Som's Story

I was born in Burma. I have four brothers and four sisters. I was born in the middle of the group. My father is Chinese and my mother is Shan, a people from Burma. When the Chinese were fighting my father’s family fled to Burma. He met my mother when she was 15 years old and my father was 25. They were soon married.

In the north of Burma, many people speak Chinese and Burmese. My older brothers and sisters all knew Chinese, Burmese and Shan. I never learned Shan, only Chinese and Burmese. I grew up in a small village. My father grew rice and corn. We had to move two times that I remember because the Burmese Army would come and want to take the young boys to use as porters. We were always scared when the army came but then they would go away for awhile. Then someone would let us know that the army was coming and we would all run into the forest. That is when we would have to move to another village because we could not go back to our old village.

When I became older about 32 I could not find any work in Burma so I went to Malaysia. I became a waitress. I met a girl and we became very good friends. Her brother Bo was made to work very hard by the Burmese Army in Burma. One day he was able to flee and go to Malaysia. My friend introduced me to her brother. We dated for one year and then we got married. My country is no good and we can’t go back so we decided to resettle. My husband chose America. We have lived in America for two years now. We have a little daughter who will be a year this December. We are glad we came to America. We feel safe here and we have food here. We don’t have to worry all the time like in Burma. The Lord has been good to us.