PROVIDENCE — Three days before Sher Yaw Htoo and his family left a Thai refugee camp in November, they learned about winter in America. They saw their first snow weeks after arriving in Rhode Island, but not until Thursday's blustery storm did they grasp the full picture.
"People used to talk about snow — I thought that big ice would fall from the sky, but it was very soft, like cotton," Htoo said through an interpreter Friday. "… It's fun, but it's very cold."
Htoo, his wife and four children are Karen (pronounced kah-REN) — an ethnic minority from the Karen State in Burma. Htoo was a farmer before the Burmese Army raided their village, "took all our food and burned the farm," forcing the family to flee for the Thai border in 2000, he said.
Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island resettled the family in South Providence and provided winter clothes as soon as they arrived.
They puzzled over bulky jackets, struggled with zippers and boots. "I thought, it's too heavy. How are we going to wear this?" Htoo recalled.
Teachers alerted his children Thursday to the impending storm — potentially a blizzard — "but they didn't understand," he said. A Karen girl who resettled here four years ago, explained to Htoo's eldest child — 14-year-old daughter Ku Hsar — "that we're going to have snow. And no school."
On Thursday night, the family peered out the window as wind blew the snow sideways. They awoke to a stunning winter landscape — and biting cold.
Cold, but very beautiful, said Ku Hsar. "Everything is white."
Baha Sadr, Dorcas Institute's director of refugee resettlement, said orientation workshops for arriving refugees include how to cope with New England's cold climate. "Winter is always a culture shock," he said, and how to dress for it is among the first skills they learn.
Htoo and his family had no luggage to speak of when they arrived at T.F. Green Airport at midnight on Nov. 6; just one or two large zippered plastic bags stuffed with their belongings. They were coming from a country that's relatively hot most of the year; with a long rainy season.
"Anyone who is new to winter weather, we provide them blankets, hats, scarves, winter jackets if they need it. We have coat drives; over 100 winter coats are distributed in November," Sadr said.
"Some people come from really warm climates and show up here with a pair of slippers. We make sure they get all the essentials."
Caseworkers teach clients how to prepare for storms by stocking basic necessities such as water, milk and bread; flashlights in case the power goes out; and a list of emergency numbers.
"The school liaison teaches the kids about what early dismissal is, and the parents are being prepared for dealing with emergencies," Sadr added.
With no school on Friday, Ku and her brothers, Mya Win, 12, and Kay Thay, 9, and sister Hser Teet, 7, watched cartoons on their donated television and played with toys the Institute gave them for Christmas.
The family is fortunate that relatives had already been resettled in Providence several years ago, Sadr said. Still, they face the same challenges as every refugee family: learning English, adjusting to apartment living after years in a refugee camp hut. Navigating the streets.
"We got lost," Htoo said of their first forays by bus. "All the houses look alike," and family members chided one another for not paying attention to where they were going.
Htoo's current concern: finding a job.
More immediately, the family will wait out the cold. When the air warms up, the children will be free to do what they've seen other children do at Roger Williams Park:
Roll — and hurl — an effective snowball.
On Twitter: @karenleez
http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/refugees-from-burma-acclimate-to-cold-snowy-r-i/
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