|
|
|
Richard Humpheries (Black and White) Jason Miller Shwe Koako, Karen State Sylvia Murcfeld Photographs Jean de La Tour Richard Humphries _______________ Version Date June 2004 12/01/2005 Website: Designed, Built and written by Paul Keenan |
Saw Auh Lah Q-Can you tell me your age and name? A-My name is Saw Aun Lah and I am 60 years old.
Q-Could you tell me about your family and your occupation? A-My family all lived in a Jungle village and farmed the mountains, growing rice to eat. At first we had enough rice for our family, but later we had problems because the Burmese military came to our village often and destroyed our farm, burned our village and killed our animals. If they saw a villager they also killed it, so we had to hide in the jungle all the time.
Q-How many children do you have? A-I have eight children
Q-When you were a child what did your parents do for work? A-They were farmers, they liked to stay in the jungle and grow rice.
Q=How many brothers and sisters do you have? A-I have three brothers and sisters… one girl and two boys…together with me there are four of us.
Q-When you were a child how did you help parents? A-I helped my parents with many things on the farm and in the house. everywhere.
Q-When you were a child what did you play? A-I looked after the elephants and followed cars.
Q-Could you tell me about wedding and funeral days when you were a child? A-I think like the people doing today.
Q-What are the differences between the place you stayed before and the place you stay now? A-Nothing has changed for me, because, when I was a child, I saw Burmese soldiers and Karen soldiers fighting, as they still do now…we have no peace.
Q-What are the differences between when you stayed in the village and now-in the refugee camp? A-It is better to stay in the village, because of our country we have many problems in our village, so I had to escape and come to the refugee camp-nothing has changed for me.
Q-What is your religion? A-My religion is Christianity. Because my parents are Christian I became a Christian.
Q-How did you get money? A-I planted vegetables and sold them to other people and cut wood for people. For one day I got 50 kyat.
Q-How did you marry? A-I married like Christian people do today.
Q-What ambitions did you have after you married? A-My ambition was to work together and have children.
Q-After you married, did you stay with your parents or another house? A-When I married my mother died, but my father stayed with me for one year, then he died too.
Q-Did the men and women work together? A-NO, they had different jobs, but sometimes if we can work together we did.
Q-Where were you born? A-I was born in the village?
Q-Did the people use contraceptives before? A-No, we didn't have them, we also had never heard about it.
Q-How did you raise your children, and how did you teach them? A-I am a farmer, I raised my children to be farmers. I taught them how to be good children, showed them the right way, and how to work
Q-When you became a grandfather what happened to you and what struggles did you have? A-When I became a grandfather- when I saw my grandsons and daughters- I was very glad, but now I am weak, so sometimes I have problems eating, and I am often sick.
Q-How did people celebrate Karen National Day? A-They celebrated it like they do today. |
