The great escape For nearly 10 years, the Huynh family has tried to adapt to their Hawaiian home. They have brought with them a dramatic story of fleeing a homeland now under communist rule, a tale of survival that the daughter has taken upon herself to document.
Ann Huynh recounts
her Vietnam sagaA NEW HOME
Gary C.W. Chun / gchun@starbulletin.com
That is, when she isn't busy completing her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Hawaii.
Ann Huynh has had three of her 17 completed chapters of her memoir, "The Escape Attempts to America, the Dream Land," already published in the spring 2000 issue of the local literary and arts journal Bamboo Ridge.
They tell of the suffering she, her mother, Lang, and brother, Dean, endured in their various attempts to escape post-war Vietnam to rejoin their father, a former captain who was part of the South Vietnamese army and who successfully emigrated to the United States after a prolonged imprisonment.
Ann vividly writes about the crushed feeling she had while she and her other family were also imprisoned after a failed escape attempt, begging for burnt rice from the prison cook when rations were low. And she writes of her near-death experience when her severe illness may have saved her family from a longer stay in prison.
The prison authorities, apparently concerned that, if Ann died in prison, they would have to "waste money to bury her," released the family. And her health improved.
"My father, Thang, was in the military. It was hard for my mom and the family when he was in prison for seven years. I remember my mom took me to visit him there when I was little. Once he got out of prison, he escaped the country by boat and landed in Malaysia. He was there for nine months until his oldest brother in the U.S. agreed to sponsor him and join him for a while in Oxnard, Calif."
After four frustrating attempts to escape Vietnam within one year, the rest of the family was able to leave legally for the United States at the end of 1991, coming to Hawaii after two weeks in California.
Dean has vivid memories of their failed escape attempts in 1987, "like this guy taking us through dark alleyways, and being in the middle of nowhere with just me, my sister and mother," waiting long hours in the night for yet another in a series of nameless men shepherding people out of the country for a price. Dean was about 5 years old at the time.
In their post-war life, Ann feels her father is still suffering from some prison-induced, post-traumatic syndrome.
"His personality has changed quite a bit," she said, "but he's trying to hold it together and has a full-time job. The family is more independent from each other now, but he doesn't feel comfortable in social settings and is a rather shy man."
Currently, the 26-year-old and her 18-year-old brother share a place, her mother lives with her cousin and her father is by himself in a Kakaako apartment.
"My mother, who used to be a midwife at a hospital back in Vietnam, couldn't find work here because of her lack of English language skills," Ann said. "She did, however, finally find some health-related work, with the Moiliili Community Center to help care for the elderly inflicted with Alzheimer's."
Ann has been there for her mother since they came to Hawaii. Using the English she learned as a precocious teenager in Vietnam, Ann would help take her mother around town on her job searches.
"On the plane going out, I would always translate for her, like when we had occasional stopovers and she'd ask for time and departure of the plane," Huynh said. "She really needed my help the first couple of years, but she later took nighttime English language classes at McKinley."
Ann said she "was 16 when we came here, almost 17. I was put in the sophomore class at McKinley because I had to learn more English, but it was almost the end of the semester."
Like his sister, Dean graduated from McKinley. He went to Kapiolani Community College for a year, but is taking a year off. "I felt I had to contribute financially to my family, so now I'm one of those all-round workers at the Ward theaters."
Ann mentioned that she and her mother went back to Vietnam in 1997, revisiting their former Saigon home, renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
"It's very different now," she said. "The traffic's worse and the people are different from what I remember when I was 13. I've become so acculturated to American society, that my friends back home thought I'd become more 'Americanized.' Even though I thought I could still speak fluent Vietnamese, they told me they thought I sounded Chinese. But after a while, I spoke more normally.
"I consider what my family and myself went through as a positive experience for me, even though the bad memories come up once in a while. Whenever I feel stressed because of my studies for my doctorate degree, I remind myself that this is nothing compared to what we've gone through already, so don't give up, keep going."
Dean said trying to attain and live "the American dream is a struggle. At times, I feel like I want to go back to Vietnam, but I also feel lucky I'm alive."
Lang, who's been quiet and observant throughout the interview, smiled and said, "I'm happy to be here and that my children are able to go to school here." Besides her elder-care service work, she also works in Waikiki as a jewelry merchandiser.
"It's still hard for my mom," Ann said. "She loves us and she works so hard. I promise to support her when I make enough money after I finish my studies.
While attending pre-med at UH, she chose clinical psychology as her major. "Clinical psychology appeals to me in particular because of my own background, always dealing with family problems. I've also worked as an interpreter for the local Vietnamese and they always talk to me about their own problems."
After she completes her doctorate, Ann said she may go back to medical school, "but my dream is to open my own clinic here to help the Vietnamese people. I found out when I went to the local HPA (Hawaii Psychological Association) conference that there are no Vietnamese professionals here on this island. I'm interested in working with women with domestic abuse and violence problems. I also like to work with kids.
"I have a passion for this work. I've been through it all and I feel compassion for these people after hearing their stories of crisis. I want to help them. I take it very seriously because I feel their pain."