Logansport helps a dream come true: From War Survivor to U.S Citizen

Last Updated on November 7, 2024 by Cass County Communication Network

The story below was written by Logansport resident Sunday Htoo.

You may hear negative stories about the little town of Logansport, Indiana, but I have lived here 10 years and this is the Logansport that I know.

In South Bend in the U.S. Northern District Court, on October 25, 2024, Logansport resident, Ma Dha, 38 years old, stood with 49 new American citizens from 19 countries as two United States Marines presented the colors of the American flag and the Marine Corps flag. They stood again as Judge Cristal C. Brisco entered the chamber and remained standing for the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. Judge Brisco invited all to be seated and welcomed the new citizens. Welcome letters were then read from, from the Governor, Senators and many dignitaries. Each new citizen was called in order of their seat number and asked to state their country of origin. The ceremony included a solemn oath of allegiance. At the close of the ceremony, all rose when Judge Brisco left. Then the Marine Color Guard carried the flags from the courtroom and all were dismissed.

No phones or cameras were allowed in the courtroom. Judge Brisco returned and a court official took photos of each new citizen with her and later families could pose for an official picture.

Ma Dha failed her naturalization interview three times. At her first interview four years ago, the interviewers asked her to learn more English. To be able to pass her naturalization, Ma Dha worked hard and found help through all the resources in this little town of Logansport to achieve her goal.

Ma Dha never attended school, but she started attending English Language Learner sessions at Adult Learning Center in 2019 to be able to pass her citizenship interview. She said that initially, she wanted to give up, but Mr. Lei, an Instructional Assistant there, encouraged her and told her the story of climbing a mountain. She said that Mr. Lei told her to imagine that when we climb a mountain, every step gets us close to the top, and slowly, we will reach the top. She said that she did not give up and continued her studies. Mr. Lei said that Ma Dha’s hands were shaking when she learned to write the alphabet, words and numbers.

Ma Dha is a mother of three children and her husband works full-time. She can only attend English class in the morning. She not only went to English class at the Adult Learning Center; she registered with Literacy Volunteers of Cass County and met with her tutor, Linda Wright, once a week. Early this year, another English Second Language Beginner Class opened at the Logansport New Life Alliance Church; she also attends the class there once a week. She said her teachers and tutor were so kind to her, and they prayed for her before her last citizenship interview. She also received help with paperwork from the Immigrant Connection at the Bridge in Logansport.

Ma Dha feels blessed and grateful for all her teachers, tutors, and community resources. She said that without these resources in town and God, she would not have passed this interview. Ma Dha also likes to ask older children questions, including her oldest daughter, who knows English, to help her translate what she reads to be able to pass her naturalization interviews.

Ma Dha was born in Burma. The place where she was born had no school, and if she wanted to go to school, she had to walk at least three hours. She said that her village used to have a school, but after it got burned down by the Burmese Army many times, the villagers did not build it up anymore when she was younger, so she never went to school.

When Ma Dha was 7 years old, her parents asked her to take care of and stay with her aunt in the jungle, who gave birth to her little cousin. She helped wash the clothes, carry water, and cook. One night, they heard the gunfire, and the Burmese Army came to arrest all the men; she and her aunt ran for their lives. She said, “My aunt just had a newborn baby. We ran together. She fell, and her newborn baby slipped out of her arms, and I caught him. My aunt fell and died. It was midnight. I held my newborn cousin in my arms all night, staying beside my aunt’s dead body. My family and the other villagers came to find us in the morning, and they were afraid of me and thought that I was not normal anymore.” Ma Dha said they always had to run like that, so it was no longer scary for her. When she was a child, she and her cousins giggled while they ran, and they started enjoying running to the jungle and hiding. Ma Dha said that her father and the other male villagers had to run always because the army would arrest them and made them porters.  

Ma Dha’s village in Karen state, Burma, is about half a day away by car from Mae La refugee camp in Mae Sot, Tak district, Thailand. When she heard the UNHCR registered refugees, she went to the refugee camp to register and then returned home to her parents and worked in the corn fields.

When the International Communities opened the door for refugees to resettle in other countries, Ma Dha applied to come to the U.S. In January 2014, she arrived in Nebraska. The case worker gave her and the other new arrivals training twice a week; each time took two hours, and the training took about three weeks. She said that they taught them how to find a job, save money, and live in this country. After that, she started working at Tyson.

She married Eh Say in 2015 and moved to Logansport after that. She transferred her job from Tyson in Omaha, Nebraska, to Tyson-Logansport and continued working full-time until she had her first child.

As a full-time mother of three children, MaDha volunteers whenever needed at her local church, the Karen Baptist Church Logansport. Ma Dha continues her ELL, English Language Learner class and dreams of getting her HSE, High School Equivalency diploma one day. She said she hopes to see her family back in Burma, in Karen state again.

The author, Sunday Htoo, fled Burma as a refugee and proudly became a naturalized American citizen in 2020.  She is a writer whose dream is to share the stories of her Karen ethnic community.  She resides in Logansport with her husband and two children. She works at Area Five Agency on Aging & Community Services and is a Pastor Assistant at KBC Church.