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SPECIAL REPORT: Hmong Migration to Wisconsin
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Thursday, July 08, 2004
Homeward bound
I'm sitting inside an Internet cafe in downtown Bangkok writing this blog. It's past midnight, but like any big city, the people seem to never want to sleep.
The roads are constantly flashing streaks of light as vehicles speed past the window. Strangers walk by hand-in-hand or chat animatedly with each other. This Internet cafe is packed even at this time of night with Web surfers busily clinking away on the keyboard.
We're definitely down to our last hours in Thailand. We finished up our last day at Tham Krabok early this morning and bid everyone good-bye twice. My relatives came to see me off and we agreed that our next meeting will be in America, not back here. Then we drove out of the camp without a glance back. Well, I, at least, didn't glance back. The Hmong have a belief that if one really wants to make the next place home, you don't look back at the home you're leaving. Brides are often told this when they get married and head away from their parents home toward their husband's.
I didn't look back at Tham Krabok more for the refugees sake than mine. I hope they will find a new home elsewhere. In the two weeks that I spent inside the camp, I was convinced that it's not suitable for people to live in longer than it has been lived in already.
My colleague Keith Uhlig, the reporter on this trip with me and Sharon Cekada, took a liking to riding in the open back of our driver's truck - riding it Thai style, we said - and had time to reflect back on the past two weeks.
We both agree that while we're ready to come home, the trip has changed something in us and we'll never look at life the same again.
"Even you?" he asked. "You've lived through this kind of life already."
"I know," I told him. "But I'm experiencing this life for the first time as an adult."
I'm not sure exactly what experiences out of this trip will leave the greatest impact on me. So many of the realizations I picked up from this trip were always floating in me somewhere. I just never quite fished them out and looked at them.
But the greatest lesson I learned from the past two weeks is just how proud I am to be Hmong. And not just any Hmong, but someone who is a product of parents whose family sided with the United States and, as a consequence, paid dearly for that decision. It's been heart-breaking to hear the individual stories of the Hmong but the more I learn about who we are, as a people, the more I'm convinced the world hasn't seen the best of what's to come out of these people yet.
The refugees are so poor, work so hard and yet, more than any people I've ever met, still find a way in their miserable conditions to build such a strong sense of community and instill in their children a profound loyalty to the roots that bind them to the fate they share today.
We've come a long ways as a persecuted people, but the fight isn't over yet. Like so many things in life, where one battle ends, another starts. As I've been telling the Hmong at Tham Krabok, getting to America is just one step towards a better life. The next step is going to require them to apply their will to survive and the creativity and dedication they learned from a difficult camp life to succeeding in America. It's the best way they can reward a country that has not forgotten the promises its past leaders once gave.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 12:02 PM
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Last day at Tham Krabok - almost
I was a little ahead of myself saying that Wednesday will be our last day at Tham Krabok.
After saying good-bye to everyone at the camp and wishing the place farewell in our hearts today, we thought it over and decided that it would benefit us and those back at home to take advantage of our last day in Thailand for some touch-ups on stories and photos in the camp before making our way to Bangkok for a stay closer to the airport. We depart early Friday morning for the United States. So early Thursday morning, we're heading back to Tham Krabok for a last round of camp life and, likely, another round of good-byes.
Today, though, has been one of the most interesting days of our stay out here. We finally got a tour of the Wat and met up with an American monk who has been out here for more than two decades. More on him will appear on our special sections. We got a glimpse of the monk's living quarters a couple minutes walk from the camp. Drug rehabilitation for people from all over the country still takes place here. Then we went around to the different golden temples and the giant stone Buddha statues that give this place its very ancient ambiance. It was on this walk that we felt like tourists for the first time since our arrival in this country. I think we felt that way because we had been so immersed in the Hmong refugees' lives and the desolate scenes in the camp that these temples and statues were closest to the images of Thailand that we are used to seeing in America.
