Quynh Bui – Montreal, Canada

My oldest brother was a boat people, escaped Saigon in 1979. In January 1980, he arrived in Canada after 9 months staying in Galang, a small Indonesia island. Under the humanity family reunion program, my brother was able to sponsor my parents and all of his siblings to come to Canada unconditionally.

It was a dream come true to my parents, who hardly made ends meet to raise 5 kids under the new communist regime. The country was devastated because of 30 years in civil war. "The winner takes it all", as always, all nation resources were brought to the North, to compensate the hard work of those who won the war.

After applying to leave our country, my parents had to stop working. Five of us, all still in school, had to also stop going to school. Not only that, we had to pay back the tuition allowances. No job, no salary, no school, our life was uncertain and we only depended on the money my brother sent, 100 Canadian dollars a month.

I remembered following my father a few times to the immigration office and saw the long lines of people, those like us, to check if our names were in the list of accepted exit visas. Năm 1984 lúc được xuất cảnh thì bố mẹ Q muốn bán nhà. Đã có người mua rồi nhưng chính phủ (đảng và bác) lại đổi ý không cho người đi chính thức bán nhà nữa, nên khi sang đây đi tay không. Còn 1 tuần trước khi đi, bố mẹ Q kêu hàng xóm đến ai lấy gì thì lấy, cả cái bếp gang cũ kỹ đun bằng củi mà cũng có người xin.

We finally left VN in 1985.

My friends and I, Feb 1985, at Tan Son Nhat airport. The 2 boys in this photo are my cousins.