For a full list of addresses of members, please contact: Mao Saykao on Mao@hm00b.net (with hm"oo" as in zoo & not zero zero).

Vynarack Xaykao (Daughter of Phia and Mayoury Xaykao)

Congratulation to Vynarack who graduated from High School in May as the top 5 out of 480 studtents. She has received a full scholarship to study at Trinity University in San Antonio.

Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 17:23:39 +0000
Subject: Hello
Return-Receipt-To: vxaykao@Trinity.Edu

I visited your home page on the internet. It is very interesting. I've been in college for a month. I'm attending Trinity University in San Antonio. It's about a 4-hour drive from home. It is a private liberal arts school. I've been enjoying college life. I've met many interesting people, and I like my classes. I'm taking Spanish, Asian philosophy, art history, and first-year seminar. Right now I'm thinking about majoring in psychology.

Dad graduated from Southeastern Paralegal Institute a few weeks ago. He got into a minor automobile accident. He didn't get hurt very badly, but he's undergoing physical therapy everyday. It's mostly for preventive purposes. Nivara just started high school, and it's a big transition for her. Everyone else in the family is doing fine.

Tell everyone in Australia that I said "hi". My family sends congratulations to Aunt Paj for her new baby.

Love,
Vynarack

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My real name is Souraphanh N. Seunsom, I go by 'Noy'(nick name). I am related to you because my older sister, Mayoury (Tiu), is married to Mr. Phia Xaykao; I think most of you know him very well. Parisack and Vynarack are my nephew and niece.

I am currently resided in Houston, Texas, USA along with all my immediate family; we live very close by each others (within 10 miles radius from my parents' home). I am married to Arouny and have 3 children: the oldest is Janice (12 yrs old), Alan (9 yrs old), and Kathleen (21 mths old). Janice is in 7th grade, Alan is in 3rd grade and Kathleen is still too young for school. Both Janice and Alan have been doing very good so far; they have been in the 'Honor roll' ever since, and I hope they continue to keep up their good works. Janice joins the school orchestra, she plays both piano and flute. Alan has just joined Tae Kwon Do martial art school, he recently earns an orange belt.

Arouny works for a law firm as the project assistant; she does general clerical work: mainly arranging documents for lawyers to prepare for the cases.

I work for Shell E&P Technology Co. for over 12 years, and recently have been assigned to work under the Advanced Thermal Technology project. Our goal is to find the most efficient ways to enhance the hydrocarbons production from the underground. My main responsibility is to perform small scale laboratory experiments in Shell's research lab by applying the thermal technology techniques, of course, on various types of residual oil in the rocks. I gather the result data, analyze, plot, and submit it to my superior. Occasionally I have the opportunity to travel out to the field which I find that very interesting. I know that this introduction is long, but let me tell you that I am very please and excited to get to know each and everyone of you.
Bye.

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I was born and raised in Xieng Khouang, Laos. I attended and completed Xieng Khouang elementary school. I then went to Lycee de Vientiane and left for the United States in 1966.

I obtained my BA and MPH from the University of Hawaii; my M.S.Hyg. and Dr. PHc from the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University; and my Dr. Ac. from the Medicina Alternativa Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

My fields of expertise are as follows: 1) Health Services Administration; 2) International Health; 3) Tropical Diseases; and 4) Oriental Medicine.

Currently, I am the Program and Clinic Manager of the International Health Center and the Mid-County Health Center of the Multnomah County Health Department, Oregon, U.S.A.

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i'm the email guru here...hehe...my name's Vong or english wise i use Andy. how's all the family in cyberland? it's great that pao has set up this mailing list specially for the family. i am sure that the mailing list will only grow...the more the merrier as they say.

for those that do not know me, i live in Australia...have done so for the past 18 years. first arrived in australia when i was 5 years old. went thru the hassle of getting a good education and getting to uni. now the question is how to get out of uni. i've been at uni for a while now...so all of u that keep asking when i am going to graduate, let me just say this...i'll tell u when i graduate...i'm persuing a double degree in computer science and computer systems engineering. i think when i graduate i will be the only hmong in australia with two degrees and a whole lot of wrinkles..hehe..

most of my time is concerntrated on music and soccer. i've been working on a music album for many years now and it's getting close to completion so all ya loving family memebers out there get ya wallets ready :) then there's the soccer which i organise for the hmong here. we did fairly well this year, fisnishing somewhere near the bottom...

i also do a bit of web authoring in my spare time and during the summer break coming up i hope to be working with pao and get some concrete stuff done to the family homepage.

that's the good stuff on me

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This is story of a Hmong boy who was adopted by an American family in the early 70's. Now as a young man, he is searching for his root and has found home.