We also made a stop in Lopburi today after we left the camp. Lopburi suits its nickname of "Monkey City." There are monkeys running free everywhere in downtown Lopburi! Some were clinging on to the ledges of buildings. Others were digging through garbage in the back of stores. Others camped out on the sidewalk watching the crowd of people push past each other. It was a bit uncomfortable seeing all these animals so free and roaming around alongside people, munching on discarded food or mouthing off in monkey language to passersby.
Lopburi is a bigger city than Saraburi. It's got more action, sights to see and unique historical items. The city, like any big city, however, is noisy and crowded with traffic and people constantly on the go.
On a different note, I want to retrace my words on toys in the camp. After I wrote that I hadn't seen children playing with toys in the camp, that was all I saw the following day! That goes to say, it's good to get questions and feedback from you to remind us what you'd also like us to keep our eyes open for. The kind of toys I've seen the children play with most out here are plastic toy cars - though I've even spotted a couple of plastic dinosaurs. That said, it doesn't change the fact that most children don't have such luxuries. They've adapted amazingly to their situation. They create their own games and rely much on each other's creativity to keep themselves entertained. But I did ask a couple of children what kind of toys they liked and they responded that they liked cars, dolls, balls to kick around - your typical children's play items.
Lastly, we found out early on that a young man coming to Neenah will be on the same flight with us back to the United States Needless to say, the three of us are excited about getting this opportunity to experience his journey from the camp to America with him. Since he grew up in the camp and this is his first time away from his family, he said he's grateful we got to know him and will accompany him on this trip.
Since this won't the last Weblog, in tomorrow's blog from Bangkok, I'll round up our visit to this part of the world and share what I've learned from this experience. As my colleagues and I have mentioned several times to each other, it's a trip that none of us will return from without keeping something with us for the rest of our lives.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 9:59 AM
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Good-byes begin at Tham Krabok for us
It's hard to believe Wednesday will be our last day in the camp.
I had a chance to say good-bye to my families in the camp Tuesday. Although I've been here nearly two weeks, there's been little time to meet up with them and talk. On my first day in the camp, they found me and we spent about an hour together at a cousin's house. But after that, I've been on duty and haven't seen anyone until Tuesday. I visited my uncle, who's not feeling very well these days, and my adopted mom, who took care of me when I was young and ill for a couple of days. She re-named me Ka-Ying and that's the name many people out here still know me by.
My adopted mom is considered one of the wisest woman and a great healer among the people here. However, when I saw her, she'd been very ill for several months now and goes in and out of consciousness. We had a great conversation about my parents and about the time when I was adopted by her. I can't believe this woman still remembers me - I certainly don't. She's got a kind face and is one heck of a conversationalist and storyteller. I could sit with this woman all day and not run out of things to say or ask.
Our plan is to get our work done by Wednesday and save our last day in Thailand, Thursday, for a little sight-seeing and relaxing. We haven't really had the chance to get to know this part of Thailand as tourists. So tonight, we've got plans to meet up with two photojournalists from Madison and Milwaukee in Lopburi, the city they're staying in about 45 minutes away from our hotel.
Lopburi is called "Monkey City" because supposedly monkeys are allowed to run free in the city. A friend of mine, a Thai in Oshkosh as an exchange student, is from Lopburi and said there are lively night markets and the monkeys that roam downtown are good sights to see.
Aside from those plans, Wednesday will be a day of good-byes. We've made friends in the camp and the refugees are used to seeing us roam around and pop in and out of their homes. It's really been a unique experience for us to come here at this time because it gave the people here a chance to question us about life in America as much as we're questioning them about their life in the camp. The young are as curious about America as the old. Though both have their own concerns about their life in their new home.
In the last Weblog from Tham Krabok tomorrow, I'll give you our good-bye impression of these people we've been among for two weeks of our lives out here - what we've learned from them about life, living and people. I don't think the three of us are walking away without something changed about us.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 6:28 PM
Monday, July 05, 2004
Readers' questions answered
There are only two days left of our trip after today (Tuesday).
We just want to say thanks to the many of you who've tagged along on our trip to Thailand through our Website and written us.
I want to take the time in this Weblog to address some questions sent our way.
