Hi, I’m Saw Hte. I am 16 years old and am from the Chin people living in Myanmar. Among our people there are 52 different dialects. My village and dialect is Zotung.

I escaped from Myanmar about 2 ½ years ago. I traveled to Malaysia, registered as a refugee with the U.N., and worked for two years while I waited to be resettled in the U.S. My father is a farmer. He walks for 1 1/2 hours to get to his corn field. He stays there for 6 days and returns home on Saturday in time for church on Sunday. During the rainy season my father makes bamboo mats for the house and helps my mother with her work. My mother works in our large vegetable garden, cleans, and cooks meals over a fire.

I came to the U.S. on February 11, 2009. I now live with my American family, the Coopers. I go to Northern High School in the Forest Hills school district where I play on the J.V. soccer team. I didn’t know English when I first came, but now I know a lot. I now know 4 languages: Zotung, Burmese, Malaysian, and English. I like school and I am getting good grades. I especially like Math. I also like to play volleyball, talk to my friends throughout the country on Google talk, and play guitar.