Escape by Night

In 1975, at the age of 25, I had to leave my country of Laos as it had been taken over by the Communists and it was unsafe to stay there. I escaped at night with my cousin, by swimming across the Mekong River over to Thailand. It was very dangerous and some people who attempted this escape were shot while swimming across. As soon as I arrived, I was taken by police and kept in jail for three days. I was then transferred to the refugee camp and lived there for 5 years. The number of people grew from 40,000 to 100,000. We were fed soup by the United Nations, which was mostly water with a few vegetables and some rice. Our accommodations consisted of a 3 meter by 3 meter room for 10 people. No blankets, no pillows. A wire fence was all around. In 1981, this camp was closed and was moved inland 200 kms away because they didn't want any more people crossing over from Laos to Thailand. In this second camp, I did volunteer work for the United Nations. Because of this and also because I spoke 4 languages, I was approached to be interviewed and had an opportunity to be sponsored and to be resettled in Canada. By this time, I had been living in the refugee camps for 16 years. I met my beautiful wife in the second camp and when we left we had an 8 year old son and a newborn baby boy. On November 5th, 1991, I arrived in Canada with my family and to this day I celebrate our life of freedom and plenty here for the past 32 years. It is a beautiful gift that we have been able to return four times and visit our families who still live there.