Tonight is a special night. My husband Phuong, my brother-in-law Binh and I shall escape this war between Northern and Southern Vietnam. We must be careful so that the Communists will not capture us. I am afraid of leaving this land and arriving at the Land of Strangers. What if the strangers beat us like the Communists do? Or will they help us? Right now, I am worried, afraid and excited in leaving this land. Right now, I just want to yell out all my fears. But I do not want to wake Phuong nor Binh.
Day Two
I am now on the escaping boat. It is large, but too small to fit many people. It smells of sweat and dirt. We all were lucky to escape the horrid hands of the Communists. But what of my father-in-law in the war? (If you didn't know, he is a soldier fighting for freedom for Southern Vietnam) What of my family? My family-in-law? Will they die wanting freedom? Well I hope they won't.
Day Five
Many people have fallen ill and died. I am worried that Phuong or Binh will too fall ill or die. The food on the boat is just plain and little. All we get everyday is a tiny bowl of rice with some beancurd or salted pork.
I hope to arrive soon in America to get off this rickety boat.
Day Eight
More and more people are dying. The dead people will never get proper funerals. The captain of the ship ordered for the corpses to be thrown off the boat and into the deep waters. How pitiful!
The food storage is low. Sometimes we have no food to eat at night. We go to sleep hungry. I feel bad for Phuong. He eats a lot. I wonder how he can survive this famine.
Day Twelve
The captain predicts of some storms coming our way. He's not very sure if the escaping boat would survive them well, I pray to the Great Buddha that the boat would journey safely.
Day Fourteen
]The captain's prediction was right! Storms are coming! The waters are getting stronger and the wind is starting to howl. I hope we will survive this threatening storm.
Day Eighteen
The storm is over now. Somebody, but I don't know who, fell overboard into the water. People say he was swallowed by a whale. I hope he wasn't.
Everybody on the boat is starving. There wasn't even enough food to satisfy our hunger last week, but now it's even worse. The rice is moldy, our extra clothes has mildew growing on it and we don't even see land yet! This trip is making me go crazy. I should have stayed home with my family. I wish I never went on this trip. I wish that the war would end now!
Day Twenty
I was in my room scrunched up when people starting screaming and yelling. I was wondering if anything bad happened outside when I saw. . . land! I cried and called Phuong and Binh. They too were happy and cried tears of joy. Just as soon as I reach that land I would be free. Free from the Communists. Free like a soaring eagle. I will be free.
Laura, 6/10/96