Weekend Trip to Houston

We have been working with the Karen on some microenterprise projects. To date, we are engaged in building furniture and starting a weaving co-op. On June 5th and 6th, we attended a craft fair in Waxahachie. While we were not very successful in selling our wares, we did make some great contacts. Laura and Joey, jewelry crafts persons, invited us to share their booth at the Winnie (TX) trade days on the weekend of June 12th and 13th. Always looking to capitalize on an opportunity (and visit our family in Houston), we agreed to attend.

So....Diane, Kai, Pu Lue (furniture builder), Pla Shee (Pu Lue's son) and I were off on an adventure to Houston. Pu Lue found several Karen men to watch our farm in our absence (many thanks to Eh Say, Moe Say, and Wah Nay Soe).

The trade days were fine, although we were not as successful as we had hoped ($50 total revenue). While in Houston, we set off to visit some of the recently resettled refugees now living in Houston. How do we find them? Luckily, in September of 2009, the Houston Press published a great article about the refugee community in Houston (see The Burmese Come to Houston ). This article gave us the name of the apartment complex in Houston, Sun Blossom Mountain. So, a quick mapquest search and off we went.

Neither Pu Lue, Pla Shee or I knew any of the recentaly resettled in Houston. You may be wondering, "How do you visit people if you don't know anyone?" Simply put, we went to the apartments, kept a lookout for people who may be from Burma, introduced ourselves and then we were welcomed with open arms. This may seem very strange from an American perspective (How many strangers come to your door that you welcome in?) Let me explain.....

Peoples from Burma engage in a collectivist culture. In short, collectivism is an outlook that emphasizes the group over the individual. This is quite the opposite of what we typically think of "Western Countries" where the needs/rights of the individual takes precendence over the needs of the group. So with peoples from Burma, when one of 'our group' is at our door....it is expected that we will do anything we can to make them as comfortable as our own family.

We met several great families....one Kayah (from the Karenni state) and two Karen families.