Voices of the Valley: Meet Thai Lee
From: Laos, Current City: Eau Claire
I was born in Laos, and lived with my parents, two brothers, two older sisters and a younger sister. We had so much fun when we studied at home together with our mother. My mother was a good mom for us. We walked together to school. My parents were farmers. They didn’t have jobs to earn money to support us. My parents didn’t have any income, but my mother knew how to make the Hmong Paj Ntaub, traditional Hmong clothing to sell at the market. However, some days it sold out and some days no one bought it.
When I was 12 years old, I was in the 5th grade of primary school. My school didn’t have a textbook for any students to learn at home. I loved school, but there were many things I didn’t like. It was not convenient to study and there were no libraries at the school for students’ education. I wanted to make a better life for my family in the future. When I lived in Laos , I wanted to study English. But tuition fees were very high. It was hard for us to find money to pay the education bill.
I remember when I was 14 years old. I went to high school. My teacher needed all students to take a phone to take photos of the teacher’s textbook. So I wanted to get a phone and I asked my mom to buy it for me, but she didn’t have enough money. I felt sad after that. I went back to school like before. There were many things that the teacher asked me to take a photo of and write the homework at home. At that time, it was hard for me, because my school did not have enough textbooks and I told the teacher that I didn’t have a phone. Sometimes the teacher read to us in class, and we wrote it in our notebooks. So again, I asked my mother to buy a phone for me and she told me that she would buy it for my birthday. I was glad to hear her say that. It was still three months until my birthday, but I felt like it was so long. My mother told me to wait for it.
Finally, on my birthday, my mother bought me a new phone. My family celebrated my birthday; my mother cooked the food, we ate dinner and cake together. I got a special gift from my mother. It made me sleepless. I felt very happy and I was able to take a photo of the teacher’s textbook. After that I did not worry about studying.
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