Child Listen to Us

We should be mad. You went behind our backs, challenged us, and we should probably disown you, tell you to never come back to this family, but since you bought the airplane ticket with your own money and decided to take the gifts to our relatives, so we don’t waste our money, we’ll let you go to Vietnam. But before you leave, remember to be careful. The country is a dangerous place, especially if the Communist are still there. Child, when you land in Hanoi, always have your backpack. Make sure you keep your laptop with you. Those Commies will stop and ask to check your carry on. They want to take your things and give our valuables to their families. To stop them, just give twenty dollars. They’ll shut their mouths and walk away as if nothing happened. Child, please improve your face. Look at those red spots, that oily skin — rough and too dark. Don’t go out in the sun, and please don’t pick your skin. Our family will ask, “Why? Why do you look like a monster? You’re from America. You need to be pretty.” Be quiet. No. Listen. Don’t roll your eyes at us. And remember, Vietnam is different. Before 1975 everything was beautiful. Clean. No trash on the ground. Buildings looked amazing. Everyone had money. Education was great. We read everything; literature from the world. Like Les Misérables, Doctor Zhivago, and The Three Musketeers. Math and science were hard. Vietnam’s education was one of the best in Asia. Don’t know what they are teaching them in school now. Probably Marx and Lenin. You can tell by how they talk, especially the language. Not beautiful, so strange, and we can’t understand them. Words that we never heard before. Even translations of literature is all wrong. Those animals destroyed everything. So don’t eat the food or drink the water, especially the food stalls. They have MSG. Eat and you’ll go to the hospital. The water is dirty. Fish die all the time. They fly up to the surface. Those crazy, dog eating monsters don’t know how to run our country. Listen. No, you don’t know. Your life is different from ours. You don’t understand our struggles. You didn’t worry about dying. Disappearing. Or witnesses our people being murdered. And please, don’t talk to our relatives like you to talk to us. Be respectful. Bow down. Don’t act hungry all the time, and make sure you give them our gifts. Try to have fun, and please act like a girl so you don’t embarrass this family. But don’t forget to buy us gifts! If you can, sneak some homemade sweets from your aunts. Where do you plan to go next? Ho Chi Minh? You mean Saigon? Why? A friend? A boy? A girl? Why don’t you listen? Remember our stories? How the Commies forced the monks to burn themselves? Kidnapped our people? The advice? She’s a Communists. They killed our people. Burned our history. Made us leave our home. Child, you need to be careful. She can never be a friend to us.