Logan DeWitt
7X #3
Immigration Day Response

Immigration Day was one of my favorite days of the year so far this year. I liked it because we got to listen to people’s stories and how they came to America. I got to listen to a really good story from Thong Chau, he was born in Cambodia. He lived there for eleven or so years. He worked in rice fields all day every day without getting paid. He could only eat insects, snakes, mice or anything that was living to survive. When he was eleven or so he told his parents that he is going to leave Cambodia. So he and his brother biked to Thailand at night. They lived there for one year and that is where he learned English. After one year living there, he and his brother (who was ten at the time) traveled to the Philippines. There he and his brother live there for six months got sponsored by a church in Holland and that is how he and his brother came to Michigan. Now his brother and him both live on the same neighborhood and his parents and sister live in Seattle.
This is important because we need to know how people in developing countries live. For instance, Thong had to work in rice fields without getting paid, my dad works at Request foods and gets paid. It effected me because people around the world die everyday of starvation and dehydration. We say that we are starving but we are not but kids are. Thong also said that you don’t have freedom of speech. In Cambodia you can’t say anything bad about the president in public because they will turn you in and get killed. That is a key factor that we have here which others don’t have.
This has changed my perspective on immigrants from other countries because we have a good life here, we have food on the table, we have clean water to drink, we have a warm house on a cold night, we have beds, etc. But the people in developing countries live with unclean water. Thong told my group that he had to drink the water that people swim in and go to the bathroom in! They live in a really small hut type thing, they have no running water or toilets, no heat, etc. This has changed my perspective on things big time because before we got to Immigration Day I had no clue where Thong Chau came from or if he had a story behind him, I didn’t even know he was twelve when he came alone with his brother who was ten or eleven (I know Thong because he works at my dad’s work). Now I want to ask everyone who traveled here what their story is. So Immigration Day is one of my favorite days so far this year.