First They Killed My Father

Using the gold hidden in their clothes, Meng, Eang, and Eang’s sister, whom they meet at the camp, are able to buy a hut from another refugee who is leaving for America, as well as cooking supplies; they need a sponsor to get to America and finding one can take a long time. The sponsor can be an individual or group, and is in charge of helping refugees adjust to life in the U.S. Meng says they are lucky there are only a few hundred people in the camp; some refugee camps have hundreds of thousands. Meng, along with many others, converts to Christianity and is baptized because he says church groups often sponsor people.

Loung is shocked to see a Vietnamese girl swimming in nothing but a red bathing suit. She thinks she must be one of “those” Vietnamese girls people talk about, asserting that a Cambodian or Chinese girl who never be so brazen. Later, a different girl is nearly raped in her hut, but many in the camp say it was her own fault because Vietnamese girls dress provocatively and flirt with men. Loung grows angry reflecting on how people always “blame the girls.”

Months pass, and Loung and her family are among the poorest of the camp. On June 5, Meng announces they are finally going to America the next week. No longer needing to save so much money. Eang takes Loung to a Thai cloth market to buy fabric to make her a new dress. She suggests an orange, red, and blue checkered cloth, and seeing the red Loung agrees. The camp shows a movie about California that evening to help refugees prepare, though Meng says they will be going to a place called Vermont, and that no one seems to know much about it. Loung packs the night before they leave, looking thoughtfully at her new dress. Though she is excited about it, it is not the same as the one Ma made, and she is really gone.

That night Loung thinks of Pa as she drifts off to sleep, worrying that his spirit will not be able to cross the ocean to be with her in America. In her dreams, Pa tells her not to worry and that he will find her wherever she goes. The next morning Loung, Meng, and Eang go to the Bangkok airport. Thinking of Pa, Loung boards the airplane for America.