February 2009 Archives

Xia Yang was born in Thailand refugee camp called Van Bineigh.  Her dad left because he had two wives. While she was in the camp she and her family lived in a building made of cement. In the building she remembers living in a small room with her family.  When her family moved to the states her mom was in her early 20s.  They originally lived in California.  They stayed in California until 1998 and then moved to Detroit, then lived there for a year and then moved to the Cities in1999.  When her mom worked she baby-sat her little brothers and sisters. At one point her mom worked the third shift so they would sleep alone.

Pa Itoua Yang's Dad was a professor in Laos and her grandpa worked for the CIA. Her Dad helped people fill out papers for food. He was also the leader of a small town in Laos.  The UN helped dad escape and didn't see him for four years.  Their family had 10 people in it so there were some financial troubles.  They were taken to the US in 2001 the day before September 11.  The US gave her family political asylum. Her dad supported her through High School because she didn't know the language very well.  He was always on her side. 

Xang Lee was born 1988, the same year as me.  His dad was from Thailand and his mother was from Laos.  During the war they went to a refugee camp.  The houses there were made out of wood and had roves made of zinc.  Each family was given food every three days but it wasn't enough.  The food was given by the UN.  Xang came to the US in 1993.  At one point, while they were still in a refugee camp, they left to go live with his paternal grandfather.  They ended up going back though because it was too dangerous.

The girls have to go straight home and cook and do homework.  They can't just stick to one culture because school is different than at home.  Guys have power over the spiritual world.  Girls have power in the spiritual world.  Their parents struggle with speaking English.  They mostly only speak English at work.

I pretty much expected it to be something like this, especially about adjusting.  I had trouble adjusting because we moved a lot, but at least I knew the language.  I took that into account and just figured that they had it way harder than I did.  The part about the girls wanting to stay traditional kind of shocked me.  I couldn't understand why they would want to after they told us how hard it made life for them.  They tried to explain, but I still don't get it. 

Mr. Long Yang said being a refugee is like being dead only still here.  He came here on March twelfth 33 years ago.  He got his associates degree as an electric technician.  He said that then he could fix things in his own house, like his television.  He was kind of hard to understand because he didn't talk very loudly, but his story seemed sadder, to me, than Ms. Choua Thao's. 

Ms. Choua Thao was really fun.  She went to night school for seven years and got a social worker's degree. She told us her name means tornado.  During the war she worked in the hospital. In 1975 she escaped over to Thailand, but went back to North one night.  During that time everyone was looking for her.  The communists really wanted her because she worked with the US government.  She said there were 60 beds per ward and 3-4 nurses in each ward.  She told us about a volleyball game where the players thought they could serve to her and she wouldn't get the ball, but she was a feisty old woman.  At the end of class she told us to do two things.  She told us to go and get a dream and them to be a good advocate for ourselves and our clients.  She wanted us all to work hard toward our goals even if we didn't think we'd make it there.

                This discussion really brought the events into sharper focus.  It's easy to say there was a war, but it's totally different to hear stories from people who took part in it.  The person telling the story also influences how you hear it.  Ms. Thao's stories seemed exciting and humorous while Mr. Yang's stories seemed dangerous and deadly.  There was a difference in the story teller and so the story was different.  This is important to take into consideration.  Someone who has not taken part in something may be able to give you the facts, but only someone who was there can give you the emotion.

                It's been a long time since anyone has told me that I could be the president of the US.  I haven't heard it since I was little.  It was inspiring to hear it again.  It was like I had forgotten that I could work hard and get to a place that was higher than the expectations people have for me.  II really started to think about my dream and I realized that I'd lost it somewhere along the way.  My new goal is to find a dream and work hard towards fulfilling that dream.  After this discussion I feel that my drive has been restored.  Let's see how long it lasts this time.

On Monday night Professor Lee Pao Xiong's told us many interesting facts about the Hmong center.  I had not known that is was also a place to study.  I never even considered it as a place for anything but the museum I thought it was.  Going in was a little weird because I had never been in there before.  I did, however, like the way we were sitting.  I was sitting at the table and during his presentation I felt more like it we were having an interesting after dinner conversation.  The history was a little confusing when Dr. Hillmer was talking, but when Professor Xiong talked about it the sequence of events became a bit clearer. 

