Monthly Archives: July 2023

I was born in the rice fields of Vietnam on June 14, 1985. Our family was very poor as the country was still recovering from the war. There was a massive food shortage and times when we went days without access to meat. In 1988, when mom was pregnant with her third son — dad being the risk taker that he is, decided to take a chance at escaping a war-torn country in search of a better future. After hearing through the grapevine that America was accepting refugees, he managed to convince a dozen of his friends to put money together for a 20 foot fishing boat and sail West. The only memory I have of Vietnam was when mom took me to a small shack in the middle of a rice field, we knocked on the door and told a very old lady that we were leaving and we may never see her again. I later asked mom about this, she said she didn’t remember, because she had told no-one except for close family. This was my oldest memory and I have no idea where it came from. Imagine having to tell your family and friends that you were leaving everyone and everything you’ve ever known to travel to unknown lands, in the hopes that the grass is greener on the other side. Approximately 500,000 Vietnamese refugees died at sea, or 50% of the people who embarked on this journey. It was in the middle of the night, we had packed enough food and water for the trip; and at the very last moment, the family decided that my uncle (who was a troublemaker and wasn’t doing anything with his life) would join us to take a chance at turning his life around. But his story would end tragically as you will soon find out. We uncovered the boat buried underneath some trees — then off we went. The trip was gruesome, and mom was very sick while pregnant. We ran out of food and had to land on shore to steal from locals, usually in the middle of the night so we wouldn’t be detected. After 3 months at sea, the boat was leaking badly so we decided to land on the shores of Hong Kong and swam the final few meters — we had finally made it. As soon as we touched land, everyone was taken into refugee camps where mom and dad lied about their age to be better suited for work on foreign land. After a few months we were released from camp, dad found work in construction and we stayed on the 2nd floor of a one-room wooden apartment. My brother Tac and I started attending school where we would learn Chinese. And this was where my youngest brother Tien was born. I remember one rainy night, dad was extremely sick so mom gave me some money to run to the store to buy him cigarettes. I ran through the streets of Hong Kong,