Some of you heard me tell this story before but most of you will learn about MY STORY for the first time. Thirty one years ago, in 1979, my family left Vietnam by boat. We were among thousands of other Chinese-Vietnamese fleeing the country to seek a better life overseas. Thousands of us were part of the second wave of boat people seeking refuge and looking for a second chance in Canada. Canada gracefully took us in and gave us a second chance at life. A life I will be forever grateful of having. My family and I are forever in debt to a wonderful group of people in Montreal. These people were strangers to us and we were strangers to them but they pulled together to sponsored us into Canada. That was the only way in for us back then...
May 26th 1979, my family of four siblings, my parents, aunt and uncle embarked on a small ship heading to Hong Kong. About two hundred and forty people were on that little fishing boat. Hong Kong was still under the British authority back then so it made it for an obvious destination for boat people. At night fall we were herded to a previously undisclosed beach to board our boat. I remember having fun that night thinking we were going on a fun trip... Little did I know my parents bought us a non-refundable and a one-way ticket. This ticket could cost one’s life savings and could possibly cost one’s life because there were never any guarantees of any of us successfully making it to destination alive. This trip normally takes 5-7 days. It took us 24 days! There were hundreds of reasons why it took us so long: mechanical failure, weather condition, typhoon and even the sea pirates paid us a visit. If the passengers on this boat had to be punished for their bad deeds from a previous life then I think we were all terrible people because the horror we endured during those 24 days were terrible. Twenty-four days at sea is a long time when you have provisions for only seven, I’ll let your imagination take over for a minute and absorb the reality we were all facing...
To make a story short, we did arrive in Hong Kong and we were granted permission to set foot on solid Commonwealth ground. We spent several months in Hong Kong. We were shuffled to three different refugee camps where everything was still all a game to me. I do have some memories of our life in the camps I remember pretending to drive a car while kneeling inside a cardboard box pretending it was my pimped up car and I also remember queuing with my uncle in the hot heat of the summer to get our family ration for lunch. For me it was simply a lifestyle but I am sure my parents had a very different perpestive about this. My parents were back and forth about deciding where we would settle: California or Montreal? But when this wonderful group of strangers from Montreal opened their welcoming arms to offer us care, protection and social security my parents did not have to think very long. After many medical checks and paper shuffling, we had our call; it was our turn to board a 747 Boeing heading to the promise land, Canada!
January 1980, the 747 Boeing landed safely in Edmonton. It must have been the best day for my parents. They were finally under the Canadian protection, part of the Commonwealth, in a country where us kids had a chance at being ahead of the game by learning both English and French and most importantly: nobody will harm us here. But for me, it was the coolest day ever; I smoked for the first time! As I was stepping out and standing atop the stairs leading down onto the runway, I inhaled the cold Edmontonian air and blew a long puff of “smoke” pretending I was an adult smoking my cigarette. I was a dork, good things don’t change :o) We stayed on a military ground for a few weeks where we were showered with brand new clothes, winter clothes and food. I have no memories of this but I wonder how someone went about explaining to me what long johns were... But I do remember falling in love with milk and sugar, mix together. During meal time in the massive cafeteria, I always looked forward to mixing lots of sugar in my milk. It was yummy! I kept going back for more the guy behind the counter gave me a funny look.
Then we were finally dispatched to Montreal. Our sponsors met with us and drove us to our two-bedroom apartment. They had fully furnished the rooms with Salvation Army hand-downs along with some brand new stuff. They took us grocery shopping at Steinberg’s and filled three carts worth of groceries. Us kids shared a room with tons of cool toys. However, it was a confusing day for me. I was not accustomed to living in an apartment; in Vietnam we had our own house. So seeing other people walking in and out of MY apartment building was weird so I asked my dad: “how come there are strangers living in our house?”
So now you know MY STORY. This is how the Diep family came to Canada and have a much fulfilled life so far. We are forever in debt to our sponsors; their generosity speaks greatly of them! We are now proud citizens of Canada. We are thankful for what Canada has done for us and we’ll try to be true Canadians and the best Canadian possible.
