Last August I wrote a column about how back in 1980 I employed a Vietnamese couple in my meat retailing business. Hoa and My Van Nguyen were “boat people” and had a nine month old daughter named Dyung when they arrived in Masterton. They had been sponsored by our local Rotary club and as I was president of the club at the time I felt that it was my responsibility to find them employment. However it’s not easy to place people when English is not their first language and so in the end I employed them myself, something, as it happened, I never regretted.
They exhibited three characteristics that an employer only dreams of. They were extremely hard working, they were incredibly intelligent and they were scrupulously honest. They had both been university graduates before the Vietcong banished them to the rice fields to work alongside the peasant class to cure them of their “bourgeoisie” conventions.
Neither of them knew anything about the meat business, but they acquired the skills as rapidly as they learned to speak English. They became very proficient and were a great asset to the company. Hoa’s first obligation was to save up enough money to get his father out of prison in Vietnam. Because he had worked for the Americans the Vietcong had incarcerated him and demanded $US5000 for his release. Not long after the money was handed over and Hoa’s father released he died, due to the constant beatings the Vietcong prison guards had inflicted upon him.
Before the Van Nguyen’s arrived in Masterton our club members and their wives had done up what was previously a derelict house on the corner of Cornwall Street and Ngaumutawa Road loaned to us by stock and station agents Dalgety’s. Eventually they bought their own home; a two bedroomed dwelling in Hillcrest Street. Later they purchased a three bedroomed home in High Street to accommodate a growing family. During their time here they had three more children; another daughter named Hanh, then two boys Minh and Tien. The children were educated at St Patrick’s school in Masterton and Dyung went on to Chanel College before they left my employ in 1993 and decided to resettle in Melbourne.
My’s parents had also managed to get out of Vietnam and settled in America and in 1995 Hoa and My and their family were legally able to join them.
Last week, Hoa and My came to visit. We were of course delighted to see them. They had decided to come back and catch up with those people who had helped them as refugees and it was an emotional time for us all. They now live in Austin in Texas.
Life in America is not easy. Hoa endeavoured to get a job in a butcher’s shop using my deservedly glowing reference, but was constantly turned down; He hinted that there was a touch of racism in the refusals.
He eventually got a job in an engineering shop where he is paid $18 an hour. He said most workers in the US are paid $13-14 an hour. He bought a 20-year-old three bedroomed house for $105,000 but said the neighbours don’t speak. Again I suspect xenophobia. He compared prices dollar for dollar here and thought American meat was a little cheaper, but fruit and veges and indeed most other items were on a par.
My works at the weekends at a Vietnamese-owned beauty parlour where she does manicures and facials.
An expense that they struggle to cope with is the $US600 a month medical insurance, but not to take it, Hoa said, would add huge stress to their lives.
Hoa has been back to see his mother in Vietnam on a number of occasions; he said conditions there under the Vietcong are appalling. There is no freedom as the communist government keep close tabs on all your movements. He understands western tourists think it’s a great place to visit, but living there is a different experience altogether.
They have lived in three countries since they left Vietnam and they sincerely believe New Zealand was the nicest.
It seems to be an Asian trait that life is lived almost solely to oversee improved outcomes for your children. Education is the priority and most Asian parents will strive to ensure their offspring are well tutored.
If leaving Vietnam in a rickety old boat where half the passengers died en-route was to make a better life for children born and those yet to come then Hoa and My can rest easy. Dyung is a lawyer and works as a Trust Officer for the Wells Fargo Bank in Austin, Hanh is a doctor in a New Jersey hospital, Minh has an engineering degree and works for Oracle in San Jose and Tien is about to graduate from university with a degree in biotech consulting.
I guess Masterton’s catholic school system can take a bow.
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