Making a home far from home

Steaming mugs of chai are brought out for visitors as the tangy scent of pumpkin leaves cooking in peanut oil waft from the kitchen in the back of a first-floor Grand Street flat.

Two women emerge from the upstairs apartment, shy and smiling, each with a baby propped on a hip. Small children peek out from behind a doorway.

The only sound is the creak of floorboards. There is no TV or telephone. These Karenni refugees from Myanmar -- formerly known as Burma -- can't afford them. Everyone walks barefoot on the shiny hardwood floors, a cultural choice rather than an economic one.

Three men step into the living room after shedding shoes and winter coats in an entryway. They have walked their children home from nearby Giffen Memorial Elementary School. Snow is a new concept for everyone, along with electricity and indoor plumbing. The men sit in silence on plastic lawn chairs in the living room, chewing betel leaves that stain their teeth crimson.

They speak no English and a halting translator can bridge only part of the communication chasm. They've been catapulted from an 18th-century existence into the 21st century almost overnight after arriving in Albany over the summer from a refugee camp on the Myanmar-Thailand border.

"They are really resilient and happy people. Despite all they've been through and the fact that they have next to nothing, they're always smiling," says Debbie Taylor, a volunteer with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants who helps the Karenni families negotiate an unfamiliar culture.

Last year, the Albany field office of USCRI helped resettle about 100 Burmese refugees, including members of Myanmar's Karen and Karenni ethnic groups. Another 100 Burmese refugees are expected this year. A few hundred Burmese refugees have come to Albany in the past five years, with the largest number in Rensselaer. Many work in a Sealy mattress factory in Green Island.

There are now 17 Karenni families living along Grand Street near St. Anthony's Church at the corner of Madison Avenue. They join a long line of newcomers trying to gain a toehold in the city's South End. The Karenni children attend city schools and struggle with English as a second language. As the kids gain proficiency, they'll teach English to their parents at home, although some of the adults have begun taking English language classes.

A similarly steep learning curve was traversed by previous generations of immigrants. At the end of the 19th century, the Grand Street neighborhood became home to immigrants from Italy. It thrived as an Italian enclave into the 1950s and beyond. In 1969, counter-culture folks bought at auction abandoned row houses and established an alternative school, the Free School, on Elm Street just off Grand. Some of the Burmese children attend the Free School, whose members donate money from fundraising meals to USCRI and help the Karenni families in other ways.

"It's good here," says Steah Htoo (pronounced STAY Too). She serves as the sole English translator among the Karenni families on Grand Street, where she also lives. She is Karen and Burmese ethnically, but she says the three groups get along fine in Albany and Rensselaer.

They take a bus and shop for ethnic food at Win's Market, a Burmese store in Rensselaer. A van picks them up on Sunday for services at a Baptist church in Rensselaer. They share holiday meals together on Grand Street and meet once a month to discuss communal concerns. For entertainment, they check out DVDs from the nearby Howe Library and watch them on a 19-inch color TV and DVD player someone donated.

On the first floor of the two-family Grand Street house, Bu Reh (pronounced RAY) and his wife, Phew Meh (pronounced MAY), live with their seven children ranging from 3 months to 20 years old : Lu Reh, Plu Meh, Boo Reh, Nga Reh, Kyae Reh, Mu Meh and David Boo Reh.

Karenni cultural tradition gives all females the surname Meh and males Reh.

Upstairs, Thyia Reh and his wife, Lee Meh, live with their five children, from three months to nine years old: Seh Meh, Par Meh, Bae Reh, Nga Meh and Debbie Meh.

The baby is named Debbie in honor of Taylor, who was in the delivery room for the girl's birth on Dec. 7, 2009.

None of these Karenni families on Grand Street knew each other in the sprawling refugee camp, where more than 25,000 dispossessed Karenni stayed. They've only met each other and become friends since they came to Albany.

The two Karenni who share this Grand Street address number 12 children and four adults, but none have jobs. Without any English, employment will be difficult to find, particularly in a down economy with high unemployment.

Steah Htoo and her husband, Aung Nge, are the upwardly mobile couple. They both have jobs. He rides with other Burmese men to an auto parts factory in Bennington, Vt. His wife makes beds and cleans rooms at a local motel.

The Karenni are a tribal subgroup of the Karen people in Burma. There are about 300,000 Karenni in a rural region along the Burma-Thai border. The Karenni migrated to this area from Mongolia more than 2,000 years ago. The British recognized their sovereignty with the Karenni State, while other ethnic states in Burma were annexed in 1885.

As an indigenous ethnic minority, the Karenni people were harassed by the Burmese military junta since Burma's independence in 1948, following more than 60 years of British colonial rule. The Burmese military spent decades persecuting the Karenni people, including killings, imprisonment, burning of houses and crops, and land seizures. Tens of thousands of Karenni fled into the jungle or sought shelter in refugee camps.

This modest three-bedroom Grand Street apartment -- with mismatched, donated furnishings and no decorations except for a CDTA bus map, their transportation lifeline, taped to a wall -- is a big step up in terms of comfort.

These two families spent more than a decade cooking over open fires and languishing in crude wooden huts, routinely harassed by the refugee camp police force. They finally beat the odds and gained refugee status, and were allowed to come to the U.S.

Here, each person is given $900 by the federal government to last them for their first three months (the sum was increased from $425 a year ago).

That is supposed to cover rent, food, clothing and household supplies. After 90 days, they can qualify for public assistance, food stamps and Medicaid. If they get a job, they have to begin reimbursing the U.S. government for their airfare from Thailand. Large Karenni families might owe up to $10,000 in airfare. Many pay back their debt at a rate of about $100 a month for more than 10 years. Some live below or just at the poverty level.

"The families who have made it this far are the survivors, the strongest ones," says Jen Barkan, resource manager and volunteer coordinator for USCRI.

Taylor and her husband, Kevin, who live in East Greenbush, help the families read mail, negotiate government agencies and bring household supplies and donated clothing during weekly visits.

The Taylors brought them to see their first movie, with passes donated by owners of the Spectrum 8 Theatres in Albany. They saw "The Fantastic Mr. Fox," and the kids nearly jumped out of their seats when the animated movie began.

"It's very rewarding helping the Karenni people," Taylor says. "They've enriched our lives."

Paul Grondahl can be reached at 454-5623 or by e-mail at pgrondahl@timesunion.com.

Volunteers sought

USCRI needs volunteers and assistance with the Karenni refugee resettlement. If you're interested in helping, call the Albany field office at 459-1790.

http://uscri.refugees.org/site/PageNavigator/Albany/AlbanyHomeFeature3

Source :http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=906559&TextPage=1