Monday, January 31, 2011

For ethnic Karen immigrants, life in KC is a dream after a nightmare

These immigrants are having a hard time learning to live in this country but compared to the life they came from, they are happy. - - Donna Poisl

By DONALD BRADLEY, The Kansas City Star

Paw Wah Tamla bounces between getting her people to remember and forget.

Her people are the Karen who fled oppression to come here from a land they still call Burma.

As a community leader, she wants them to remember their proud history and customs. For several weeks, she’s helped plan today’s celebration of the Karen New Year, a pageant complete with traditional costumes, food and dance.

But as a parent liaison for the North Kansas City School District, she works to get them to forget the crude ways of the refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border where they all lived before coming to Kansas City.
Click on the headline above to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.

No comments: