1. Hmong families depart Ban Vinai camp for transit center and then on to the US. Many families are separated, never to see each other again.
2. Nearly every person in every family faced separations, perhaps for life, sometimes surely for life, when siblings were leaving for another third country than the US, as the other family members are married and now with families who are accepted for resettlement at France, or Australia.
3. The saddest and most poignant moments were the generational separations, perhaps grandparents who have chosen to not resettle and want to return to Laos someday, so they can die there.
4. Research suggestion: ask your family members if they had to separate from someone close to them when they came to the US, how it affected them.
5. “There was sadness. Even though we were living in a poor country, some got to come and some had to stay behind and couldn’t do the paperwork to come so everyone was sad and cried. When we got on the bus and airplane, we thought that it was going to be so far away and we were going to leave our parents, relatives, and country behind.
6. We were going to leave some people behind and it wasn’t complete so when we came, we were missing the country and the people we left. There were still staying behind were our parents, siblings, and relatives so we did cry a lot. Even though this many years have passed, when just talking about it, tears still come out.”
7. “I had an older sister. She didn’t get to come to America but I did. Till this day I never found my older sister. I never saw my sister ever since I left her to come to America.”