Almost a Year

Here's the June update from Jill:

I'm fresh back from a visit to the Ah Mee family. They looked well, and Po Lone and the girls are speaking more and more English. They are all going to summer school but apparently it is only for 16 days.

The rent on the apartment has gone up, so they are hoping to find a different place to live. Because they are also repaying a portion of their flight from the refugee camp (that's part of the refugees' agreement with the Refugee Resettlement program), they have to make sure that the rent stays close to the same amount that they are currently paying. Now they spend $846 on rent. Their airplane repayment bill is $124. I actually thought they got a good deal on that for 5 people as NoSa is paying just under $100 for 4 of them and that was from a year prior.

I saw their caseworker, Kyaw Kyaw, on Monday. He told me that he is getting up to 3-4 new families a week and is working 7 days a week to try to keep up with the caseload. So many refugees are still coming, even in this tough economy. I asked Po Lone about his brother who is still in a camp in Thailand. He now has a baby girl. They are delayed in applying to come because his wife hasn't been issued a refugee card yet due to the continuing influx of people from Myanmar. Once she gets a card, it could take a few years for the application process to go through. They are then hopeful he will come to America. It must be so hard for Ah Gate and Ah Mee not to have all their children here together. It also turns out they have an uncle in Minnesota who came in June of last year. It makes you wonder if they thought they'd all get placed together when they came. What a shock to discover how many miles separate Arizona from Minnesota.

It's hard to believe that it's been almost a year since the Ah Mee family came to the United States. With so much to learn and such a different culture to get acclimated to, they have come a long way.

Po Lone said he would like to worship in a variety of English-speaking churches, so we are going to bring him to Grace with us again some Sunday.

Our Families Are Doing Well

Jill Coughlin continues to be a part of the Lam and Ah Mee families' lives. Here was an update that she sent on Easter:

"I went to the wedding today of one of ZarZar's sister, and I took this picture of Tha Zin and TinSay. TinSay was excited to show me that she had lost a bottom tooth.

I am inspired by how well their community has expanded to include people who have been here many years and relative newcomers. I am also honored to be included. If only I could speak better Burmese! I would like to be able to string several sentences together. I mostly seem to know odd words but have definitely mastered days of the week and 6:30. I go everywhere at 6:30 and even Ron and Zack know what "chaut gnaw ye quay" means when I say it.

ZarZar's sister, Jummarbe, married NoSa's cousin, ArLi. They will now live in the second bedroom in NoSa's apartment. HaRon (who we bought Christmas gifts for) lived there until he married another of NoSa's cousins and got a different apartment. I spend a lot of time with HaRon and his English is really getting good. When they take English classes and then have someone to speak with outside the class, it seems to help.

I also went to visit the Ah Mee family tonight. They looked well and happy. The girls' English is coming along. I brought some books that a co-worker donated for them and they recognized Spongebob Squarepants right away, although Mya Min Way told me she didn't like him so much because he was a boy. I brought them a tv converter box for the DTV switch. After some time we got it hooked up and working and while scrolling through the stations, we came to one on Thailand and its elephants. This particularly interested Ah Gate so they all enjoyed watching the show.

I tell you, the tv converter box is my biggest challenge in trying to get people to understand. It just doesn't make sense to people when I say that in June the television will stop working if you don't have a box and without it right now you have an "A" in the corner. I don't want them to throw their tv sets away thinking they don't work anymore!

Christmas Gifts for Ha Ron

Even though we didn't sponsor HaRon when he arrived from the refugee camp in Thailand early this year, because he is living with NoSa's family, Jill unofficially adopted him during her many visits with NoSa, ZarZar and the girls.

So this week, Jill brought a few gifts for HaRon when she went to drop off the beautiful, hand-made needlework doll house that Shirley Zingsheim had made for ThaZin, TinSay and ThatThat Nai. The girls weren't at home when she brought it over, but HaRon, ZarZar and NoSa thought it was delightful.

HaRon was very touched and happy and surprised that Jill had presents for him, too. It was fun to watch his smile light up his face as he held up his new shirt to show Jill that it would be a perfect fit.

Christmas Gifts for Ah Mee's Family

Jill Coughlin and her son, Zack, purchased and delivered Christmas gifts to Ah Mee's family last weekend. Jill thought the family seemed very surprised by this and didn't really know how to react. Jill explained, "They didn't open them while we there, which I had sort of expected. When I had given the girls small birthday gifts (since their birthdays were near mine), they hadn't opened them then, either. Mya Min Way looked like she wanted to open hers, though."

Zack used the money that he received as part of the Kingdom Assignment from Pastor Tim to purchase a gift for Mya Min Way, so that was a great moment to capture in a picture. Way to go Zack!

Ah Mee's New Job

Ah Mee has a new job. She started just before Thanksgiving at the Royal Paper Company putting tissue into boxes. The hours are difficult as she works 4:30 PM to 3 AM, but because of the 10-hour shifts, she has Friday, Saturday and Sunday off to be with the children. Because buses don't run at 3 in the morning, Ah Mee must pay for some kind of car service, which costs about $100 a month to bring her and some other people home at 3 AM. That's a huge expense for this family, but she is grateful for her job.

We also learned recently that there is another child in the family. He is the elder son and is still in Thailand where he got married without the rest of the family being there. It was very disappointing for them not to be with him for that. He is hoping to be able to come to the United States with his new wife to join his family here.

Mya Min Way's "new" bicycle

Mya Min Way received her "new" used bicycle today, so all 3 kids are now the proud owners of donated bikes. It's a great way for them to get to and from school and to get around. With 3 bikes on their little patio, it looks like they need designated parking.

Update from Jill

Exciting news! Ah Mee got a job and starts tonight. She is working at a hospital from 10 p.m. - 6 a.m. From what I understand she used to be an eye doctor but she probably isn't doing that here yet. But the job is a good start and a little faster than I thought it would be.

The kids are all in school and spend part of their day learning English. They get a bit confused by all the Spanish-speaking students but I said it won't hurt them to learn a little Spanish either. Po Lone told me he learned a little Japanese while in the camp when we were looking for other languages we each spoke. I said it was good to be able to speak a variety of languages and encouraged him to always continue with Burmese even when he spoke English more. He has a book that shows some writing from about 20 different languages. He showed me and I was confused a moment because it was a Bible but he said they are still Buddhist. One just never knows what they will encounter when working with the families. I think it's fun!