Being A Refugee

On the Run and Settling Down
The Struggles of Being a Refugee

Ha, from the book Inside Out & Back Again, and all refugees have experienced a feeling of being “inside out” because they had to deal with the dreadful process of getting out of their own country. The refugees also don’t know the culture that they are going to. Refugees from all over the world are constantly being forced to leave their home and they have to make a decision on what they need and what they don’t need. “Into each pack: one pair of pants, one pair of shorts, three pairs of underwear, two shirts, sandals, toothbrush and paste, soap, ten palms of rice grains, three clumps of cooked rice, one choice. I choose my doll, once lent to a neighbor who left it outside, where

I love her more for her scars. I dress her in a red and white dress with matching hat and booties that Mother knitted. April 27” (55-56). Ha had to choose her favorite things to take with her when her family is leaving. All refugees have experienced this before of them choosing whether they should take something or not. Refugees have been known to take extreme measure to escape their country including even killing themselves to escape capture or staying in their country.“Every one of those Hueys probably had 15 or 20 on board. But they’re all headed east, you know, trying to escape.” (Mr. Jacobs the Forgotten Ship.) People in South Vietnam were fearing for their lives, so some of them went to extreme measures of overcrowding a helicopter and risking a crash and all of them dieing. With fleeing your country, there comes great risk on whether or not you will be able to make it out safely or not. “As he was loading his helicopter, had his family killed. They’re standing waiting to get on the helicopter, his family was machine-gunned. He was just sitting in the helicopter. He was the pilot. He stood there and looked at them. They were all lying dead.” (Mr. Hugh Doyle the Forgotten Ship.) This just

A lot of people don’t realize what life was like in the country where the refugees came from. So people just assume they weren't schooled so they misjudge them or they make them feel dumb. “MiSSS SScott points to me,then to the letters of the English alphabet.I say A B C and so on. She tells the class to clap. I frown. MiSSS SScott points to the numbers along the wall. I count up to twenty. The class clapson its own. I’m furious, unable to explain I already learned fractions and how to purify river water. So this is what dumb feels like. I hate, hate, hate it. -September 10” (Lai 156-157) Ha was supposed to be a grade higher than everyone but the teacher and everyone else treats her like she is dumb. Plenty of people think that someone is dumb but they are not. But when they show them up so they get mad because, they don’t like feeling like they're dumb. “Pink Boy Stands at the board. He can’t multiply 18 by 42. I go to the board, chalk the answering five moves. My cheekbones lift to the ceiling until I see horror on the faces of Pem and SSsì-Ti-Vân. Pink Boy is glowing red against white hair, white eyebrows, and white eyelashes. MiSSS SScott nudges me toward my seat. Pem reaches for my hand, hers trembling. I know Pink Boy will get me, but right now I feel