DON'T BE A BIGMOUTH

Untitled Part 1

DON'T BE A BIGMOUTH

Don't be a big-mouth person. You might end up doing something terribly bad for someone. And in this case, I, a student working for a brief summer at a meat plant in Davenport, Iowa had learned a deep lesson from being a person with a big mouth.

I was a student at a small college at the time. It was called DWC (Divine Word College), located in Epworth, Iowa, a small town with only a couple of stop signs. Not even a traffic light existed there. The funny thing was, they had a local Newspaper, amazing, huh?

The snow was everywhere during the winter. And it was so beautiful when you could sit in front of a huge desert of white snowflakes.

I went there to study to be a missionary.

For a strange reason, the majority of the students were from Vietnam. Don't ask me why. A large number of Vietnamese students could be seen there. Thirty years ago, I recalled. Perhaps many of them suffered from some kind of emotional damage, collectively. Thus, as a result, pursuing a career as a soul healer sounded quite noble and sense-making. That was all I could guess when I thought of other students. I was no exception. I, too, wanted to be a Catholic priest, being sent to wherever it was in the future, to bring good news to the lost sheep of the Lord and to heal broken hearts, to cleanse dirty souls, or to give new souls valid passports for the Kingdom of God (due to the difficult life I had in the last).

In those days a group of Vietnamese Catholic followers from Davenport came to DWC every single Lunar New Year – a festive celebration where they could fulfill many purposes, both secular and spiritual. First of all, with a group of around forty male soon-to-be missionaries at the school, many good traditional dishes can be prepared there for them to enjoy. The head cook who was in charge of the mess hall allowed us to fully use the kitchen for this event. There were skits and songs, singing and dancing to entertain them although the show was not very big, barely impressive enough for them to compensate for driving such a distance of three to four hours to join in such a so-called huge event. These people from Davenport brought along all kinds of food to the students, believing us nothing but poor young men suffering from homesickness and the like.

This (The Lunar New Year) was also the time for many young men who came to DWC to study to find a hosting sponsor to stay with so they could work during the summer break. Many of the young men (like me) needed a summer job for a little extra cash, enough to purchase a laptop or a television set. Anyway, many of us relied on ourselves and whatever DWC could cover such as tuition and living expenses. Thus, rules of thumb, being self-reliable and resilient were what we all aimed for. Tet (the Vietnamese Lunar New Year) was the time for some of us to ask the people from Davenport coming to DWC for the Mass to secure a short stay at their place so we could earn some money working at a local meat processing factory there.

I was introduced to a family, a young couple; the wife and I were the same age. And they liked me (I guessed so) from the moment we first met. The arrangement was quickly made. That coming summer I would come and stay with them. They told me I didn't have to pay anything. I would eat what they ate and could not be so picky. The goal was for me to earn enough to buy a small set of televisions (with close captions so I could learn the English language better) and a computer. It seemed totally attainable. The couple told me that.

Tet came in the winter.

And I would come to Davenport when the spring semester ended.

I was very excited.

This was the first time I stayed with a young couple. They were kind. And they seemed thoughtful, caring, and very supportive.

On the day I applied for the job, it was quick for me to get a job at the meat processing plant where cows were killed and processed, and then the meat was packed and shipped to all cities in America, perhaps being exported to some places outside of the country. The husband, Hung, took me to the meat plant. I filled out the application and was hired instantly on the spot, working on the same day.