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Scattered across the world, the Boat People shaped unknown and alien places, into their new homes. Hear their stories of adjusting to their new surroundings.

First House, First Car

Story by Tri Hoang. Translations by Nam Hoang.

Audio Transcript [English]:

Tri: I lived in a house with six other people. The first Tet (New Year) away from home, was a very sad, but we felt encouraged because we had each other. We were all very close.

Huong: Is that Uncle Quy?

Tri: Haha, yes it is. So, the six of us decided that we would pool our money to buy a car with our first pay cheques. The car cost $300, and each of us made only $3/hour! So we worked two or three weeks, and finally could afford the car! One of the roommates had gotten his license here in Canada. Of course, the first thing we did was drive all the way to Banff! Remember, that the car cost only $300, and we dared to drive hundreds of kilometres to Banff anyway. We were having so much fun, we didn’t notice that we went speeding by a police speed trap plane. The hundred dollar speeding ticket that came in the mail two or three weeks later was quite a shock!