Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Interesting People

I attended Grandparents Day at the middle grandson's school. (He goes to a LaSallian School.) While we were waiting for the program to start, one of the brothers, a Vietnamese man of about our age, came over to chat. I was at the other end of the group so I only caught snippets of his conversation but it was enough to gather that he and his father had escaped from Vietnam in 1989. ( I assume they had been in a "re-education" camp since the fall of Saigon) They managed to survive a typhoon and when they thought all was lost, a passing freighter picked them up and took them to Japan. He joined the La Salle Brothers and is now teaching.

Sometimes you never know what astounding stories people may have. It pays to keep your ears open. You can't underestimate the pull that the USA has for people who yearn for freedom. I can't wait to engage this man in a longer conversation.

1 comment:

Old NFO said...

That will be an interesting conversation, and worthy of a post I'm sure!