First, the people at the camp are very excited to know they'll be coming to America. They've been living here for more than 10 years but have no opportunities or rights to change their lives or improve their situation. The people are thrilled to have the chance to reunite with families they've been separated from for years. Although many have little idea of what life in America will be like, they come with a belief that it is better than where they are now.
At the same time, the refugees are scared. They know they've been living in limbo for years and have heard that success in America comes from the mind not the hands. They're used to surviving by what their hands can make and do and fear that being illiterate and uneducated, they will be be worse off than where they are now. But in the many home visits I've made, the thoughts I hear most is, "Even if I'm uneducated, at least my children won't be." They fear will not be able to get jobs and provide for their families. They worry they will be a burden on American since they don't come with the proper tools to be an immediate success in the country.
That said, the opportunity to come to the United States is more a relief than anything else. They're relieved life will be different for their children. They now can see a future for themselves and their families. The refugees have little idea of what this next journey will bring them, but they trust the reputation of America being a country of freedom and opportunities exists for a reason. They're comforted by the fact that they already have family in the United States to count on.
But while only 15,000 refugees will be allowed to leave for the United States, they will leave behind a number of relatives and neighbors who won't be accompanying them. There are more people in the camp than the number allotted. However, because the issue of those left behind is a little more complex than a couple of paragraphs allows for explanation on this blog, I'll address that in an article for our special sections that will come out as a result of this trip.
A reader also asked what kind of toys to collect for the children coming from this camp. In the week and a half that I've been here, I've not seen any kind of items that look like toys by American standard. The people are poor and have little to splurge on toys. I've seen children make do with a plastic bag scrunched into a ball for ball tossing games. Some have Game-Boy like hand-held computer games and there's a popular arcade. But I've not seen toys like dolls or toy cars. Every where I go, though, children are busy making up their own group games that are versions of hopscotch and hide-and-go-seek for entertainment. Relying on each other and coming up with their own games really are the way they play out here.
The children love coloring books and picture books though. Not many have them but those who do carry the books around with them almost everywhere they go.
I hope that answers some of the questions out there. If there are more, we'll be happy to answer them.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 6:01 PM
Saturday, July 03, 2004
Heat and humidity sets tone at Tham Krabok
Tham Krabok is definitely compact for its slightly more than 15,000 population count.
You can stand on an elevated corner of the camp and see across to the other side easily. From such locations, the camp looks even smaller than it is.
I was told that at one point, the camp held double the current population, but with time and no jobs available inside, people eventually moved out and away in search of work.
But considering how small it is, the residents have found ways to make the space stretch and accommodate the number of people who've settled there. Homes are built back to back. Some of the homes would hold up to five families and up to 25 people under one thatched roof. With no sense of organization to the way the homes are laid out, zigzagging trails make the paths from home to home longer than it should be. Others have built their homes at the base of the cliffs, making it arduous work lugging up water for use.
The fact that we've been here more than a week and not seen all of Tham Krabok says a lot about how much is happening in this tiny dot of a place on the Thailand map.
Well, the heat and humidity likely has a role in why we've not managed to get around as quickly, too. We're literally downing a bottle of water an hour - sometimes even faster than that - and never have to use the bathroom all day long because we're sweating it out just as fast as we down the H2O. I've developed a rather obvious farmer's tan and my sandals, under the hot sun, have tanned onto my feet.
What's unbelievable is that people tell us this is a cooler month than the past three months. It's supposed to be the rainy season and the fact that we've only seen about five minutes of rain since we've been here speaks for the dry and hot spell this area is experiencing.
We hope to see the rest of the Wat next week when we'll get the chance to have a proper tour of the area. I also hope to see my family out here. I haven't had the time to really talk to them. They've come to see me when I first got here but aside from that, I've not really sat down with them or seen their home so that's also a goal for this upcoming week - to really catch up on what happened in our lives during the 17 years we spent apart.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 5:12 PM
Friday, July 02, 2004
Day five gets a break from Tham Krabok
While we've been here for over a week, the three of us have stayed so busy that we haven't really had time to roam outside of our area or really see Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.
