Khoua Xiong

You students are fortunate to grow up in this country, to have what you have. Don’t take it for granted. When I grew up I couldn’t be a student like you guys. Take advantage of your education. When you are educated you can help the less fortunate who don’t have the opportunity like you have to succeed in this country.

Khoua Xiong

My name is Khoua Xiong. I was born in 1976 in San Quan. I’m an orphan child, so I lost track [of] my family. I lived with my mom and grandma until I was five. Then my mother, she went to get married again, so I lived with my uncle and aunt (on my father’s side). I grew up as an orphan child in Laos. The communists captured and killed my father.

It was a war between the Vietnamese and the people in Laos. The Vietnamese tried to take over the country. The American CIA was in Laos fighting. Because we lived in the jungle of Laos we were experts of the jungle. The CIA asked us to fight the war and if we helped them they would help us. General Vang Pao was our leader with the American CIA. We helped them fight the war.

We lived up in the mountains. We [went] to a farm and cut forest to grow all the food. As you live in the jungle you grow rice, corn, and some wheat. We also had chicken, pig, cow, goat and water buffalo.

Every day I woke up in the morning at 3:00 to prepare food for all the animals and then I [would] go down to the valley of the creek to bring water; carry water buckets, on bamboo across my shoulders, down the village and the mountain. We [didn’t] have watches, so [didn’t] have time. I only tell time by the cricket sounds. When the cricket sounds it tells me it is late and I should go home.

We had to feed the communists all the time. Feed them nice food like they are special people to us. Not free to go wherever we want. Wherever we go we have to be very careful. We don’t really want to work for our enemies. That’s why we try to escape.

My uncle pays somebody, some Thai people, to pick us up after we escape across the Mekong River. There is nobody there to pick us up. The camp we were going to had a fire so all the police came to the camp and nobody wanted any trouble. We had to walk from Mekong River to the camp. It takes us about two to four nights to walk around the Mekong River to the camp.

When we escaped my uncle’s baby was crying. So the babies were given medicine to sleep. But when we got in the house the baby was almost dead. All night we were really afraid the baby was going to die. In the morning the baby was cold and all pale white, but he cried so we knew he was safe.

I was 13 years old when I came to America. My first impression when the plane landed in Georgia was when we walked to the waiting area. People hugging each other and kissing each other. In my whole life I never thought about or seen something like that before. Never. I couldn’t believe it. It was so exciting. People were crying in front of each other.

The first English words I learned were “I miss you.” I learned them in Thailand. I had children when I was young and couldn’t stay in school. I learned English from the television. I learned the most from watching Sesame Street.