|
I was born in Ban Me Thuot, Darlac, a small town in highland of Central Vietnam and grew up in Saigon where I enjoyed most of my school-age years. In 1981 I graduated from Ho Chi Minh City College of Architecture with an architectural degree, and spent my next seven years working as a designer in various government agencies in Dalat, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam. In 1989, I left Vietnam by boat on a week-long trip over the South China Sea along with 62 others boat people, in which we encountered and endured a number of des perate experiences: Thai pirates, typhoon, starvation..., and finally made it to the Indonesian shore by late June. We then were moved to in KuKu Camp on Jemaja Island , a remotely beautiful island where our suffering journey went on for another month before we were picked up and transferred to Galang Refugee Camp by UNHCR chartered ship. The experiences of living as a refugee in this peacefully small island have left significant effects on my life, which I have documented at this site I arrived in the U.S in 1993 and have been living in Atlanta since then. |