Meeting family at last!

Meeting family…at last!

The other half of Kue Kue's family...love them already

Today was an almost overwhelming mix of emotions. We were able to meet the rest of Kue Kue’s family—at last! Hei Klay Soe, his older sister, and her 5 year old son came to talk with us this morning for about an hour while his father waited for the younger two brothers to finish their school examinations and join us. Hei Klay Soe’s English is great, and we were able to talk with him about life in America and life here. The little one was excited to see photos of his family—and the animal pictures from our trip through the Chiang Mai zoo. Equally, I’d say. ;)

Liss, Tu Tu and Chu Chu after they'd walked a LONG way to reach us

Eh La and Josh

 While we were waiting for the other three to arrive, our precious older Karen friends from Boise, Tu Tu and Htee Shwe came to visit, and brought two of the others with them—Chu Chu and Myo Chit Oo. It was like a great big happy family reunion. There was a lot of hugging and laughing and it felt so good to be with them.  They were happy to meet Kue Kue’s family, since we pray for them all the time.  Several people walked for an hour and a half each way (and it is crazy HOT here), just to get to be with us for a few hours. We are humbled again and again here, and their huge hearts are such an example to us of what we ought to be. We apologized that they had to walk so far (we can’t leave to go visit them in their zones of the camp), but they waved it off as nothing, saying that there was no reason why they shouldn’t. Amazing people, I tell you. Just the best. We are thankful to call them our family. 

Myo Chit Oo and Chu Chu--they already miss their two children back in Boise and were ready to come back! :)

Htee Shwe, Tu Tu, Josh, Liss, Chu Chu and Myo Chit. Wonderful family reunion.

Here's a link to a video of Hei Klay Soe meeting our Boise Karen folks for the first time. Sweet to see worlds coming together.

And here is one of our favorite videos:Hei Klay Soe takes us on a tour of his family's home in Mae La camp.

Right alongside the elation of getting together, though, is the pain that comes with seeing how difficult and sometimes dangerous life is for people here. Tu Tu and Htee Shwe were very excited to go back into Burma this trip to visit their home village, but were told partway there that things were too bad for them to go back even for a short time. Seeing their disappointment was hard, especially knowing that this was probably their last chance to see ‘home’ and family on this side of the world.

You can't see it from here...but we were all sweating! Made me feel a little better to know I wasn't the only one.

I think in our last post we talked a little bit about how the pace and attitude of life is different here, but we are continually struck by it. We are able to make so many connections with how things are here and how different they are in the US—and so many of the puzzles we’ve had with why our refugee friends struggle with certain things make SO much more sense to us now. Like bathing, for example: a couple of years ago, I had a conversation with a woman about why they always had two big buckets in their shower. She said that they used them for washing clothes, and for taking a shower. I asked if she knew how the shower in their bathroom worked, and she just kind of looked at me funny and pointed to the buckets again. When I showed her how the whole shower system worked, she was surprised! She’d never known how to get water out of anything other than the lower spout. Even after I showed her, though, I think it was back to the buckets. If it works, why mess with it? 

The unclimbed mountain

Just to one side of the camp is a beautiful, towering mountain range. It looks like it would be a strenuous hike, but definitely just a day hike to get to the top of the mountain. From there, you would have a fantastic view of the entire camp and much of the surrounding land. Josh was shocked to find, in talking with six different able-bodied young men that none of them had been to the top, or even partway up, though it was within the bounds of the camp. We also talked to a young pastor who has lived in Mae La camp for ten years, and found that he has never been to the big market here, even though it was less than 15 minutes’ walk from his home. Both of these things just blew Josh away. As people with so little freedom, it didn’t make sense to him that they wouldn’t want to explore and take advantage of every square foot of space accessible to them. He thinks it might be because there is sometimes very little hope here (especially for those without faith in God), and as a result there is little reason to really look around. The sense of adventure through exploration, which we take for granted as people with such huge amounts of freedom, doesn’t seem to be present here. It’s given Josh pause to reflect and appreciate instances in our past experience where newly resettled refugees in the U.S. have found this freedom in their new home country. We have seen some of our families set off on huge road trips with only a destination state in mind (halfway across America)…just to see what things were like—because they CAN. Big, eye-opening, ‘owl’ kind of moment for him today.

homes near the base of the mountain

In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Dr. Simon and several other pastors from around Burma and Thailand. They have seen this conflict for a long time, and were able to walk us through the uprisings, changes in power, oppression of all of the ethnic minorities, formation of the refugee camps, and relations between Burma and its surrounding countries. This is real stuff—the violence, danger, sacrifice and exploitation of millions of people on a daily basis isn’t exaggerated or made up. These men have lived in it and through it—some for quite a long time. The amazing thing about our conversation is that they still have hope and still believe that there can be peace and unity here, and that their nation can be rebuilt, renewed and restored. Their faith carries them through the times of darkness, but they praise God for even small victories and are always looking for the light. 

A group of Bible school students preparing for their mission trip

We have been invited to join a group of seminary students and a few of the pastors on a short mission trip to a nearby Karen village tomorrow. We aren’t sure quite what to expect (these folks are hard core missionaries!!), but we are excited for the challenge. In the house next to us, some of the students are practicing their drama presentations and songs (including Feliz Navidad…in Karen…of course). Their enthusiasm is contagious.  We are looking forward to seeing life in the village. Who knows how we will all get there—there are at least 10 students going, only one truck, and several adults. Oh, and us. Smelly, sweaty us (be thankful that you can’t smell through this blog…it isn’t nice). Should be a good time!

Dr. Simon was planning to come with us (he was the one who originally invited us), but he received a call this afternoon notifying him that the KLA elections are tomorrow. The KLA is kind of like the Karen government (as much as a nationless people can have ), and this is a pretty big deal. The people here are concerned for the outcome of the elections. They need strong leaders who are willing to work hard for the good of the people. Please join us in praying for this pivotal event. These people need lasting, unifying change, and we trust that it is still possible. 

Kue Kue's grandson...super excited for the Cars movie they sent for him. :)