head to the rice fields to help my parents cut weeds/ grasses. When I was around 15 years old I would go out with my friends and we would sing, laughs and played together. My friends were from all over the villages and different part of the community. When I was with my friends we would talk, eat, drink and smoke together, because that is the Karen culture. We do have Karen traditional clothes, bag and bless the spirit.

I learned how to cook at age 6 years old and my parents were the ones who taught me how to cook. Since I lived in the jungle the foods we usually made were sticky rice, sesame sticky rice, sticky rice in a bamboo, and fried desserts/vegetables. To go shopping for foods we would go to Te Co Mu Dah, Pa Pu, Ler Doh, and Ger Tah which took us maxima two or one day. The highest grade school we had there was fourth grade. People who graduated from fourth grade focused more on an education to become leaders and teachers. 

I started dating when I was around 30 years old and the girls would be 25 years old. Our culture way of talking to your crush were write poems and singing. My parents taught me that when a guy find a women was to look thoroughly inside and out. I met my wife at age 30 years old and we both liked each others. She wore a really long Karen beautiful dress and it covered everything. One sad thing I had to face during marriage was my children being sick. My happy time was being with my family and having a family of mine own. I taught my children back in the village that you guys are Karen people and we do not have much, which mean we have to work hard and use our own strength. We have a lot of celebrations which are Karen New Year, Martyr’s Day, build new houses and eat together during the month of April. When I was in my village I used to be animism but now I am Christian.

Karen people are originally from Mongolia, but since we moved a lot we were at China, Burma, Te Ta Kae and now the United State. Our Karen people moved a lot and it went smoothly because of God. It was around 1997 when DKBA, Ko Per Baw and Burmese soldiers they were splitting up and fighting against one another. Because of their wars, our Karen people had to escaped which we did not have time to sleep or eat. The soldiers started to invade our hometown and we had to run away. We were all frighten of the Burmese’s soldiers and that was why we were at refugee camp. My family and I later came to America and we got here n 2012.

When I was in my village called Te Ko Mu Der in 1977. Around those time that made me the happiest when I got to spend time with leaders, villagers, eat and farms. We would plant rice fields and we would give a blessing to it afterward of our successful season of planting. We would play instruments and read poems. We would gather our people around and worked together whether it was for a wedding or give a blessing to the spirits. It was the time when people built new houses we would come together as a group and helped each others out. People would provide a lot of foods and alcohol. We invited our wife and children with us and also our friends who lived far from us. The house made out of bamboo and the roof were coconut leaves. We lived in that house for 3 years and we would rebuild it again. The vegetables we ate were taro, corn, squash, green beans, pumpkins and anything else we could find. The seasoning stuff for curry we would plant them in the forest and it was called (paw hir hu pur. We did not get to eat a lot of meat but usually vegetables. People did raised chicken and pigs. When it came to a big day we would kill the animals that we raised and celebrated. When I was young, I would go visit other villages for the weddings and we would asked for bitternuts, crispy rice, alcohol, bags and also asked girls to wear their necklaces. We would read poems to the elders and young girls. We were all young and we had a lot of fun.