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9.18.2015

A Timely Letter I Received Today, (I was experiencing writer’s block) I Really Appreciated it.

Hi Chesca,

Just wanted to say that I discovered your blog today while googling for PRPC (what made me google that today of all days in so many years is beyond me).   I was there from 1984-1986 when I was 9 in the Vietnamese section.   Thank you for bringing back so many memories of the place.  We didn't have a camera back then so I only have memories.  I remember the classrooms and going to school there as a kid.  My mom worked to help dispense supplemental nutrition to malnourished kids in one of the administration buildings (usually bean soup of some sort and she got to take home extras if there was any left :)  Just a few months ago, I was telling my very comfortable daughters about how I used to carry water to the billet everyday and now I can show them pictures.   Oh how far our lives are from that today.

As a kid, I felt that we were just in limbo there waiting to move on.  It never occurred to me that life was happening all around me - like people were meeting their loves and starting new lives.  It's interesting how we had vastly different lives and trajectories back then, but today we live similar lives - comfortable, tending to our half-asian children (music lessons, ice skating, sports, etc), working on being a more peaceful/calm parent, building our marriage, trying to do good, traveling, learning and living the all american dream.  I guess it speaks to people's thirst for freedom and the power of upward mobility in America.  I often think about how vastly my life would be different if we'd never left. I really enjoyed seeing the pictures of the PRPC and reading your post about how you met.  Anyways, thanks for the trip back. 

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