The Exhibition, Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee

I finally had a chance to visit the exhibition, Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee yesterday with my sisters.  The first part of this video is about my family, and the photos of the people that we knew at Nong Kai Refugee camp, some went to Canada, France and the United States.  Then the exhibition itself, and finally the conclusion of us going home, not to stay but only to visit, my dad and I visited Laos in November 2008.

Torn from Home: My Life as a Refugee

I can identify with the title, and after seeing the photo of Khue Khang stands in front of a photo taken of him when he was 14 at the Nong Khai Refugee Camp, this I can say that I had been there, and done that, in fact, I too lived in Nong Khai Refugee Camp as a child.

Photo by Ragan Robinson

But it seems so long ago, the title above is a traveling exhibit at the Hickory Museum of Art.  The museum recreates a refugee’s life, and as for Khue Khang, it’s memories wrapped in barbed wire.  Khue Khang currently lives in Hickory, North Carolina, he was born in Laos, lived in two refugee camps in Thailand. He said that the exhibit rings true, the faux barbed wire is familiar to him. When he was 14, he was separated from his mother, father and brother.  He ended up at the camp where he and 20,000 other refugees called home.

He remembers passing through a gate like the one that greets exhibit visitors, its striped arm lowered to stop unauthorized people from coming in or leaving, this must be SorGorTor in Thai Language, a temporary holding place before sending them off to a refugee camp about 1-2 miles away. He remembers the registration station, where refugees signed up to get their limited food. He remembers the pots and pans sitting on rocks that encircled an open fire. (source and photo by Ragan Robinson)

TORN FROM HOME: My Life as a Refugee is presented by Howard & Pat Anderson and the Beaver Family Foundation. It’s a traveling exhibit on the world’s refugees takes school-age children and visitors of all ages on an inspiring, hands-on journey into the extraordinary lives of millions of children who were forced to flee their homes in conflict regions throughout the world. The exhibit, “Torn from Home: My Life as a Refugee,” gives young visitors and others an opportunity to gain a firsthand look into the often challenging realities faced by refugee children and their families, and yet experience the personal triumphs of rebuilding their lives in a new land. It showcases six exhibit areas: Home, Losing Home, Registration, Refugee Camp, Medical Clinic and Going Home, to read more.

And yes… going home and for some of us, home is where the heart is.  If you’re in the area, this exhibit is opened through May 2, 2010. I hope to visit in the near future, and perhaps it’ll travel to your part of town.

Going Up Again!

I think the laws of gravity of, “What goes up must come down” doesn’t hold true anymore, it appears that gas prices are on the rise.

It’s a big commotion here at my work about the price of gas, just yesterday; I paid $3.71 per gallon for 87 gas. One of my co-workers went by the gas station this morning, and the lady at the gas pump said that it’s going up to $4.00 by tomorrow, I believed that people in CA are paying over $4.00; as for me, there is not a lot I can do, I still have a full tank. One lady thought about doing carpool since she passes our house on her way to work. I’m all gung-ho for it, mainly because she comes in at 10 a.m., which means we’ve a good excuse to come in later, then to make up for it, we would have to leave early because she has to drop us off before going home, I’m not sure how my boss would feel about this, I might just email him to ask.

My other thought is to start training for a marathon. One of my co-workers asked me “which marathon are you running?” Ah… honestly, I really don’t have one, but it would save a lot of money on gas and wear and tear on my car, great exercise also, but it would sound stupid to tell people that I run to work because I couldn’t afford the price of gas, training for a marathon seems a lot cooler. Another lady said that she needs to get a laptop so that she could work from home….hmmm, interesting.

I’m beginning to think that our future transportation of choice might be the bicycle or the moped, one of my co-workers recently visited London and was impressed with so many people using the bicycle to get around. As I was searching in Flickr for some photos of people riding bicycles in London and came upon this photo, my mouth dropped open, I couldn’t believe, a bit overrated I believed; here is a nicer one, you get the picture, they even have the traffic lights just for bicycles, but they confuse the pedestrians I would imagine.

Another co-worker recently visited Karachi and the transportation of choice over there are the bicycle and the moped, look at this photo below, here we’ve a family of 5, who needs a convertible top when you can get around with this baby, the pink umbrella is so stylish, I think I need to get one just like it.