We figured we'd all feel better saving most of that toward the end of our trip when we've accomplished what we're here to do.
But the days have passed by so quickly and it's already Friday heading into the weekend. We feel strangely a part of this community with our daily routine of getting to the camp around 8 a.m. and staying until 5 or 6 p.m., when refugees must be back inside the camp and outsiders must leave.
Today, however, my relatives from Laos flew in to see me. I couldn't go over and they said being so near, it made sense to see each other since the next time we see each other likely will be in two or more years. This was their first time on a plane and in Thailand so it's been a rather funny experience seeing their reactions to modern life. Laos, even though it's just across the border, is less developed than Thailand.
I headed toward Bangkok and dropped off my colleagues at the camp for a day of hanging out with Wisconsin teachers who were in visiting the camp's schools along with a number of other schools in the country before heading to Laos.
Family coming from Laos are my aunt and her husband. We waited quite a long time for them and later found out that the reason for that was because they didn't know how to fill out the arrival card once the plane from Vientiane, the capital of Laos, landed in Bangkok. Then they were stopped at the gate where we picked them up by a guard and he told them that they weren't allowed into Wat Tham Krabok. But they pointed toward me at the gate and said they weren't heading that way, they were here just to see me from America.
We took a trip through the center of Bangkok and got a good taste of the famous Thai traffic. For the way they drive, I'm surprised we saw no accidents along the way. Several times, I thought we came close to swiping a motorbiker or taking off the rearview mirrors of the parked cars. Yet we managed to fly by without touching the other vehicles. Which reminds me of how amusing it is to drive with my colleagues. Sharon's taking on a little habit of letting yelps out because of their crazy driving and Keith just shakes his head and laughs before saying something like, "I can't believe we just did that." He and I have adopted the Thai habit of riding on the back of a truck and do so in the mornings to the camp and just let the cool morning wind blow in our faces. The countryside views just look amazing from the back of a truck. Sharon just gets a kick out of seeing three people whizzing by on a motorbike. Needless to say, carpooling is not something the people here have to make much of an effort to promote.
Meanwhile, I took my relatives to a SuperCenter in Bangkok after a stroll through the street markets. We ate at a nice restaurant by American standards and they couldn't get over how clean everything looked. "It's fitting for royalty," they said. They got a glimpse of their first train running on the tracks and the first multi-level building made of glass. My uncle asked if we had such buildings in America and I told them yes, but just stack about 1,000 more of the building he saw on top of each other. I think he nearly fainted - then eyed me suspiciously. "You are sure?" he asked.
Tomorrow, Saturday, an uncle of mine in the camp is a shaman and plans to perform a ritual for me on my mother's request. It's supposed to give me protection from bad spirits who may wish to harm me while I'm in Thailand. The American in me sometimes thinks - is this really necessary? But Hmong in me says, "You've experienced enough as a Hmong to understand that these kind of cultural and religious things have their reasons and purpose." Then the sensible person in me saves the day and thinks, "It's really about the fact that they care enough to consider my well-being." That perhaps is the magic ingredient for anyone who's Hmong or not.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 12:21 PM
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Camp experience stirs up new ways to see Hmong people
It's been an interesting trip traveling with two people who've never been exposed to refugee camp life or really lived with the Hmong people.
I've often said that I only really learned the facts of being Hmong when I came to America. I learned that we were living in the United States because of a war our people fought for the country a long time ago. We lost the war and life has never been the same for the Hmong people. I never thought much about our daily habits, the traditions we practice nor the way we did things because it's the way we did them. I've had to learn to think about the "why" part of our habits and practices since arriving in America.
So here I am on our fourth day in the camp, and thousands of miles away from home, but it feels strangely comfortable. Probably because it's familiar territory - like just being back in the refugee camp that I once lived in, like the Hmong communities I visited in Laos or the gatherings in American that bring together Hmong families. That sense of community and family prevails for the Hmong in any surrounding. We always say that being Hmong, no matter where you are in the world - even if you've never met - you are family and that feeling of being welcomed and taken care of immediately sets in. This is particular true in this part of the world where tradition is still highly respected and practiced.
