Kuku Island, Indonesia »   In Loving Memory of Mong Ha

Dear Mong Ha,

Tomorrow will be your 30th anniversary. I would like to express my deepest sympathy and to say that you have never been forgotten in our hearts. I still remember your passion about life, your dreams about the future. When I last saw you at the KuKu hospital on top of the mountain, I realized that you would never have a chance to fulfil your dreams. And that hard feeling struck my heart once again when I heard about you after 30 years. And when I saw the pictures of your grave, I could not longer hold back my tears.

Thank you for sharing the hardship during the most challenging time of my life at the refugee camp. As a witness of your sudden departure from this world, I started to learn a secret of life is that one should be grateful for what we have as noone would know what tomorrow will be like.

Dear Carina,

I would like to express my appreciation towards the hard work that you have devoted to our community. What you have done is the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen.

Thuy Anh

It is saddened to learn of those who made through the journey of risking their lives but thwarted by nature and unfortunate living conditions and fell short of the destination...the path to freedom.

By those incidents and mishaps, the meaning of freedom is priceless but the one way to make the most of it is by way of keeping the past alive and pay our gratitude in rememberance of those who failed to reach the destination by forces beyond their control.

Our lives are filled with busy occurences/activities and sometimes we often forget or (realistically and specifically) overlook and let it slip by. We shall sit back and reflect of what yesterdays provided and what we can do today to better it for our generation and children's generations...so on and so forth.

In short, because of our past, our struggle to freedom, we are where we are today. Without it, our lives would be ruined day by day by the hands of communists through their unacceptable, illogical, irresponsible, unreasonable ideology. To name one so we all are on the same pace: after the fall of '75, all of my brothers and sisters were forced out of our own house. My wonderful mom was 37 with 6 little children with oldest being 11 and the youngest being 3, and my dad, as a lieutenant colonel in the South government, was imprisoned. All of us were not allowed to attend good schools or even some school with our choice even though we were tops of our class. In addition, with not much resources to keep on going with such a big family. Had we stayed, you can see and imagine how our lives would become. I am not just referring to just my family but all of those who had a similar fate. To this day I still don't know how my mom did it but we are a lucky few who decided to call VN our former home and fortunately we made it here to the States alive and well today. Like many others who made it out are very successful in everything they do and we are no difference.

Freedom is not cheap obviously.

With all of this on and on and I might lose some of you in my thoughts :=), look at what Carina has been doing. She is the savior for many families who, unfortunately, were forced to leave their loved ones resting in those abandoned, unhabitat islands/jungles due to conditions beyond their control. With her big heart, great effort and persistence (never falter due to uncharacteristic criticism by people with hidden agenda), she is bringing so much closures to many families. I, along with many fellow refugees, applaud her unbelievable contribution!!!

Dear All,

When we were on Kuku last March, it happened to be on Mong Ha's b-day. We had a small celebration for Mong Ha, then rebuilt her grave. Her former teacher, families and friends sent b-day cards and gifts, her parents sent the most heartfelt letter.

Dear Carina,

My name is Bundhowi and I was a teacher at Galang refigee camp for 5 years. I am from Indonesia and at the moment I live in Bali. For the past two years i have been back to Galang again almost every month. I am writing a book and putting up a documentary movie re. the escape and galng camp re. Galang and advocate the governent of Indonesia to keep the camp open for an open museum. If you can receive this email, please let me know. I'd like to interview people. In Galang the refigees called me teacher Bun from the consortium. Please email me in my email address indoguru2000@yahoo.com

Thanks.

Peace,

Bun