June 1, 2008
-
We drove an hour to meet my father's elementary school friends, only a handful are left.
Ethnic Chinese, culturally Vietnamese...they fled Vietnam for America, for a future, for freedom.
They are Boat People...
Listening to their stories brought chills down my back...I didn't even know them, but I felt their pain and I knew their struggles.
They told stories similar to my mom's. One of them talked about how her family left Cambodia...I rarely hear stories like hers.
It was actually nice to hear them recall their past...talk about their present and mention their hopes for future generations.
They fawned over my brother and I...how we still knew Teo-Chew and how we spoke it so fluently.
Before we left, one of my dad's classmate told us...with tears in her eyes, "Never forget your roots...never forget the struggles..."
Comments (1)
I live in an Asian country and I don't even know my own dialect that well...
sometimes I wonder if we'll ever understand fully the struggles of the time. I guess sometimes we do take things for granted.
Comments are closed.