| Show r UT ec h ft 4 r Student r 1 r Experiences 1 Killing Killing Killin g Fields i First Hand It y 71 3 by Shirley Shirey Seal The rin ringing g of ofa a gun gui shot pt coming rom coming om From rom the mouth of the Lai River iver was a a reminder e of death My My last night in In Vietnam was extremely terrible recalls Thanh Nguyen now a student The choice was freedom or death That night we were in an alert status Nguyen was crouched in a dirt pit inside a th thatched hut but near the river A flashlight lit the darkness three times The escape began There was no turning back for Nguyen her brother and the rest of the group Escape to the river became a nightmarish dream of reality On bank the signal at to lie down in the muddy bushy marsh then run was repeated over and over as as the group made their way towards s t the e distant dim glow of an oil lamp hanging on a small boat After an hour quivering with fear we climbed onto the boat with great great difficulty difficulty said Nguyen One-hundred One and twenty-eight twenty people with with two pregnant women pregnant women crowded onto the small boat Names were checked then lets go sounded out of the darkness The night night- was very dark I could not not see All of my body seemed w wet wel t L 1 was covered with mud Cold wind blew on my face but I did not feel the cold because of my t anxiety continued Nguyen Only the welcome sound of the the boat engine broke th the stillness Then a shot whizzed by the boat from the frontier guard station A policeman ordered Stop Then the boat was being chased by a patrol boat Shots continued to fly by the boat At that time I J only knew to close my eyes and pray to gods who will have the power to rescue us right now said Nguyen Miraculously the gun sho shots became dimmer and dimmer until the boatman explained that the p patrol boat had broken down At last the boat cross crossed d the mouth of the Lai River and entered the open sea Freedom was in front of f us us said f lIr Nguyen When hen W people n f dom they trade their lives for it explained N Nguyen t f Communist I know that freedom is the After six years of living in the society now r invaluable property Although that was the most terrible and treacherous night now I am here in the freest country in the world I had to pay the most expensive price for it but I think the price is worth it Nguyen spent one year in Indonesia in a refugee camp before joining a brother already settled in Utah In Singapore she left behind her parents three sisters and one brother whose whereabouts is unknown after he escaped from a prison there Two sisters and five brothers have come to America Nguyen said she had trouble listening in school I think that a foreign student has a hard time learning unless they know how to study After taking the Study Skills class at classes became easier for her We have to have self- self confidence and positive thoughts so that we can study and learn earn We come to this school because we want to improve our knowledge We have to set a goal and then then we have to move it up and up Nguyen who has a BS degree in Education in Viet Nam is working towards a a. a BS in Computer Science She said Id like to do something to serve and devote my life to humanity At times Nguyen gets Nguyen-gets gets so homesick that her studying is disrupted TT Her letters are arelong arelong arelong long in reaching her family Her parents will miss her July wedding None of her family is allowed to work or go to school Three times a year Nguyen sends boxes of articles that her family can sell to exist I am free to change here I can move wherever I want This country is good r There is no choice in my country Here I have the freedom to develop my L abilities As for going back to her country Nguyen said If America and Vietnam relate together then maybe we have a chance but it is a long way off J I |