That's probably why it surprised me to find out that my colleagues were constantly surprised by the warmth of these refugees, how kind and attentive they are to our needs. Wherever we go and whoever we see, they willingly surrender their seats to us, bring us water to drink and set up a fan to cool us off from the heat.
On the other side, my own or traveling with other Hmong, I probably would've noticed less the obvious poverty that surrounds us or the little details that make this place such an interesting environment of comparison and contrast to my colleagues. Being a person of two worlds, and reasonably comfortable and accepted in both, many of the things that would have stood out from one world or the other have become norms for me. For example, we were walking down a dirt path lined on one side by homes and the other with razor wires when I heard my colleagues laughing. Sharon pulled out her camera and started snapping away and Keith squatted by her laughing to himself.
I asked them what was so funny and Keith said, "Well, they've got laundry drying on these razor wires that's meant to fence them in. They've turned it into something of practical use for them."
In many ways, we're all learning quite a bit about ourselves and the people we're here to learn about.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 1:29 PM
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Eight families will arrive in Wisconsin by July 13
In the next week and a half, Wisconsin can expect about eight refugee families to arrive in the state.
Oshkosh should receive the first family of four people on the 13th of July. The children in this family are 15 and 12. While our Gannett Wisconsin Newspaper team will beat this family home, another family going to Neenah is on the same flight home with us - something all three of us are incredibly excited about.
Green Bay can expect a family on July 6 along with two more families destined for Wausau. A third Wausau family will arrive the next day. A family going to Mauston will join the Neenah family and our group to the United States on July 9, and a Milwaukee family will come on July 12.
More names are expected to be released this week for departures up to the end of July.
Although only a small number of families are departing so far, the pace is picking up and departures are expected almost every day of this month.
Families find out when they're leaving by checking a bulletin board posted near the International Organization for Migration building. The list is nothing more than a piece of paper showing the name of a member of a family along with an assigned Tham Krabok identification number. For the three days that I've been here, I've never seen the area around this bulletin board empty. Every second of every day, there's someone (a crowd is more common) running a finger down the list of names posted on the board, looking for their own family's name or someone they know. An IOM representative said nearly 40 families have left, so far, for the United States.
In the meantime, people try to carry on their daily activities even as these changes are taking in place in their community. Women continue to sew every hour of the day. In the camp, you can't turn a corner without running into a group of women or girls huddled over a piece of needlework. The men usually can be found doing blacksmith work but, occasionally, they labor outside of the camp when the Thai have work to offer.
Our group mainly has been making rounds to different families and spending a good amount of time with them, doing what they do and talking to them about their life, then and now. Sometimes this means heading to the hospital with them or sitting down for a meal. Keith, our Wausau reporter picked up a phrase in Hmong that means "My stomach is full" from his Little Brother in the Big Brother Big Sister program, and has found himself pulling out that line every day that we've been in the camp.
I don't think any of us really thought about how significant our presence in the camp is to these refugees. Many of them have never seen an American before and are intrigued when my colleagues and I make our way around the camp. My colleagues are the first Caucasians they've seen and many are touched by the fact that Americans care enough to come to experience a life so different and so much poorer than their own to promote understanding between them and those back in the United States.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 1:05 PM
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Heat rolls in on second day in Tham Krabok
Humidity and heat defined our second day at Wat Tham Krabok.
The temperatures here never went below the high 80s. But Tuesday, the skies cleared off the occasional clouds that had draped over us in the past days.
By noon, the sun was so beaming hot that the three of us downed nearly a bottle of water every hour.
At times we looked like drowned rats from sweating so much as we made our ways through the winding paths that zigzagged past the shack-like homes set up in clumps all around the camp. There is no organized layout to the way the homes are set up in the camp. People pretty much plopped down wherever they wanted. The homes are so tightly packed together that some of the homes are divided by just one thin wall or a small path big enough for a small child to crawl through.
