Times Of Change--Remembering Vietnamese Boat People

Everywhere I have worked as a physician, I have had the honor of taking care of the local Vietnamese population. I also have enjoyed working with Vietnamese physicians and surgeons. We have become friends. And in a way, I have become 'Vietnamese on the inside.'

One of our GI nurses is in her late fifties, and is Vietnamese. After the case today, and in the recovery room, when the patient was all 'tucked in', I wished her 'Happy New Year'.

Even more, I came up to her, right in front of her, put my hands in the prayer position and said, 'I wish you a wonderful year filled with much love, joy, and happiness!' And gave her a hug.

She almost cried.

The supervisor nurse in the room, who is Latina, also followed my example, and wished her many good things.

Here is our Vietnamese nurse's story:

The wishing of blessings upon the elders on New Year is very Vietnamese. The extended family sits in chairs in a row. The oldest brother is the important one in their culture, and represents the parents if they are not able to be present.  She sat with her brother and sister and their spouses, and everyone had their present, their gift...

Her brother is the one who started all of the action for their leaving Vietnam at the time of the war.

Her family--her husband and small children--had no money. She didn't pay even 'one dime' to come to the states. Her brother and her mother made it possible for everyone to come.

Vietnam is an ocean country. Here are fishermen.

Here are the fishermen's wives waiting for the men to return from the sea.

Here is a market that is completely afloat, entirely on boats.

So the idea of paying a captain to take them in a boat across the Pacific Ocean to escape the war made a lot of sense to the people. However, it was very expensive. Many gave their entire life savings to buy a ticket to be on the boat.

Now we begin the story of the nurse and her daughter, who was eleven months old at the time. The food and water ran out. And so did her breast milk. She was unable to nurse the child. 

By planning ahead, she had brought concentrated milk to mix for the child. But there being no clean water available, she had mixed it with the river water, and the child developed diarrhea. She was very sick and the baby almost died. Her mother was 'only half there' as she remembers, for she was sick too.

Their small boat was captured by a Thai pirate vessel.

The pirates took the sick daughter. They went to another ship, near, but not touching, and tossed her overboard to the other boat!

If the throw had been wrong, the child would have fallen into the ocean and perished.

Somehow, despite the language barrier, the pirates knew that there was medicine and people to care for the child on the other boat they had captured and thrown the child to.

They treated the girl.

And in two days, they brought the boats together and threw her back to her mother's waiting arms.

'You see, in the ocean, there are waves,' the nurse explained, 'and if the boats get too close and the wave comes, both boats crash into each other and both are lost and sink.'

That is why the child had to be thrown to the other boat. And even doing so the pirates had taken great risk to themselves and everyone aboard both vessels.

'You know, even though they were Pirates, they were not all bad. They saved my daughter's life.'

Here is the story of the eleven-month old daughter, after she grew up, here in the states:

In childbirth, she could not push the child. The pregnant mother-to-be had congenital dysplasia of the hip. She could not open properly for the child to come out.

She needed to have emergency cesarean section.

Back in Vietnam, the nurse, who is the mother of the new mom, had given birth to her children at home because she did not have money.

If a complication like this had happened to her daughter back in Vietnam, where she would have given birth like her mother, she would have died. She and the baby would have died, together in childbirth.

So, again, with a shaky voice and tears in her eyes, the nurse said, 'without our blessing to be here, I would not have my daughter or my grandson today.'

So next time you see a little mom and pop store or restaurant in the Little Saigon neighborhood near you (this gentleman is from Washington, D.C.), if it's not too busy, ask them their story.

I guarantee it will inspire you.



Aloha and Mahalos,
Namaste,

Reiki Doc

Reflections On The Boat People

'It took gold.' my colleague answered when I asked what it took to get on the boat. 'It took everything I had.'

When Saigon fell, many of the people with higher education fled the country. Little did I know all those years ago, that all those people who were floating off the coast of Southern California waiting for political asylum and refuge would end up being my coworkers and friends.

Over lunch, one shared with me her story. How hard she had to work to get on the boat, to make a life for herself here, to become a doctor. About the struggle.

And how her husband was 'lucky'. The opening on the boat 'just happened, and he was there'. How he found work easily.

