Bios

I was born in a regular family in North Vietnam. We have four members in our family. My mother was a tailor and she worked at home by herself. My father was a mechanic for scooters and bicycles. My brother was born in North Vietnam too, and he’s 1 year younger than me. We lived close to our grandparent’s house, so they could help my parents to take care of me and my younger brother when my parents were busy at work. Sometimes, I helped my mother cook rice for dinner, but I also played around with my neighbour’s friends, and forgot that I was cooking. Luckily, my grandmother also helped watch over me or there would be trouble and my mother would yell at me. I still remember everything about our life there.

One day, my father went to visit his cousin in South Vietnam. When he came back, he told my mother that he wanted us to leave North Vietnam and move to South Vietnam because he said he liked the lifestyle there better. My mother was very sad because we might go to a new place without our big family. But it was good for us to live there, so my parents decided to go. Everyone in our family was very sad to say goodbye to us, but they were happy for us too. My mother cried a lot when we left. She wouldn’t eat anything; she just lay down on the bed in the train. My father was sad too, but he made the decision to leave, so he just moved on. My brother and I were still young, so we didn’t know what happened to us, and we were just curious and enjoyed playing around in the train. We spent 32 hours going by train from North to South Vietnam. Finally, we arrived and my uncle came to pick us up. He helped my family rent a room close to his place. Him and his wife also helped my parents buy a place at the market so that my mother could open a stall where she could sell things and start her career. My parents found a new place to rent at our aunty’s house. My brother and I went back to school and my father didn’t go to work at that time, because he took care of us and drove us to school every day. Also, he had to make breakfast, lunch and dinner for the family too. Our new life began from here.