Day Mu

How long have you lived in Omaha? 

I have lived in Omaha three years.

How old were you when you moved to Omaha?

I was almost twenty years old.

Where did you move from?

Mae Ra Moe Refugee Camp in Thailand.

Do you still have family back home?

Some extended family still lives in Thailand and Burma.

Are your parents here with you?

Yes.

What do your parents do?

My parents are in their 60s and 70s, so their seven children are mostly grown now. We all take care of them. My mom studies English every weekday. My mother and father plant a big garden every summer and tend to it all day, every day. It provides us with free tomatoes, long beans, Karen cabbage, chillies, cilantro, Karen pumpkins, and other delicious fresh vegetables all summer long. This is a huge help to our family.

What has the transition or move been like for you?

The transition has been hard mostly because we have compassion for our family and friends back home who do not have the privilege yet of coming here. We know that the situation there is very terrible and difficult. 

When I first moved here, it was really difficult to me. We could not drive, we couldn’t speak any English, and we didn’t know anything about living here. Now, it is easier because I have a lot of friends who can help me but I have also learned how to do a lot on my own too. 

How do you spend your days?

I study English at Chase’s house every morning for a few hours, then I usually cook for my family. Sometimes I help clean the apartment too. I take an English class at Metropolitan Community College twice a week. I am always listening to music, videos, podcasts, and sermons to improve my English. And lately, I’ve been practicing guitar. I spend my weekends hanging out with friends and going to church.

The transition has been hard mostly because we have compassion for our family and friends back home who do not have the privilege yet of coming here.

What’s next? What do the next couple of years have in store for you?

I want to continue my education and become fluent. Then the next couple years I would love to work and help support my family. When I have more experience, I want to be an interpreter at a school to help my Karen people. And I have a dream to go back to visit Thailand one day also. 

How have you learned to deal with the transition to the states? 

The United States offers so many opportunities to help yourself. In Thailand, we didn’t even have internet, so we didn’t know how to develop ourselves. I have felt like anything I want to do, I can do here. I have so much chance to improve my life. We have so many American friends who have helped guide us to teach us how to build our lives here. It is definitely my friendships that have helped me transition the most.

Where do you find the drive to move forward?

When I first came to the United States, my case worker misinformed me that I was too old to go to high school, so I immediately started a job at a factory for my first five months here. One of my mother’s friends was working at Yate’s School, a school in Omaha that helps refugees, and she connected me with a teacher there named Mr. Glen. Mr. Glen told me, as a refugee, I was still eligible for high school until I turned twenty-one. I quit my job immediately and got enrolled and went to Benson High School for one year. Through this experience of working for awhile first and then going to school, I got to see how difficult the real world is without knowing English or having any education here. This experience motivates me to study English every day and to take advantage of every opportunity to learn right now, so that when I have a job again one day, I will be able to move up quickly and succeed.

What is at the heart of your life here in Omaha?

The heart of what I do is my Karen people. My people have been in civil war for almost seventy years. We have never been allowed to be citizens anywhere--not in Burma (Myanmar) and not in Thailand either. We have lived on rations of rice, beans, tuna, oil, and sugar in refugee camps our whole lives. I am motivated by the struggle to love and help them. If I can learn English perfectly, I hope to visit home and help for a few years. 

What has been your experience with adversity?

In the Thailand refugee camps, we were restricted to being inside. We weren’t allowed to go out, get jobs, get an education and provide for our families. The government rations were never enough to fulfill most families’ needs. So, most families gardened and raised animals to supplement our food supply. It was hard labor. We didn’t have electricity and we lived in bamboo houses. 

Going to school was a privilege, not a freedom like in America. We had to pay for tuition even to go to elementary school in the camp. Some families couldn’t afford it.

In Thailand, we lived in constant fear of the Thai police. They guarded our refugee camps. You know, we were all so poor, and we were desperate to make money. Sometimes people would try to leave the camp to find some work and come back with money for their family. If someone got caught trying to leave the camp they would send them to prison. The only way they wouldn’t send us to prison would be through accepting a monetary bribe. It was so unfair. 

What role does that experience play in your life now? 

Because we grew up in such a difficult situation, I believe it makes us motivated to write a better story for our future. We hope for a brighter future that won’t have as much struggle for our children. Adversity humbles us and reminds us every day about what life used to be like and how we never want to go back to that. 

How has having an advocate in your community changed the dynamic of it?

Having an advocate in my community has been beneficial and has really changed the lives of many of my people for the better. Being an advocate is not easy and you have to be brave enough to talk for others when they aren’t able to find the words for themselves. That’s why I want to thank those who have worked hard to advocate for my community and my people, especially Chase and Robbie for what they’ve done and their dedication for the refugee community. 

I can tell how much Chase loves Karen people because she moved into these old apartments just to help us. There are a lot of issues that we have to live with in my apartment like mice, bed bugs and cockroaches but it doesn’t bother her. If someone is being rude or is treating Karen people badly she hates it. This community is something that she cares about and sometimes, she doesn’t even have time to rest, she just gives her time to us. She takes on the pain that we often have to endure in these apartments. 

We are always asking her for help like when we get our mail we go to her house and she reads it for us, or when we need to go to the store she’ll drive us. If we need to go to the doctor she’ll take us and stay there with us. We can’t even keep track of the different ways she helps us. There are times when we don’t even need to ask her for help but she’s there ready to help in any way she can. She is always concerned about the Karen people and she’s constantly looking for ways to help us and make sure that we are not getting into trouble. Even while she’s sick herself she finds ways to help us. 

It means so much to me to have her as a friend! If I didn’t have her here our lives would be incredibly different. I’m also grateful for Robbie and how he has embraced us and supports his wife helping us, even though we have nothing to offer them in return. He also cares about Karen people a lot and I really appreciate it. I know that someone like him is not easy to find. I’m so incredibly grateful for everything that these two have done for me.

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