Banlang Phommasouvanh

My advice for everyone is to love. Have lots of patience, persistence and understanding. Make the world a peaceful place to live. Education is so important. Please keep walking forward. Even when you look back, don’t walk back.

Banlang Phommasouvanh

My name is Banlang Phommasouvanh. I was born in Laos in 1946. I was the second of eight children. I grew up in the countryside with little money. My family worked together farming and raising animals. I was raised in the Buddhist traditions. The five principals I live by are:

1. Do not lie.
2. Do not steal.
3. Do not kill.
4. Do not abuse alcohol or drugs.
5. Do not commit adultery.

My family and I learned to share what we had, and I often walked a mile to the Buddhist temple to bring food for the monks.
I was sent to France to earn my Associate degree as a French teacher. Then I returned to Laos to teach and to get married. Later I was sent by my government to the United States to earn my Bachelor’s degree.

When I returned to Laos, the Communists were taking over my country. My husband was teaching in Thailand and sent word to me to escape. The Communists were taking the American-educated Laotians and imprisoning them for having studied American ways. I had two small daughters at that time. I hired a man to take my seven-month-old baby and me across the Mekong River to Thailand. A relative took my year-and-a-half-old daughter on a different boat. I had to leave all of my worldly possessions behind. The trip across the Mekong was treacherous and many people died trying to escape. I prayed the whole way that my children and I would make it safely across and be reunited on the other side. I still have flashbacks of the terror we went through.

Once in Thailand, my education saved me. I was given a job as a teacher for the refugees, so I was given a house and did not have to live in the refugee camps. In 1976 a church group in Sioux City Iowa sponsored my family and we came to live here. I worked hard to learn English and to fit into a new culture. I took a job in a hat factory to earn a living. I never gave up on my dream of teaching and eventually I saw and ad in a newspaper saying that ESL teachers were needed. I left Sioux City to head to Ball State to train to be an ESL teacher. I was highly respected by my boss. When I said I wanted to leave to pursue my Master’s degree, my boss begged me to stay and paid me to get my Master’s degree. When I completed my Master’s degree, I came to teach in Minneapolis and have been here since.

I have raised three daughters and all are very successful. My oldest daughter graduated form the University of Minnesota with a business degree. My second daughter graduated from St. Catherine’s with a major in speech and communications, and my third daughter is a computer science major. My family is scattered all over the world, but we were able to reunite for a family reunion several years ago. I still love gardening and animals. I love to cook and share my wonderful dishes with all of my friends and family.