All he knows is the name of his father and that he is from the Thao clan. He told me recently, "To my shame, I only have his name, and my own, though I am working to discover the truth of who he was in life as my efforts are directed towards vindicating his memory. "

BY knowing that he is a Hmong Thao (Thoj) yet, but not know which subclan, he said that this place " so many at dis-ease because they do not know whether to call me brother, uncle, or son. Only friend, although that in many ways is enough. .... I can not help but worry that I am the last of my own sub-clan's line, and yet I do not even know whose line I am the last of. A cause of sadness for me that I can not name my ancestors past my father, a man whom I never had a chance to meet in life."

People usually ask him why it was so important for him to return to the Hmong, even as so many Hmoob youth seem intent on running away from it for the delights and "freedoms" of the western world? Bryan has a simple answer, "only because that is who I am. I cannot imagine not trying to find the heart, the core of my heritage, even as it exhausts me. I am of course interested, in the end, of finding the Thojs who are of my line by blood, but as the years taught me among the Americans, the ties of the spirit are just as valid as ties of the body and blood. "

In his quest to find his blood line and his heritage, Bryan has returned home. Few days ago, he shared his inner thought about his struggle and his journey Home in a moving article to the Hmong Forum. With his permission, it is re-posted here:

Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 14:13:21 -0500 (EST)

From: Bryan Worra <bworra@freenet.columbus.oh.us>

To: hhen-california@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Re: Challenge to US idiots

> by Yuepheng L Xiong <xion0034@gold.tc.umn.edu> Dear Yuepheng and my fellow members of the HHEN listserver:

Although such was not my intent, allow me to apologize if a comment I made over the weekend has offended any of you. I sometimes forget some points are vital to reading my posts in their correct spirit.

After recent discussions, it seems, historically, I may be the first Hmong/Lao to come to live in the United States as a permanent resident in 1973 as a direct and real consequence of the war. This was mentioned only as point of fact, not pride.

However, this leads to another issue: because I had been adopted by an American family, my upbringing was culturally American. Again, a point of fact only.

I did not have the advantage of being raised within the Hmong community. Instead I was trained and educated as a "typical" American child, with no exceptions in their expectations of me.

This was different from Hmong families whose parents had to struggle to determine how to raise kids within a different culture they themselves were unfamiliar with.

My adopted parents, however, used the techniques they had been raised with all of their life. This had its advantages and its disadvantages.

In school, I never had to overcome any language or cultural barriers, and was treated, most days, as an equal by American kids. I knew what any fit european-american child should know.

On the other hand, it impaired my ability to relate to Asian families, and encounters with the few I ran into as a kid often proved alien to me, unable to relate to their experiences.

In school, I was actually told, "You're OK, you're as white as the rest of us," as a serious attempt at a compliment by a white American. But within this country, I AM judged by the color of my skin and my heritage.

Not by law, but by culture. Vincent Chin, a Chinese man, died because his killers thought he was Japanese, and it didn't make a difference to them that he wasn't. What affects any Asian, any Hmong, will affect me. Be it fear, hate or love.

And I tell you this: no one will escape by believing that somehow being "more American" will protect them like some magic shield. Sadly, years ago, I lost a friend to suicide because he couldn't be "American enough" that people would accept him.

Even as I work to reclaim my Hmong heritage, because I am proud to be Hmong, it saddens me, and in some cases, angers me to see others trying to throw theirs away. I did not have a choice- my father died before I was born, and my mother could not protect me except by placing me with the Americans.

What some take for granted, I have to fight for.

If I could, I would tell Hmong kids to hang onto their roots even as they seek out their future, because the Hmong heritage is not one to be ashamed of, but to accept proudly. It IS worth coming back to.

You can not cut, shoot, burn or crush the Hmoob heart out of a Hmong. Break our backs, steal our fortunes, divide us into a thousand pieces, and we would still be Hmong. Always and throughout eternity beneath the stars that remember. But the greatest sadness is the Hmong who chooses to hide their face from the heavens for the sake of a coin or a slip of paper. I tell you, it is NOT worth it.

I cannot make up for the lost years. I know I still have much to learn about being Hmoob. But I am committed to using the knowledge I have gained and the experience I have to the benefit of my people, that one day, we can all sit together and say at last, "yes, we have found our home, yes, we have found peace."

I look forward to the many years ahead of working with all of you. (Sorry this took so much space, but I'd been wanting to say this for a while...)

ua tshaug ntau, and sib ntsib dua,

Bryan Thao-Worra

Be proud to be free but do not forget those who are not.
Check out: Hmong Community Leadership Conference Web Site is now up

Homepage: Bryan Thao Worra

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