Refugee Camps: Part Two

Just when my stepfather and mother were starting to save money and send for us, they were thrown in jail for illegally entering Thailand. The men and women were seperated.  My stepfather was led away in wrist and ankle chain with the other men like herds of cattle.  My mom was thrown in the cell with other women.  She would not see my stepfather again until a month later when they would appear in front of the judge who would decide their fate.

During the month that my mom was seperated from my stepfather, she was kept busy knitting fishing nets. She said she was lucky that she knew how to knit and weave because the other women who couldn’t do that had to go shovel human waste from the pits.   

After a month had passed it was time for my mom and stepdad to go in front of the judge along with some of the other prisoners.  When my mom got there to the courtroom, she looked for my dad, but couldn’t see him so she ask if my stepdad was on the list to appear in front of the judge that day. The Thai officer asked for my stepdad’s name and sure enough he was on the list.  So, my mom looked around the courtroom again and finally located my stepdad.  She didn’t recognize him because he had lost a lot of weight and they had shaved his head.  My mom was speechless and saddened to see my stepdad humiliated like that.  In a matter of months he went from being a Sub-Lientenant in the Laos army to a lowly prisoner in the Thai prison where he was the one under the control of the prison guard instead of the one giving orders.

My mom and stepdad had no choice but to stand there and remain silent as the judge accused all the refugees in the courtroom of being Communist who wanted nothing more than to turn Thailand into a communist country.  The judge said all the refugees (Cambodians, Vietnamese, and Laotians) were bad for the country and that they needed to be sent back to where they came from.  He said it was not up to Thailand to take care of the refugees and that it was not up to them to be concern for the safety and welfare of these criminals.  After the judgement was passed down, the refugees were readied to be transported to one of the border city of Thailand.  Once there, the refugees were let loose to make their own way to their individual country with the threat of dire consequences if they were to sneak back to Thailand.  That pronouncement was not enforced.  My mom said since there were not many Thai authorities to enforce the ruling, many refugees went back to Thailand as in the case of my mom and stepfather.  They borded the bus to take them back to where they were living (in kamalied or khamalid Nonaly) which was a hundred miles away from the border of Thailand and Laos.

Once back in Kamalaid, they went back to their rented house, their jobs.  My mom continue selling sweets and doing laundry.  My dad continue using the sam lor as a taxi to make money. Fortunately, for my parents, my dad had made friends with one of the Thai police officer.  The officer helped my dad out by telling the other officers that my mom and dad are good hard working people and that they are not there to make trouble. The police left them alone this time. My parents steadily save a little money here and there.  About three months after they got out of jail, my mom sent word to my grandma to get us ready to cross over to Thailand.   We were living in Laos with our grandmother in Donkayang (closest pronunciation I can translate from what my mom told me). This city is close to the Thai border on the other side of the Mekong. 

My mother and stepfather asked a friend who was familiar with the borders of Laos and Thai to bring us across to the rendevous place.  My sister, Paramy, Khonsavanh, and I were living with my grandma close to the borders of Laos and Thailand, but my older brother was living with my great grandfather at the Wat, closer to Pakse.  So my parents had to first make arrangements for my great grandfather to bring my older brother to where my sisters and I were. Once we were all together, everything was set except there would be one less person on the trip.  My older sister Paramy, fell ill and died about two or three months before we were supposed to leave.  My grandmother did not send word to my mom to let her know so my mom was expecting four children to show up at the border not three. The death of my sister came as a shock to my mom because my grandmother did not prepare her ahead of time.   It took years for my mom to forgive my grandmother for not bringing us to her sooner.  My grandmother had become attached to us. As a result, the first time my mom had told my grandmother to get ready to take us because she was sending someone to guide her across, my grandmother said she needed a little more time to get ready.  My mom told me that if my grandmother had taken us the first time she had asked, maybe my older sister would have still been alive.

By the time we cross over to Thailand, it was 1975.  I was four years old, my little sister Khonsavanh was three, my sister Paramy would have been five, and my older brother was six.  We were ready to start a new life in the refugee camp as  a family. With the birth of my little brother, we begun a new chapter in our lives.

Refugee Camps: Part one

 

This picture was taken in 1979 in a refugee camp in the Thai province of Ubon Ratchanthani

 

I am in the black dress( second from the right) standing in front of my grandma and step-grandfather 

People are familiar with the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”.  There are a dozen story I can tell about the people in this picture. Some sad, some funny, and some uplifting ones.  Some stories I am a central figure to, some I am a bystander, and others I  do not play any role in.  These people’s lives are an integral part of who I am, where I come from, and what I believe in.  Some of them are family members, some are friends and others are people who became a part of my life.  In that refugee camp in Ubon, we were one because of our shared hardship and struggle to make our lives better. When we all had to seperate and make our own way to different parts of the world on that day, it was a sad chapter in our lives.  Having to leave some of them behind until it was their turn to emigrate was necessary.  Fortunately, for my family and I we were able to see some of them again in America.  Some of them like two of my step-father’s cousin ( Ai You ck: fourth from the left, and Ai Yu ung: eighth from the left) would even live with us in Clovis, New Mexico. 

In 1974, my mom and stepfather decided to cross over to Thailand illegally.  They left my older sister, Paramy ( 5), little sister (3) Khonsavahn, me (4) and my oldest brother Vorada (6) in Laos because they didn’t have any money yet to take us.  My sisters and I would remain with my grandmother close to the Thai border until my mom sent for us.  As for my older brother, he was sent to stay with my great grandfather at the Wat close to Pakse where my mother’s family is from.

My mother and step-father would not be able to send for us until almost a year later because of some problems they ran into.  The first obstacle of course was money:  they didn’t have any.  They left Laos with a small pack of their clothing and that was it.  When they got to Kamalaid (I am spelling it phonetically so I’m sure it is the wrong spelling) a village in South Thailand, they sold their nice clothes for 80 baht.  They found a house to rent for 40 baht and the 20 baht they had left, they use to buy a rice steamer and a little bit of food. At the time they did not know anybody yet.  Luckily for them, a nice Thai lady befriended them.  She taught my mom and dad to make fresh noodles and sweets to sell at th bus station.  At first my mom was not a good cook at all.  She said making the fresh noodles and sweets took a while to make, but eventually she got the hang of it.

Image of Sam Lor from movetochiangrai.com

While my mom sold noodles and sweets, my dad decided to rent  a sam lor (three wheeled bicycle) to haul people around to make some money.  Once again at first he was not good at it.  My mom said the first time he tried to drive the sam lor he ran into a thorn bush.  I guess my dad had to adjust from being a soldier in the Laos army to a “taxi” driver.  Eventually, he was able to control the som lor and made some money doing that.  Besides selling sweets and noodles, my mom also did laundry for a rich Thai family.  They would only pay her 50 baht a month.  Another job they took on was shifting rocks that would be used for building houses. They got paid only 20 baht for a big trash can size.  My mom said it was hard work, especially because by that time she was pregnant with my little brother.

Just when my mom and stepdad was almost ready to send for us, someone told on the lady who was helping my parents.  They told the authorities that she was harboring illegal immigrants.  The Thai authorities showed up and arrested my mom and stepdad and took them to jail. 

*** Part two I will continue the story of my parents’ incarceration in the Thai jail for illegally entering the country.