Assignment #6

Good evening everybody and welcome to another blogging session with yours truly. I'm particularly excited about what I'm going to do with this blog just because it involves one of my heroes in life, my uncle. This is a man who I basically consider to be a father figure to me for so many reasons. He's well respected in the household as well as in the Mien community. He took my siblings and I in at a time when my father couldn't support us all financially and I can't thank him enough for it.
As you can see this is a man who has done a lot for me in my life as well as many others. I'll be conducting an interview with my uncle Leo Saephan, because he's gone through the Southeast Asian immigration first hand so I thought he'd be a perfect candidate.

Me: Do you remember your time living in Laos? If so, explain.
Uncle: In Laos, majority of Mien people are working as farmers. The most Mien people live in the Highland areas.

Me: How were the living conditions in the Highland areas?
Uncle: The living conditions are way different then the U.S. There is no public health, no schooling. There was a lot of uneducated people in the Highland area. There were opportunity for education but you had to be wealthy and living in the city.

Me: How did you guys go by day by day?
Uncle: It was a struggle. It's not easy at all. We had to fight diseases constantly because there's no public health as I pointed out.

Me: Do you remember the communist invasion in Laos? Explain.
Uncle: I remember a little bit but I was still young. I remember because my uncles and my older brothers were fighting for the U.S CIA. The U.S was there and they had the Laotian and Mien people involved fighting against the Communist but the CIA just pulled out of Laos. That left all the people fighting for them there with no firearms or support.

Me: DO you remember leaving Laos?
Uncle: Yes. The majority left in 1975 to Thailand, but we left in 1977. We were put in the refugee camp.
Me: Can you describe the refugee camp?
Uncle: In the camp, pretty much we don't have no rights. We were kept in the camp, not allowed to go out in the camp. There were certain rules we had to follow like curfews. The living conditions in the camp is a little better then back in Laos because they had health care there which is provided by the Thai and American government. They provided basic care in the camp. Hmong, Laotian, Mien, Vietnamese were all in the camp. Most people were there for five years, but we were in there for only 1 year. We were very lucky.
Me: How was the refugees picked out to immigrate to the U.S?
Uncle: The U.S government has the program to allow the refugees to come here. At first, they only picked the people who served under the CIA in Laos. They got priority over everybody.
Me: How was you guys treated when you first came to the San Francisco airport?
Uncle: I mean we were in a brand new world and we didn't speak no English. I can't really say they treated us good or not because we didn't understand nothing they were saying.

Me: How did you find your very first apartment/house?
Uncle: Our relatives were here first and they were helping us look for apartments. We were supported by the refugee settlement program which was provided by the U.S government helping us financially.

Me: Did you guys have any sponsors?
Uncle: Yes. It was called IRC. It's like financial aid, it's one program set there, and whoever meets the guidelines can qualify for this program. The agency helps us financially, as well as other programs which allows us to go to school to learn the basic skills.

Me: Speaking of school, since you didn't go to school in Laos, how did you learn
Uncle: I started 7 months of school in Thailand which taught me basic alphabet only. When I came to San Francisco I attended Wilson High school in the 9th grade without knowing nothing but my alphabets. I just had to self learn, stay after school, come before school starts because I obviously really needed the tutoring.

Me: Did you face any racism?
Uncle: When we first came here, there weren't that much Asian people here. We couldn't make out what they called us but it didn't seem good.

Me: How was the community like?
Uncle: It was mixed races. We were put in the poverty gutter because we couldn't afford nothing. That's the only way we would've came up to stay with the cost of living.

Me: Overall, how do you compare life in Laos with life in the U.S?
Uncle: Here, I think it's much more better, because we have much more opportunities to do and be what we want. There's very small opportunities in Laos. If I had a choice to go back to Laos or stay in the U.S, I would stay here simply because it's a better life. It's better to raise your kids here. Of course Laos is still communist which makes my choice easier.

After conducting the interview, my uncle told me a story.
Uncle: When we first arrived to Thailand, the Thai officials kicked us out and wouldn't let us in the country. For what reasons I don't know because I was simply too young to understand. We ended up on a island next to or on Burma I'm not sure. There we walked 3 days without no food or water to a city for comfort. Your father (my dad) was only 5 years old and was all walking in the jungle without any weapons or any sorts of protection for that matter. We stayed 8-9 months in the Burmese jungle before the refugee camps opened up for us to go back to. We went through so much and that's why I want you guys to cherish this opportunity in the United states to better your lives. We never had the chance to go to college or receive the proper help, and you guys do. Your grandma walked up the mountains in the pouring rain just to get fresh water for the family.

I learned a whole lot about how the Mien people, and immigrants were treated by conducting this interview. Although my uncle was young during most of these events, he still remembers most of what happened to him and the family. I hope you all enjoy what he had to share. I know some information was a little vague but overall, I think he did a very good job at answering my questions.