La La Moo (the girl on the far left) showed up at our house the very first weekend that we arrived in the camp. But we didn't meet her family, or hear her story, until the last weekend we were in the camp. From the very beginning we were impressed with her confidence and her ability to communicate in English, despite the fact that she had only completed high school the year before. She was obviously very clever. She taught me a Karen song on the guitar and she taught us how to cook yellow beans (one of the few foods that refugees are supplied with). Once school started she became very busy and would stop by every once in awhile, always to our delight. She brought different friends and her sister; we taught them how to play "spoons" and "go fish" and showed them the newspapers that we had.
I taught communication skills to her class at school for a whole week. After that she invited Richard and I over to meet her family and to have dinner. She was the only person of the 9 people living in their small bamboo abode who could speak English. In her excitement to have us over she herself cooked us fried noodle and egg with fried yellow beans – a little heavy on the fry! While we ate and chatted everyone gathered around and watched with rapture. I think they thought we were famous. She has the most darling little brother who entertained us for the majority of the meal – darting behind walls and then peeking out with a huge grin.
After the meal La La Moo began to tell us her story without much prompting. Her father’s father had been brutally murdered by the Burmese military when she was a small child, leaving a tremendous scar on the whole family. When she was 10 years old there was a military raid on her village and her family fled to the jungle where they were in hiding for 3 months. This period of time was terrifying for her, and she said that she wished she would die. Her family was split up for a long time, hiding in different places, but when they were reunited they decided that they had no option but to come to Thailand to seek asylum, for they had no food. How does one endure such terror and hardship and go on living? The human spirit is incorrigible.
We thouroughly enjoy the friendship we have with La La Moo and look forward to seeing her as a leader for her people.