A Gentle Reminder

I was walking through the music building a few minutes ago, when I ran into the janitor. Usually, passing whoever happens to be the janitor that night (it frequently changes) is a wordless encounter, but as I passed, I thought it would be Christian of me to wish a "good evening" to someone who is used to being treated as one social class lower than the students.

Before I could speak, he initiated the conversation with a "Where are you from?"

I replied, "Canada."

In semi-decent english--I'd say the last step before fluent, but definitely not mistaken for fluent--he replied "I'm from Lao." [I'm not even going to try to replicate his accent/grammar mistakes, so all his quotes have been corrected to perfect english. My memory isn't that good.]

My mind got thinking. Lao? Where's that? Does he mean "Laos?" Hmmm... so you don't pronounce the 's'. Good to know. "Lao? Is that between Thailand and Vietnam?"

He seems a little surprised that I know where it is, but only a little. You know where it is because you're from Canada. An American wouldn't have known where it was. [Probably true. Then again, most Canadians wouldn't have known where it was either.]

There's a lot of Lao in... what is it called? Ontario? [Side note: hearing someone who's never been to southern ontario pronounce oh-ZHA-wah always cracks me up. But the height of comedy is hearing someone who lives in Toronto say it that way. oh-ZHA-kah is a major city in Japan. OSH-uh-wah is a city near Toronto.]

Yes, that is the province I'm from. I'm from Toronto, actually. Are you from the capital city, or the countryside?

He tells me he's from a small village in the centre of the country. Then he tells his story.

He used to serve in the Lao army. Then, the communists took over the country. (Having China and Vietnam as your country's two biggest neighbours tends to do that.) He didn't like the communists, so he built a raft out of three banana trees, and put himself and his wife on it. Then, at night, he sailed across the Mekong river into Thailand, where he hoped to get refugee status.

The Lao communists were shooting anyone trying to leave the country for obvious reasons. (In case the reasons aren't so obvious, communism is about power to the proletariat. If the proletariat leaves, the country has no power. Hence, each "prole" is a valuable state asset.) The Thai were shooting many people trying to get across the river, because the communists were trying to infiltrate their country with the refugees. The river was six to seven miles wide. That was why they crossed it at night.

While they crossed, they saw many other people beside them fail to make it. A mother carrying an infant. Children. Bodies just floating in the river, some with holes in them. They made it to a refugee camp after being questioned by a Thai border patrol. There they had their first child. A second child was born in a Filipino refugee camp where they spent six months, before finally getting permission to enter the US, where they moved to Walla Walla, and had two more children.

His son is now a welder in Seattle making $27 an hour. His wife cannot work, because she was hit by some agent orange that got blown downwind from Vietnam. He works in Walla Walla as a janitor.

His children don't listen to him, he says. In Lao, that would never have happened. But here, the culture is different.

Your children don't know what they are missing.

Yes, they don't. Back home they would be starving, poor, and have no future.

But at least they would listen to you. Either way, what are you supposed to do?

My grandparents escaped from China before the communists took over. They fled to the Philippines, where one of them still lives, and the other lies buried. My mother moved to Canada in 1972.

China? There are many Chinese in Lao. They aren't really Chinese any more because they left their country. They are Lao-Chinese. China and Lao are very friendly because they are both communist. Many things from China now in Lao. I bought a motorcycle for my brother from China for $500. If I had bought from Japan, same motorcycle would be $1500. But they say China is very cheap. Japan products last longer.

Even if my country now has TVs, microwaves... I still don't like the communists.

I remember there was a Canadian in Lao. There were Lao working for him.

I cringe, fearing my countrymen have stained their honour by supporting a regime responsible for the deaths of thousands of their own people. I am ashamed. But then, I remember the bigger picture.

I am blessed. Your children are blessed.

Yes, they are. Nice talk.

Good evening.