ESCAPING LAOS
My name is Lom and I came from Laos. This is my personal history. My parents are Lao. Dad was the second son of four children of my grandparents. Mum is the only daughter of three children. In 1970 Laos was changing under a new a communist country. I was born in a war torn country and had a difficult. When I was a child, I lived in a warm family surrounded by love under a lovely house.
In 1977 the civil war was ending, but for the citizens it was the start of a new and difficult life. If you were rich, you could run away from Laos to Thailand or another place. But if you were poor you could not do anything. A lot of people did because they wanted to run away but did not have the money to do so. Some were forced to swim across the river which was patrolled by the government officials. If you got caught, you would be shot at and killed, so for most it was a big risk. Some children lost their parents, some people lost their homes. The citizens became poor and worked very hard all the time but never got enough food and clothing for their work. Some lost their minds.
My house was not far from the city and not far from the school. I started going to school when I was 5 years old. The primary school I went to was not very big with about 150 students. I went to school 5 days a week from Monday to Friday. All students had to be at school at 8am. My friend could come to my house at 7.30 in them morning and we’d walk to school together every day. When we got to school we put our bags in the locker and went to the front of the school to sing the national anthem as the Lao flag was raised. At 9am we would start classes. I had about five or six good friends at school. My best friend was Sam. I went to her house sometimes and we’d have fun together. At school we always sat together at big long des44s which seated four students. Lunch was at 12.30pm and we’d go home for lunch. At 1.30pm we had to be back at school again, otherwise you’d get into big trouble. When exams were on we had homework every night. School finished at 4.20pm. I loved school as I got to see all my friends.
School was very different to Australian schools. In classrooms you couldn’t make any noise and when students were naughty the teachers were allowed to hit the students or do anything to tem. It was up to the teacher. One day I got into trouble and the teacher told me to stand in front of the class for twenty minutes. After that he told me to run around the school two times. He punished me because I ate in the classroom and my homework wasn’t finished. At school it was very strict. We had to listen to the teacher all the time. After school I had to go to my grandparent’s house because my mum and dad weren’t home. They were at the market to sell vegetables.
One day I came home and no one was there.
The government told us to work. If we didn’t work we weren’t allowed to stay in Laos. That is why everyone had to work. If we had too much rice and land or items or big house, the government took half. If you didn’t do what they said they would kill your family. In 1980 mum decided to go to Thailand. Before she left she left my sisters Chanhorm to her mum and Nom to her grandma because mum was worried about her parents and grandparents. She wanted my sisters to look after them when they got older. In the morning the road was very crowded with people. When I saw this I asked my mum why there were so many people on our roads. She told me something had happened. Then when I asked her, “where are we going?” she didn’t answer me. A lot of people asked me also where we were going. I was so confused. Mum told me and my brother to stand under a big tree near the river. My brother was so naughty and he was only 1 years old. I had to look after him.
Mum had to go to get a boat for us and her friends. There were three families all together in one boat with about 20 people and were going to cross the Mekong River. When we got to the middle of the river, my mum’s friend remembered she had forgotten her son and had to go and get him. The boat wasn’t going to turn back, but she was lucky as there was another with her. We too were lucky because no government officials saw us. When we got into Thailand, the Thai army asked “Why did all of you come to Thailand”.
Mum answered “Because we are looking for our husbands.” Then the soldiers asked whether anyone had gold and we said no. The soldiers told us to wait for a bus. They took us to a station for about two days. On the first day we slept, we had nothing to cover ourselves with. We had come from Laos with nothing with us, just the clothes we wore. During the night we slept with mosquitoes biting us, but we couldn’t feel them because we were too tired. In the morning when we got up, our bodies were red from the mosquito bites.
It was about 9.30am in the morning and we were so hungry. My mum’s friend had ten children with her and another had seven and my mum had only two, me and my brother. Mum and her friend went to a temple to ask for rice and food. The monks were very kind and nice to us. They knew we had come from Laos and they gave a lot to us and we thanked them for everything.
By now my dad was in the Nong Khaki refugee camp for those fleeing Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. He heard we were in Thailand and was so happy to come to see us. Dad saw me holding my brother. He thought Kao was not his son because when he left Laos, Kao was only two months old. He knew we would be at the Nong Khai refugee camp from the local police who told my dad that there had been new arrivals from Laos.
It was fun in the camp. Sometimes me and my friend would go out to the city are. I saw Lao people swimming in the Mekong River. We could call out to them as it was not far from where we were. We met a local Thai girl who had a swimming pool. We spent our time swimming there. Mum and dad were so happy to live together again, but dad was worried about my two other sisters who were still in Laos. In the camp everyone was poor and if you didn’t work the Thai government didn’t give you any money. They only gave food to us. But some people who were in the camp had family overseas living in Australia or USA other countries and were receiving money from them. But my family didn’t have anyone overseas. We had no money for the first month, but we were lucky as we had some gold left from Laos. We sold all our gold to buy some clothes and food. A few months later the refugee camp told us to have our photographs taken to be sent to France for sponsors. We were so lucky, they took our photos and found some very good people who sponsored us and sent us money every month. I was happy enough with the friend around me.
It has been a year now in the refugee camp and I was going to school in the camp. It was good fun at school and we learnt Thai and maths, PE, French, art and cooking and a lot of other things. I did not learn any English in Thailand because they didn’t have any English teachers in the camp. Now my Thai friends were moving to the city in five weeks and I was getting sad. After three years we were moved to Ving Camp because they didn’t have many people there and were looking for Lao people to go there. When we got to the camp, everyone was nice and friendly to us. There were many Thai people who came to sell food and clothes everyday, but they would sell it outside the camp. They started selling at 8am until 9pm. Mum was able to buy a small space to sell food. Mum made nice food and a lot of people came to buy and eat her food.
Mum heard news about the communists who were becoming stricter on the people of Laos, making everyone work and not allowed to stay home. She decided to go to Laos to get Nom. My mum snuck back into Laos without being seen and got Nom and brought her over to the camp. Dad found out about it that night and he decided to go back for Chanhorm a few weeks later. She didn’t know my dad was coming to get her, and thought dad was a soldier. She was crying all the way back to Thailand as she didn’t know where dad was taking her. He didn’t say anything to her because the soldiers could hear what he was saying. At 1am in the morning they made the crossing over the Mekong with others into Thailand safely. Now we were all happy to be living together again after so long.