What caused the resentment was how in this new country the couple's marriage remained like it would have been in the old country--he relaxed and she did all the work. She earned the money, cleaned the house, and was going back to school.

It made her terribly depressed.

Suicidal ideation happened frequently for her.

She was like, 'what good is there for me to be worked so much like this everywhere I turn?'

I cannot imagine the struggle of a medical student with a husband and two kids. I barely made it 'alive' going through it  single myself. It takes a lot out of you. There is time for only one thing you love. For me it was dancing. For a different person, one of my teachers, it was going to the gym.

Even now, she is not happy. They have been divorced for years. She doesn't understand his happiness and ease.

(I think some of this has to do with his ability to 'manifest' a little better than she could--like the boat space 'just opening up'. It also has to do with the family belief that 'to survive is hard work' she might have inherited from her family of origin.)

I have other friends who were music majors who fled, and now are in other fields of medicine and healing.

I have a neighbor across the street who fled the ayatollah when Iran fell. He is sweet, in his fifties, and never married. He came here in his twenties, and instead of 'partying partying' and looking for a wife, he was building a new life. He is an electrician, and takes care of his mother. The love of his life are his birds. He puts them out on the ledge some mornings, and I hear them.

My Uncle was sent to Vietnam when I was little. I used to play with him every day after school, he was seventeen years older than me, but since I was born he was one of my favorite people ever.

I used to ache for him. I remember nana  crying, worrying he would never come back. One day in the middle of his tour, he came back in a fancy uniform. We took lots of pictures. He seemed quiet. The had to rip me out of his arms, crying and screaming, when it was time for him to go back from his leave.

When he came back for reals, after the war, we knew he was 'different' and we didn't talk about it. He would lie on the couch for hours and watch 'Worlds At War' with live footage from WW2. He bought guns. And his dream of owning some property in the desert, where it was dry (Vietnam was very wet) came true. At one point he had eighty acres in the middle of nowhere. Now it is a national park.

I am a Light worker. There is an invisible war that we can't see, that is going on between the Light forces and the Dark ones. In some ways it is very much like the movies George Lucas made. I am on the Resistance.

For me, I was born with a Purpose. And I automatically know what to do, when it is time. I have been doing this for about three years now. Before that, I had the vague sense I was 'different' and had an overwhelming desire to 'go home'.

That desire went away two days ago.

I think we won.

But even if we did, like my courageous friends from areas of conflict like Vietnam and Iran, there is going to be some rebuilding of the soul for some time, as well as a lot of help with Mother Earth, Gaia, bringing her back to her health and pristine state.

Last night my boy asked where fresh drinking water comes from. I explained the mountains, the rivers and streams. And how when I was his age, you could go up to a stream and drink from it without fear of catching giardia.

He said if there was a beaver pond he wouldn't drink from it. Because everybody knows how much beavers go pee.

I laughed.

May he never know the hardship of war. He is a crystal child. All of them are coming to earth. I see them getting born every time I take a labor and delivery anesthesia shift. They are such old souls! Very aware, with big open eyes that look through you to your very essence of who you are!

I call them 'the reinforcements'.

These are exciting times. They are history. Only we don't know about it yet. You are Light workers. You have Purpose. I think those of you that are reading this are in my wave or the next one.

Open to Spirit. Soon you will know your task. And I will rest. It's been a long one. Only one more short kick and I think my work is done. Keep your eyes open and your hearts always discerning the information that comes to you. Stay with like-minded people who offer you love and support. Be flexible. And look to this site for information when things start to change rapidly in the coming times:
www..prepareforchange.net

We also need volunteer healers to begin weekly meetings, live, face to face, to prepare for The Event, and also to meet after it to assist others. Those of you who have submitted information will be contacted by us about where to go and what to do. You will have opportunity to lead others in your area, on a grass roots level,  by mutual support with other healers in your area.

If you don't mind, signing up on the healers list in both websites (they do not automatically link yet), the   Healer's list (all specialties, energy and conventional, all levels of training welcome) is:
www.planetaryhealersnetwork.com

Look for the blue letters on the top right hand box for the hyperlink to add your name and contact information. It will only be used by us. (here is the link directly: http://yourhighernature.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=7e263f0c54ebfe11197ca5b9d&id=a2bd304fd9)

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Thank you for participating.

Namaste,

Reiki Doc