By Viet Doan Nguyen, 11, East Point, Georgia I have been through an experience that I will never forget. When I was about six years old, my family and I escaped looking for freedom in America, because the Viet Cong took over my country. The country is Viet Nam. The first time we escaped we didn’t make it. I didn’t feel scared or anything; but I felt very uncomfortable sitting in a small boat breathing other people’s breath, hearing babies’ cries, and smelling the dirty fumes from the boat. The second time we tried to escape the Viet Cong caught us and put us into jail. I was really scared when they all pointed their guns at us. After they put us in jail, I began to know what prison was like. Life in prison was very terrible. We didn’t have enough to eat, nor enough clothing, and the little children didn’t get a single decent meal. They didn’t care if the people lying there starved to death. All they fed us was two meals a day, and that’s it. The food that they gave to us was like leftover foods, but we were so hungry we didn’t notice. After spending a month in jail, they let us out. About two months later, my father made another plan. He bought a small passenger boat, then gathered people who wanted to escape. In a few days we took off. This time we made it. We landed on a seashore off Malaysia. We stayed there for two months and many other people like us were there also. Later the Malaysian soldiers put us in a wrecked boat and pulled it out to the international water. We stayed out there for ten days. Whenever an airplane or a boat passed by, the people in the boat tried to signal for help; but it was no use. Finally, a ship saw us and towed the boat to the nearest island, called Air Raya. It was located in Indonesia. We stayed there for nine months. At the beginning of those months, it was horrible. Every day people got sick and died because of the air and foods that they breathed and ate. Later there was a hospital built on the island. After we stayed there, we were all on board a big ship. We sailed to Singapore. From there we flew by plane to America!
May/June 1985
My Country and the Way to America
By Huong Nguyen, 11, Hosford Middle School, Portland, Oregon Reprinted with permission from Light of the Island, © 1982 I live in Vietnam. I go to school in Vietnam. I have three pigs and one dog, but the dog is dead. My mother she was sad. My mother my father my sister is go to work. Me and my younger sister we stay home. Everybody is go to work. We has a restaurant in Vietnam. So my family they work there. In Vietnam is very awful so we leave. One night my sister she take my younger sister and I go in to the boat. But we ask her where do we going, and she said she take us to the zoo. And we very happy because we don’t know what the zoo mean. She tell us the zoo is for the animals use to live. So we go to see we saw the lion and the tiger and the elephant and the monkey and the wolf and snake and the bear and the very old cat. The old cat is very big but if we touch that cat he bite you and you have to go to the hospital. That cat so grumpy. After we went to the zoo and we go to buy a lot of food. My younger sister she ask what for? My oldest sister said we going to have a party. And she take us to get on the boat. And I see too much people. When we start to go I am too small and I am so stupid. Because they want everybody to put the children to go sleep because they start to go but I don’t want to go to sleep but I want to play with the water. I put my feet under the water. The people in the boat they gave me a medicine but I don’t know what is that. Then I drink the medicine. After I drink I was sleeping. When I wake up I saw the ocean. And I put my feet under the water again. After three days or four days out the ocean, the boat have a hole and the water coming. Everybody was cry and scary. The boat was rocking and raining. The people they felling down the ocean. The captain in the boat. He jump down the ocean and he help everybody to get on the boat. Then he was tired and he can’t swim no more. He dead under ocean. His wife was sad and lonely. Everybody they are wet. Me and my younger sister we are under boat. And we didn’t get drop down the ocean. My sister she said we are lucky. The people they take care of the lady because that lady she is very lonely and sad. We stay in the ocean for a month and two days. The last day we saw a people dead on the water. We saw money and the wood, the shoe, the paper, the clothes, the pants. And everybody was scary. Another day we saw a big ships. We are happy they let we get on the ship. We saw a lot of toys. We play on the ship for one day. And they get my boat to Malaysia. We lived there two month. And they take we go to Indonesia. We lived there one years. We live in Indonesia. We have no food no water to drink no soap and shampoo for hair in Indonesia is very dirty and messy. They has a lot of the bad fly. If the bad fly sting we get sick. And no medicine. The people they dead every day. I sick one time but not much because I drink the bad water it make me sick. My sister she think I might dead so she feel sad. And worry about my mother and my father and my sister in Vietnam. Next morning the America people they call my family name to get on the ship. They take us go to the big mountain. A lot some people. And we are talking to the Vietnamese people. We came to a big mountain they have everything. They have water and food, and no fly nothing. We lived there we don’t have to cook. They cook for us to eat every day. We can eat anything if we want to. Because we got to come to America some day. So we very happy. The mountain is very beautiful. It look very big then in Vietnam. The mountain look like a city. I like America we like to live there. We live there they give us candy every day. We live there one week. Then we get on the airplane to came to Hong Kong. And we came to America. Then we live in the hotel two days in Los Angeles.
