Life In America: The Fall from Luxury
After that, we couldn’t get out. In 1975, the American government set up a program. We cannot get out of refugee camp until you find a sponsor. American that’s willing to sponsor you out of the camp and they will serve as your mentor, so you can learn the American way and merge into the mainstream. So it took us four months because my family was big. There were 10 of us. Finally we found 5 doctors in Atlanta, Georgia. They were willing to sponsor my family. And when I get out, I think two weeks later, I went back to school, high school. And that was a cultural shock! A public high school is completely different from what I was used to in my country. So I ended up in Atlanta, Georgia.
Actually we were really impressed when our sponsors picked us up from the airport and took us home. And that house…I don’t know if you’ve seen Gone With the Wind, this is Atlanta, Georgia, right? And I don’t know if you’re familiar with the life in the south, but the houses all made of woodwork and they always have a front porch. And in the front porch they only have a sofa or a swing. And that house exactly like in those Hollywood movies. It’s an old, old house. The minute we step on the porch, all the board creaking, you can hear. And the minute they drop us at the house and introduce us and say this is your place now. We all like huh? This is like in a movie. These things don’t happen to us. It was really old house, and when we get in there, it was three bedrooms, two bathrooms, no central heating. And for heating I remember we have one of those that you put on the floor and they turn on the gas and you have to use a match, then poof like this. The first time we turned it on we were all so scared, all these smells and everything.
And the house is extremely cold in the winter, very cold. I remember everybody in my family had to wear a coat. Actually, I wear like three or four layers and every time I study. I didn’t have a desk. My desk was an ironing board. Yeah because that’s how we…nothing. So I just used the ironing board. I open it up and…You know I forgot about all of this, and I talk about it now and it’s like whoosh. Just give me a second. It’s not bad it’s just that…I don’t know how you say it. Suddenly overnight your life just turned upside down. It’s hard for you to accept it. So for the first few weeks in that house, I think my whole family was under stress. There was so much friction in my family, and then my brothers and sisters, I think they were more pampered than me because they had a longer life in Vietnam and they so used to all these privileges. So they used to talk back to my father and my mom. At that time I was 15; I didn’t say anything, but all the time I saw my sister complaining, why did you bring us here and all this stuff. And my father was a very sensitive person. He didn’t say anything much but I could tell he’s really hurt.
I know for the first couple months for sure my parents think that they made a mistake bringing us here. There’s nothing here really. Our life goes whoosh like this. At that time, all the news from Vietnam was censored. We didn’t hear anything from our relatives. We didn’t know that their life back in Vietnam ten times worse than us or hundred times. Once the communists took over, everything is like no more. No food, no nothing, no electricity, no power. And most of my family who stayed there were out in reeducation camps. They a hundred times worse than us but of course the first six months we were here all the communication was broken. We didn’t know so we were so pampered, so sheltered, we didn’t appreciate that we were lucky to come here.
So the first year, my family was all shaken up. My brother and sister was very unhappy, and, then right away my three sisters… they used to be in premed, two of them premed, one of them pharmacy school. They have to go to work; the sponsor say they only pay for us for 6 months rental. After that, we on our own. So, they find seamstress job for my three eldest sisters. They all become seamstress. My eldest brother, he’s the only one who got lucky because he got a scholarship when we were in the refugee camp. They offered him a scholarship. He went straight to Colorado, Denver school, and me and my other two brothers we were lucky because we got to go to high school because it’s mandatory. We have to go to school right? My three sisters, they were very unhappy because they have to go to work and every day they come home broken, depressed because they were students before and now they have to go to work, and they have no future. And the way they look at it, all of us become maids or doing physical work, labor. And my father was 62, 61 he cannot speak English, only French. He cannot find work. My mom, the same way, she was my age now, about 55, and she cannot find work, so she depends on my sisters. My second sister, she was pretty upset at my parents, right, for bringing her here. All the time she talk back and become very disrespectful to my father. So it’s really affecting the whole family and then at 16 I found a job after school. From 16 until now I’ve worked continuously non-stop.
In ’81 my father passed away and at that time he didn’t know that he make the right decision. All the time that he was here in the six years, he was really unhappy because he thought he made a bad decision to bring us here. I wish only that my father last a little bit longer, that he can see the good results that he did. Two years later, all of us, every single one of us, graduated with a degree from university. And from then on everything, we found job. My eldest brother he worked for LADWP. My second one got a job with IBM. My third one, he continued then he went to UCLA to become a dentist. I continued. I have a Master’s degree…I have two degrees. I’m a mechanical engineer and a chemical engineer. My second sister, she quit pre-med because such a long way to continue, so she became a microbiologist. My first one became a pharmacist, that’s what she used to be before. And my third one become an electrical engineer. It took us a long time, 8-10 years, but after 10 years…I only wish my father last longer so that he can see that the decision that he made was completely right.