Crossing the Mekong

4

In 1984 Faye and her family tried to escape to Thailand once again. The first time they traveled to Thailand they were caught by Thai police after staying in Thailand for six months. They decided to leave after the harvest season, but it was a hard decision to leave. If they left they would have to leave everything behind. This included their harvested grains and their animals. In the end, eight families left the village and traveled to the Mekong River.

It took them a whole day to walk to the Mekong River that divided Laos from Thailand. It was night by the time they got to the rushing river, but the dark sky was lit by flying bullets. Someone back in their village informed a Laos soldier that families were trying to escape to Thailand.

Families were being captured and some made it past them but ended up drowning in the Mekong. Faye's family was able to hide while the chaos in front of them disappeared. They headed back to the village to later try again, but everything was gone in their home. The villagers that stayed behind took their grains and animals thinking that they would never come back. They didn't have any other choice but to try to cross the Mekong again.

By the time they returned back to the Mekong they actually touched the banks. But there was another dilemma, the boat that was supposed to pick them up wasn't there. They had to be quiet because people would walk past them, but Liew was too curious and almost had them discovered. They waited without food and water for two nights.

Faye's two cousins were tired of waiting and took matters into their hands. They gathered five banana plants and made a makeshift paddleboard to cross the river and find the men who were supposed to pick them up. That night they came back with three paddleboards, but families had to go one family at a time. Faye's family was the first family to cross the river.

Throughout the night they hid from Thai hunters that hunted at night, but eventually, a minibus appeared in the forest. This was the minibus that carried them towards a better future. All of the 70 immigrants were squashed into the minibus and drove to a refugee camp in Chiang Kham.

They were put to jail for three days once they had arrived to at the refugee camp. During those three days, the adults were interviewed for the reasons why they were at the refugee camp. By the end of the three days, everybody was assigned to a home to stay in.

In the first two years, Faye and her family lived in building 12 until they moved to another building for another two years. After the four years they lived there, they did the paperwork to come to America through the U.N. They had a sponsor in America that made sure that once they get there they would have a place to live.

In March 18, 1988, Faye, her five siblings, and her parents arrived in America.