A Refugee in Thailand
Interviewer: So you said that he originally went there to find refuge. So did he ever make it to any type of refugee camp?
Interviewee: It was really blurry, but I think he explained that he escaped or they let him go or something, but he still had needed a place to stay so I think he did stay in the refugee camp a little bit. And…whenever he realized, I guess eight years later, when he realized, ‘I can’t stay here because if not Thai people are going to kill me if they find out I’m undocumented, and I’m not supposed to be here, and they already don’t like Lao people.’ So, he was like ‘I have to go the United States.’ Or…he knew that he had options of going to either Canada, Australia, France or the United States. He chose the United States.
And so, he stayed at the refugee camp until he recognized that he needed to leave. And, that’s whenever he went to some clothing store, and eventually somebody connected him and my mom together and my mom basically, I don’t think they are related, but through the network of Lao people and Thai people, my mom was selling clothes, and my dad saw her and then, I think that they knew that she was single and he was like ‘I need someone to go to the United States with me. If I get sick or if anything happens, I need someone who can take care of me, or we can take care of each other.’ And, so he didn’t tell my mom, anything really. He was just like, ‘We’re going to go to different places, and we’re going to,’ you know—basically, she eloped with him. But, basically the story is, I went back to Thailand, and I got this story from my aunt in Thailand. I was like ‘I know, my parents, they probably would never tell me because they don’t want to say bad things about their history.’ But, I don’t think it’s bad. It’s just very vibrant, their history. But, basically, my mom, she knew my dad but she didn’t know my dad too well, but she would say, ‘Oh, I’m going to the library,’ or ‘I’m going to this shop,’ or whatever. But, she’d actually go meet up with my dad to see what his plans are, and to see what he was wanting from my mom. I mean, obviously they probably liked each other. But basically, so my dad during that time when he did make this decision it took him six months to finally decide ‘yeah, I have to go.’ And, then that’s whenever he found my mom, before, I think, a year in 1988, because he came to the states December 10th, 1988. So, there was like six months before that. And so, whenever my mom did finally make her decision ‘Okay, Ill go with you,’ she didn’t tell anyone, her sisters, at all. And just left, and her sisters were just trying to find her. They cried. And, everything was just really a mess, from what I heard.
But, then she went to stay at the refugee camp with my dad. I think that was, like a year, I’m not sure but I think it was about a year that they stayed until they finally got admitted to go to the United States. Yeah, but before that it was like, my mom never really went anywhere outside the house, much less, you know. And so, it was just funny when I think about it how my parents made the decision, or my mom, she’d never been anywhere, but when she did go somewhere she went across the whole world. And so, that kind of the story of how they met.