After a couple hours of walking around in search of particular families, we felt like we had stepped through a warm and sticky shower. Just wiping our foreheads caused our chins to drip sweat like a leaky faucet for a couple seconds. Then as we made our way past the camps central open arena, a rectangular-shaped field of bumpy dry earth where people often gather for community activities or sporting events, a wind blew in, pitting us in a storm of dust and dirt for half a minute.
The day was spent doing little but visiting families who were eager to share their experiences. Several of these families we will feature in our special sections coming out later this summer. As I listened to their stories, I could not help but be struck by the fear that underlined the thoughts of these people. Often it was fear caused by the unknown, by rumors and the fact that they had faced nothing but hardship in the last 30 years of their lives. They did not say it, but it was obvious they worried what new hardship this next journey would throw their way. One woman said to me that she feared coming to the United States because her husband was blind and deaf. She explained that she was afraid her husband would get beat up for not hearing what people had to say or show him. I am not sure what created this deep fear in her, but it was heart-wrenching to hear.
I explained to her that if there is one place where her husband need not fear getting beat up for his disabilities, it would be in America. The country has laws to protect people from being abused or hurt just because of a disability. I said the only people who have to be scared about being in trouble in America are those who do the hitting. She was silent for a long time, but kept eye contact with me before saying, “He has and would never hurt anyone.” Then she smiled at me.
In the last two days that I have spent in the camp, the most common question asked me was, “You come from America, could you tell me that my family and I will be allowed to go there for sure?” For many of them, it seems their greatest fear is getting left behind or leaving a family member behind as new names of their neighbors and relatives get posted up nearly every day now for departure to the United States.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 5:15 PM
Monday, June 28, 2004
First day at Wat Tham Krabok
Wow. Monday sure made up for Sunday in a way beyond our imagination.
It's a bit overwhelming to describe what happened in the span of the last 17 hours that we spent with the Hmong in the refugee camp, Wat Tham Krabok.
But I can tell you that a fellow reporting partner Keith Uhlig from the Wausau Daily Herald declared that this trip has changed his life already, our photographer, Sharon Cekada, is in photography heaven because every blink of the eye had a new visual appeal and I pretty much have been wobbly all day from joy and tears.
We were allowed into the camp Monday morning without a hassle. In fact, it was so easy to get into the camp on Monday that the three of us wondered if we'd just imagined the frustration of our refusal to enter the camp Sunday.
We got to Wat Tham Krabok early on Monday morning.
As I write this, it's 1 a.m. and we just spent the night following a refugee family who took off for Bangkok and is heading to Wausau. It was such a moving experience that I noticed Keith close to letting loose a tear once or twice and Sharon's camera never stopped clicking during anear-two hour good-bye session. Camp members lined up along the streets and the yard where a coach bus awaited the departing refugees.
I couldn't help but cry along with the several hundred refugees who had gathered to wish their family and relatives good-bye. It brought back so many emotions of my own departure from Ban Vinai refugee camp. The obvious difference between their goodbyes and ours was that everyone constantly reminded eachother that was not a final goodbye and they will all see each other again in America.
Wat Tham Krabok basically - and appropriately - translates to "temple by the cliffs". The camp itself is tucked cozily inside a semicircle of cliffs that tower high over the shacks and leanto homes packed into the flat valley. The cliffs are so beautiful and dignified looking despite the mining that's marked several of them with miles of naked dirt.
One can't help but be in awe at the contrasting scene between the jagged cliffs covered in thick lushness and the camp situated at its valley. There are so many homes squeezed together that the camp's only open space is a large yard of yellow dirt where the refugees gather for the community events like the New Year celebration and the nightly a sporting game played with a volley-ball like net and a ball made of light wooden strips weaved together. The ball is played by bouncing from one player's head to another over the net.
Growing up in a camp very similar to this one, and having just spent a month in Laos where the scenes aren't much different, the fact that these people lived in such extreme poverty didn't hit me as much as it did my colleagues. Children run around half naked and play in the brown puddles that gather after a quick but heavy rainfall. The camp is covered in a thin floating layer of dust since the area is experiencing a bit of a dry spell during what's supposed to be a rainy period. The town's patch of land saved for corn is still unplanted because they're waiting for rain to moisten the dry earth.