                The really interesting part though, was when he told his own story.  Hearing a firsthand account is somehow better than getting it from someone who had to ask someone else.  The later is seen in many books and it takes some of the emotion away from the telling.  The firsthand account that was given had a lot of emotion in it and it felt a little bit more real that way.  I was surprised that he was living with his father and when he told us that sometimes he got food for himself.  I can't imagine doing any of those things at that age.  When he told us about having fired and M-16 I was really shocked.  There really is no way for me to even picture something like that happening to me.  Then when he told us about the General's plan to only evacuate 130 families the only thing I was thinking was, "What a jerk!"  The professor is totally justified in his vehemence in insisting that the general had nothing to do with them being in America. 

                The artifacts in the house were really cool too.  I was thinking that the American dolls were really ironic about the same time it was said.  I almost laughed out loud.  The library is also really cool, and I hope they get some of those things translated soon so I can read them.  They seem like they would be really interesting to read.  It was also kind of neat to walk in and see the karaoke going.  The pictures were really calm and pretty.  Plus the picture over the mantle was really awesome.  I loved the way it shone from the reflection of the light off the gold leaf paint.

                Like I said before this was a way to make what Dr. Hillmer was talking about clearer.  It was probably pretty hard for Dr. Hillmer to fit so much in the limited two hours that we had for his presentation.  Although, without Dr. Hillmer's information it would have been really hard to keep up with Professor Xiong's story.  Each made the other easier to understand and better as a whole. 

                Hearing the story firsthand made it a bit more real in the course of events.  Things in different parts of the world tend to seem unreal and are hard to grasp for me.  When a person who has actually lived through it is presented it seems more real.  It is easy to see how a family could be affected just from listening to the story about how they waited for a long time for his father's plane to land.  Hearing things like this really touches me in a different way than when I just hear it during a lecture or read it in a book.

I drove to the AMC movie theatre in Roseville.  I had heard that the movie was going to be a tear jerker so I had come prepared with a new package of Kleenex.  We got to the theatre and we were talking about what other movies we might want to see some other time.  When we got into the theatre it was already dark and we wanted to find enough seats to sit together.  We did find enough, but we had to ask a couple to please scoot over one so that Dr. Schuler could sit with us too.  Then the movie started.

We were still talking a little bit during the previews, mostly about whether they would be good movies or if we thought we might want to see them.  When the actual movie started we were still kind of talking a little bit.  We would comment on something that was familiar or something that was ridiculous, like that spoiler on the back of the one guy's car.  We also noticed that in the scenes with the gangs they said "f***" all the time.  It got kind of annoying after the nineteenth time they said it.  As the movie wore on I thought it wasn't too bad, but I'd probably not have wanted to see it again.  Another thing I remember was how disgusted his grandkids made me.  They were so snotty and didn't respect him at all.  Every scene with the kids in it made me cringe.  I couldn't get over their behavior.  Then the plot got going a little more.

When I really started to internally panic was as soon as Tao was locked in the stair well.  I sort of knew what was going to happen after that, especially when he gave his dog to the old woman next door.  The one thing I didn't see was the way he would do it without any violence on his part.  The most violent thing he did in the last scene was made a gun with his fingers and pretends to shoot the kids.  This was totally different from the rest of the movie.  He was always really violent and aggressive.  As soon as he took out the cigarette and asked for a light, though, I figured out what he was going to do.  He knew what would happen when he went for the lighter that quickly.  It was a noble sacrifice and fit in with his character development perfectly.  After he died I pretty much just bawled for the rest of it.  I knew what the will would say and that the family would be pissed.  It made me really happy that they included all his language in the will.  I don't know why, except maybe that it made him seem like less of a mythical hero and more like the person he was.

I think this was a great way to learn about immigration and some of the problems that immigrants deal with today.  It's easy to assign the age of immigrants to the time of our grandparents and think only of the refugees and foreigners.  This movie was a modern day immigrant story that exposed prejudice and those who go the extra mile to help their neighbors. 

This movie really made an impact on me.  When I got back to the apartment I didn't want to talk to anyone.  I want in my room and cried for a little while longer, and then I started listening to music.  It was all sad music, but as time wore on I noticed that a lot of the songs I was looking up had some kind of happiness at the end.  I thought about it as the night went on.  I noticed that the movie was a lot like real life.  I don't know if anyone in real life would do what Walt did, but the bitter-sweetness of it.  The end was terribly real.  All over the world senseless violence is carried out and some give their lives to put a stop to it.  It's easy to forget that in the comfort of my living room, but the movie really moved it up to the front of my thoughts.  I know it's only been two days since I've seen the movie but I'm trying to think about the important things more.  I will try and continue doing this, even on the most peaceful of days, so as never to forget the sacrifices people have made for my well being and the well being of people every where.