The Ugly Daughter: A Thrilling Real Life Journey to Self Discovery, Riches and Spirituality by Julia Legian & Dawn Burke

Author:Julia Legian & Dawn Burke
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Biographies & Memoirs, vietnamese refugees, Memoirs, Specific Groups, boat people, woman memoir, vietnam, memoir, Women
Publisher: Julia Legian & Dawn Burke
Published: 2014-02-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Mum took us to another part of the village and told us we would be staying with her Aunty, Grandma’s older sister, for a while. She promised she would come back for us. We walked for some time and as we approached a big house an old lady greeted us.

“Hello, Aunty,” Mum said. “Thank you for letting my girls stay with you. I’ll be back in three months’ time.”

“Wow, Phuong! Look at those wooden beds and the Chinese blankets! Polished wooden display cabinets!” I babbled. “I love those blue and white Chinese ceramic bowls. Oh, my God, look at the fancy colourful wallpaper. They have fairy tale stories of Tam Cam and Son Tinh Thuy Tinh. Woohoo. We struck it rich, Phuong.”

Tam Cam is a story about the Oriental Cinderella and Son Tinh Thuy Tinh is Vietnamese folklore, a story about natural phenomenon of the tropical monsoon.

I jumped and danced around Phuong, not realising that Mum had gone without saying goodbye. The lady turned out to be Grandma’s second eldest sister Ba Tu. This was the first time I had met her. I hadn't even known we had relatives in town. My first impression was of an unfriendly, tough woman who was dreadfully overweight.

I loved Ba Tu’s house. This upper class lady had the luxury of a real metal stove and large containers of water for showering in, instead of throwing buckets of cold water over yourself. She had a constant supply of fresh drinking water. Phuong and I thought we had died and gone to heaven.

Ba Tu also had condensed milk. I imagined this to be nectar from God. Although forbidden to drink it, there were times I snuck into the kitchen to take a sip of the magic liquid.

Ba Tu shared her house with her four adult children and two young boys who were her grandsons, our cousins. The younger grandson Hung was my age while San, the other boy, was three years older. They appeared normal and friendly.

For the first time since leaving Grandma’s house, we had a decent bed to sleep in. Phuong and I shared with Ba Tu’s three daughters. The boys shared a bed with the uncle and Ba Tu slept in a huge bed by herself.

The next morning we went to school with the boys. We dressed in uniform - black pants, white shirts and red scarfs tucked neatly under our collars. The school was in a different town, Ben Nha Tho, a long walk that took over an hour from our place. As we approached the huge gate I was in awe at the size of the building.

“Oh my God, Hung, this school is awesome! Hung, do you think the teachers would let us out of this giant steel gate during our break to play hop skip on those church steps over there?” I asked my cousin.

“No, but we can play after school if you want, but not for too long as we need to get home on time,” he replied.

At first it was wonderful living with Ba Tu.

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