Locating Ourselves in History

John Doan's family before they left their refugee camp in Bataan, Philippines.

Check out one of the stories, entitled "The Last Survivor", submitted to our intern project:

I was a volunteer for the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), assisting with new arrivals to the refugee camp. My job was to take down the refugees information and I ran across a story that broke my heart. I was interviewing a man. After obtaining his name, his age, and whereabouts in Vietnam he had departed, and how long the trip was, I asked him how many people were on the boat. How many women were there? How many men? Children? He told me roughly about 100 or so people. I asked him, did he experience any mishaps or difficulties during the trip? He paused for a long 5 minutes then replied in tears, “Chi con mot minh toi song sot thoi, tat ca moi nguoi deu chim giua bien!” He was the only survivor, everybody else had been lost to the ocean. He went on to tell me that he had survived by hanging on to a large empty barrel of oil. A large storm had come in the middle of the night and the boat was too heavy to hold all the rain. It sank, and all he could do was find something to hang onto. Miraculously, as the sky got lighter, another boat rescued him. And here he was today at my refugee camp, telling his story.
At the time I had thought my story was bad. My boat had been robbed three times by pirates. We went without food for a week. Three girls were taken by the pirates, some children died from dehydration, and some died from being shot by pilots. But my story was nothing compared to this new arrival.

I continued to hear horror survival stories.

I cried when I lost my shoes, until I saw a man in my camp without his feet.

I was 18 when I heard the lone survivor’s story. I am 47 today, but his story still haunts me to this day.

- Du "Ziggy" C.

This story was submitted by my uncle. I enjoyed the experience of hearing his story and transcribing it for him. He didn't want to write it himself, saying his English was bad. Ironic, because he is a poet, and has a way with words that definitely comes out even with broken English. I'm really excited for our projects and get pumped every time I sit and read the new stories that are being submitted. Please submit yours at locateyourself.net. I am a little worried because I don't know as many people here in California as my fellow interns do. I'm a believer that it's easier to ask people to do things, to join your cause, etc when there is a relational aspect to your request. It's harder for me to do that when most of my friends and people I have those relationships with are in Washington State!

Anyway, our internship is wrapping up within these next 3 weeks. I'm excited and scared because I'll miss our interns and if I don't find a job soon I'll probably move back to Tacoma/Seattle. I love my rainy cities but LA and OC have grown on me...

Peace & Blessings,
Vi