The Saigon Sisters by Patricia D. Norland

The Saigon Sisters by Patricia D. Norland

Author:Patricia D. Norland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cornell University Press


This wonderful man is Father Emmanuel Jacques Houssard, who retired years later as a pastor in a small parish in Brussels. He may be old, but he stays young in his political and social views. In 1987, I saw him in Brussels after we had been separated nearly thirty years. He took me out to lunch and ordered two ice creams for dessert. When the ice cream came, he gave both to me, saying he was on a diet. All of a sudden, I remembered: one of the things I had liked a lot when I had arrived in the States was ice cream. Father Jacques thought of me as that fan of ice cream from thirty years ago, not the old lady sitting in front of him.

Father Jacques was dedicated, attentive to everyone’s needs, and devoted to social causes and to the independence of young countries. He did this all with humor and an absentmindedness that made us laugh. Father Jacques inspired us, young students eager to serve our country. He was a mentor and a friend. He changed us. Without Father Jacques, there probably would be no Oanh; I owe him so much. Vietnam owes many of her brilliant intellectuals to him.

I ended up studying in the United States in part because I was not among the core members of the revolutionary group. I had no political consciousness at all. I followed students like Thanh just because of friendship. Going to the United States reflected a desire for a change from the French. At the time, some of us did not see the United States as the big imperialist, not yet. Some of us thought the United States could be a friend and that, at a minimum, we wanted to look there, too, for practical solutions to develop our country.

Father Jacques and a woman with the scholarship program were assigned to work with foreign students and prepare them to help lead their country in the future. Four of us from Vietnam came to the United States together. Arriving at the Viterbo campus, I saw that the school had hung a welcome sign in my dormitory. I was one of the first three foreign students—a black woman from the South, a Puerto Rican woman, and me. The three of us made a good family. We cared about each other. The young woman from the South was like my little sister, so I learned about problems facing people of color.

I studied sociology. My father wanted me to study medicine—the best profession to make money. I said no, and he counterproposed, “How about pharmacy?” “Oh no,” I said. “How about agriculture?” Again I said no. My dream was to go into international relations as I excelled at languages. I planned to study English, French, and other languages to work in the Foreign Service. But on my way to the United States, during a stopover at Orly Airport in Paris, I met a Vietnamese man in charge of the student program in France.



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