Day 10

This is my little Vietnamese friend Brandon's (the guy I work out with everyday) story:

He was born in Vietnam.  In the late 70's/early 80's Vietnam was fucking poor.  As a little kid, he and his uncle would walk along the road and gather seeds to mix in to the rice, and that was dinner.  When he was 9, his grandfather said he was going to the U.S.  He stowed away on a fishing boat bound for Thailand and Brandon and his family didn't hear from him for a year.  A year later, Brandon's granpa sent them a letter, letting them know he had finally made it to California.  All the paperwork was filed for the family to come over, but they first had to find a way out of Vietnam, away from the Vietcong and into a country where they could claim refugee status.  Eventually, Brandon's uncle just decided that the family (about 12 people total) should just get in their small fishing boat and try and haul ass to international waters.  So late one night, they piled in the 15' metal boat, 3 adult males, 4 adult women, and 5 kids all under 13 years old, and started out to sea.  As they pulled away from the shore, apparently some Vietcong saw them and yelled for them to stop.  When they didn't stop, they opened fire.  No one was hit.  About 20 yards after they crossed over to international waters, the motor on their boat broke down.

This is when they realized that a 15' boat had little to no chance of making it all the way to Thailand in the first place, much less with no motor.  With no parts to fix the motor, they just sat out in the middle of the Pacific for about 10 days.  They were running low on food.  Real fucking low.  On the 10th day, a Thai fishing vessel came across their boat.  The Thai fishermen told them they would tow them close enough to shore to get in (but not all the way because it was illegal to tow in refugees), so they tossed them a rope and tied on.  Well, instead of taking them inland, they went out.  WAY out.  Then they robbed Brandon and his family of all the bartering items they had taken for their entire journey and left them for dead.  (I get hint that Brandon's female relatives may have been raped during this ordeal, but not didn't push to confirm it.)  Brandon's female relatives had some jewelry, the men had a little cash (very little).  Luckily, Brandon's grandma had sensed something was up and gave all the kids bubble gum and told them to chew it.  Then she inserted a peice of jewelry into each peice of bubble gum and told the kids to hold it in their mouth.  So the Thai fuckers didn't get everything.

Anyway, now here they were, out in the middle of the Pacific on a brokedown boat with nothing and no food.  They sat their for a day and a half, the waves brutalizing their little boat.  On the 2nd day, a Dutch cargo ship came across them.  They offered help.  I have no clue why, but they took Brandon and his family aboard, carried them to shore, and paid for them to get safe passage not only into Thailand, but paid for a full month's living at the refugee camp.  Brandon couldn't explain why the Dutchmen did this other than that they were nice.

So in Thailand, they stayed at the refugee camp for about a month waiting for their papers to clear U.S. immigrations.  The way Brandon explained it to me, back then the US paid for Vietnamese refugees to fly into the US.  So anyway, after a month in the camp, they flew to California.  Brandon's uncle had filed all Brandon's documents listing him as 2 years younger than he actually was, so Brandon started 4th grade as a 12 year old.  He didn't know a word of english.  He took ESL classes.  He graduated high school at 20.  Two years later he finally got full citizenship and joined the Marines.

I just thought it was a cool story, and some shit I would have never been exposed to otherwise; plus, it's a pretty cool tale of America.

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Astros lose.  Williams and Jennings compete for "Worst Astros Pitching Acquisition Ever".

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Raptors lose.  Hopefully this will be enough to justify letting Mitchell leave and getting a better coach.  And hopefully they'll use their cap room wisely. (Sign DeShawn Stevenson!)

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Weekends over here suck.  One more after this.  Can't get here soon enough.

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My old roommate Dan introduced me to this band.  I like 'em.  This song rules:

Comments

[Ally]

I'm not sure why since the sound isn't really the same, but this band reminds me of For Squirrels. Maybe b/c they both sing about lackluster sex lives.

Your "little" friend is about our age isn't he? What an amazing story--I imagine his family appreciates America in a way I never can. Thanks for sharing.

[Snake Diggity]

Yeah, Brandon is my age, but he is just a tiny guy. I mean, he's muscular as all get out, but he barely clears 5 feet. He reminds me of that asian acrobat dude from Ocean's Eleven.