In their refugee camp in Thailand, the family had lived in a tiny hut. Now they were in adjoining apartments at Estes Park in Carrboro.

But they were still getting accustomed to the generosity of their new neighbors.

When the woman saw the teapot with its matching creamer and sugar, the tears came.

"Never," she told Donovan, tracing the delicate floral pattern with her finger. "Never."

Last month, the Triangle ranked second in the United States for the number of Burmese refugees resettled through Church World Service. Only the Diocese of Los Angeles has seen more arrivals in the past year.

Donovan and Chris Lillie, members of the Community Church of Chapel Hill, co-chair a committee helping the Sin family, which moved to Carrboro from a refugee camp on the Burma-Thailand border.

An assistant teacher at Rashkis Elementary, Donovan has found working with the Burmese "both fascinatingly complex and simple at the same time."

The needs may be basic, but lifestyle

differences and language barriers complicate the process.

The Sin family is one of 45 to 50 Burmese families that arrived in the Triangle this summer, sponsored by various churches through Lutheran Family Services.

The nine-member family spoke no English upon arrival July 17. Now the children, ranging from pre-school to high school age, can sometimes interpret for their parents. All the adults are taking ESL classes.

The family lived for 12 years in the refugee camp, along with 50,000 other Burmese refugees, guarded by the Thai military. According to Donovan, the family had to rely on international charities for daily needs after being burned out of two different villages in three years. The head of the family, Kar Sin, once owned a coffee house.

Although the refugee camps provided some schooling, they did not provide jobs. One adult son of the Sin family traveled to Bangkok by bus to work in the sweatshops there, returning only once a month to see his family.

About 40 Burmese families live in Estes Park, where Donovan says volunteers are discovering cultural differences she never thought of. How do you explain nine kinds of cleaning products, for example, to a family that's been using a bar of soap for everything?

"It makes you stop and think," Donovan said. "We use Tide for clothes, a body soap, a dish soap and something else for floors."

Donovan has also found that the Burmese community share with each other whatever they have. The Sins' neighbors, all former refugees themselves, have funded another family member's journey to the States. He arrived last week.

The family's middle-schooler, ArBasKhan, made the soccer team at his Chapel Hill school. Yet, he'd never played soccer in shoes before. So Donovan took him to Dick's sporting goods in Durham to pick out practice pants, soccer shoes and the mandatory shin guards. He grinned, she said, when he saw the poster of a sports figure on the window at the store.

"Beckham," he said.