Gabriel Eh

Teaching the Young

The longer we are away from our homeland the more we lose our culture. These days less women know how to weave.

Harvest

In Karen we call this flower Thei Kah Paw. It is used in our delicious food. It has a bitter taste and grows beside the field.

Wedding Invitation

Here you can see Karen and English writing. We use English because it is an international language.

Anglo Karen Dictionary

Everyone has a Karen-English dictionary. In Karen State we speak Karen and Burmese. In Thailand first we learn English and then Thai.

Clothes

Occasionally Thai merchants come to the camp to sell us inexpensive clothes.

Church

People living in Mae La camp come from different religious backgrounds. We have many Christian churches, Buddhist temples and Muslim mosques.

Pagoda

In Burma Buddhism is treated as the state religion. In the refugee camp everyone has religious freedom.

Monastery

Some refugee Buddhist monks live in this monastery in the northern part of the camp.

Clay Jars

Water-filled jars like this are all over the camp. Anyone can stop for a drink.

Gathering Water

He will fill all those jugs with water.

My Story

The village where I was raised was surrounded by grasslands, hills and valleys. For generations my ancestors lived there peacefully, farming the fields and hunting in the forest. In 1998 the Burmese military attacked our village, burning it to the ground. We fled to the jungle for protection. The army buried landmines around our old village ensuring we would not return.

We built a new village about a days walk from the old one. Our new houses were built from the same materials as the old ones: bamboo and leaves. We do not build with metal or concrete. It was difficult to recreate a new village and there were many problems. Building a new education system was especially hard so those of us who could came to the refugee camp in Thailand to finish our schooling.

Sometimes foreigners ask me about my dreams for the future. I tell them that our situation is very difficult. We have no freedom in Burma or Thailand. When you have freedom you can have dreams for your own life. You can create goals and strategies to achieve those goals. Karen people have so few opportunities. We must work for freedom and democracy before we can dream for ourselves.