Every where you go, there are people milling about, laughing, sewing, selling miscellaneous items like soap and candy. The environment inside the camp is constant action. It's such a small space packed with so many people that at every minute of the day, there's someone busy doing something, laughing with someone or caught in a deep conversation.
Monday, we visited my relatives. Several families in the camp had heard that we were coming with words from their relatives in the Wisconsin area, and were waiting for us when we reached the camp. My relatives made us a traditional meal of rice and a chicken they'd just butchered and cooked. My colleagues, although cautious, tried a couple spoonfuls of the meal. Then we headed to a school inside the camp that teaches both adults, children and teens how to read and write.
We were travelling with a man who's well-respected in the camp and got to share in the school's good-bye meal for the principal who founded the school. The principal was heading to America. Students openly cried and the principal remained red-eyed himself throughout the two-hour meal of pigskin salad, frog soup and tapioca dessert while Thai rap and Hmong songs took turns as background music.
Needless to say, I'm travelling with two of the coolest colleagues. They weren't afraid to nibble at some of the odd menu items and even punctuated their food tastings with a couple of "mmmm, this is quite good." The school then invited all three of us to go to the front of the room to offer some words of wisdom to the teachers and students.
Strange that it is really only our second day here. It feels like we have been among these refugees much longer. Their openness, sincere hospitality and concern for our comfort said so much about who they are despite the conditions they lived in and the circumstances of their lives. My colleagues and I expressed multiple times Monday just how fortunate we are to be among these people who have been through so much yet never wavered from that human spirit.
In the next Weblog, I'll give an update of who and how many are coming in the next several days and weeks to our areas.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 1:16 PM
Sunday, June 27, 2004
First day of Thailand bears some bad news...
None of us really saw it coming.
We had an inkling it could happen because others ran into it but we did our homework and were optimistic that perhaps we had expanded our luck.
That is why our first day in Thailand to report on the Hmong refugees at Wat Tham Krabok, after a nearly 20-hour plane ride that kept us scrunched up and folded into all sorts of uncomfortable shapes in those famously not one-size-fits-all airplane seats, was such a splash of cold awakening.
We were denied entrance into the camp,at least for that day.
Despite the papers in our hands from the Thai government granting us permission to enter the camp from June 26 to July 9, the soldiers who guarded the gate at Tham Krabok said it was not procedure to allow the press into the camp on weekends without specific permission from the higher ups. Monday through Friday from dawn to dusk was the policy for visitors outside of the camp and not any other time.
My cousins, who have been living at the camp since my family departed nearly 17 years ago from a different refugee camp in Thailand, were allowed to come out and greet me up at the airport. Our plan for that first full day in Thailand was a reunion with my relatives, friends and neighbors at Wat Tham Krabok and then to just take the time to be among the people of the camp.
Instead we were allowed by the guards to hide from the hot sun under their tent while waiting for a few of my relatives to come and see me before we drove back to our hotel in Saraburi, about a 20 minute drive from the camp.
But come Monday, our team of two reporters and a photographer will stop at the camp, once again seeking permission to enter.
Seeing that the Thai government and guards who patrol the gates have been generous in the past about allowing members of the press eager to help people be more sympathetic and responsive to the plight of the Hmong, we were hopeful.
It is all the more important now that we know another group of people are expected to leave Monday night for America, followed by a July 4 and 5 youth community group.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 1:14 PM
Friday, June 25, 2004
Trip to Thailand
* Northwestern reporter Hlee Vang will keep a Weblog while in Thailand to give the community a chance to come along for the trip.
* Vang's Weblogs and past stories about the refugee resettlement can be viewed at www.wisinfo.com/thailand by clicking onto "Weblog from our Correspondents."
* Readers will be able to send questions to Vang in Thailand through the Website or by email at oshkoshnews@thenorthwestern.com.
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posted by Hlee Vang @ 1:58 PM
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