Voices of the Valley: Meet Neng Vang
From: Thailand, Current City: Menomonie
My name is Neng Vang. I am from Thailand. I was born in 1981 and raised in the Bam Vinai Refugee Camp in Thailand with a family of six people. My mother took care of me and my older brother and sister without my father, because my father had passed away before I was born. When we lived in the Bam Vinai Refugee Camp in Thailand. We did not have any land to grow food, so we waited for the United Nations to provide food, and we lived in the camp from 1979 until the camp had closed in 1991. I lived in the camp until I was ten years old.
When I was about five years old, I attended school. The languages that I learned at school in the Bau Vinai Camp were Laotion and Thai. My mom told me that when I was around three or four years old that she registered to come to the United States, but my mom said that my grandma would not let her go to the United States. Then my mom went to cancel the registration to come to the United States. We continued to stay in the Bau Vinai Camp for many years until I was about nine or ten years old. Then, in 1991 the Thai government planned to close the refugee camp.
The Thai government transferred my family and other people to live in the Napole Camp in 1991. We lived there for about three years. My sister had forms to give to my family that will get us to the United States, but my bother did not want to come. We stayed at the Napole Camp for two more years. My brother registered to go to Laos, and my older sister moved to our camp. She told my brother that we should not go to Laos. Instead, she wanted us to go to Thakabao. We arrived at Thakabao in 1995, and I went to school outside there. I studied Thai and played soccer, volleyball, takrow and badminton. I studied at school until sixth grade then at an adult school until 2000. I met my wife in Thakabao and married her. I had two children with her. In 2003, we received the chance to go to the United States. After being interviewed by the United Nation Immigration Office, we passed and move to the U.S.A in 2004.
I lived in Menomonie and studied at CVTC for three months. It is at Menomonie that my wife and I had 2 more children. The government required me to work and volunteer. After that, I applied to Walmart and got the job in 2005. Because I worked full-time and all night, I could not attend school anymore. In 2007, my family and I moved to Elk Mound where we had 3 more children. I continued to work at Walmart until 2020, then quit because I got another job closer to my home. To this day, my family and I still live at Elk Mound.
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