What is your name?
My name is Damrong Lee.
How old are you?
I am 11 years old.
Where were you born?
I was born in Vinai, Thailand.
How long had you lived in Thailand?
I lived in Thailand for 10 years.
Do you have any brothers or sisters?
I have two younger brothers, two older sisters, and four younger
sisters.
What did you do in Thailand?
I went to school in a different village.
Who went with you?
I left with my dad, my grandma, my brothers, and my two older
sisters.
Are there any differences between schools in Thailand
and schools in America?
Yes. Everyone had to wear
the uniform that was provided for the students and we had to buy it from the
school.
Do you know how much a uniform cost?
I don’t know.
Do you think that the uniform were expensive?
Probably.
How about school supplies? Did you guys have to bring
anything to school with you?
Yes. We had to bring papers to write with and the textbook that was
given to us.
Did you have to buy the school supplies?
In the village that I lived in, you had to buy your own, but in the
village that I went to school, the books were provided for us.
Did you have any breaks during school?
What did you do?
Yes. My friends and I
played soccer and played tag.
Was the teacher mean?
No.
What did you call the teacher?
We called the teacher Khun Ku (SP).
What does that mean?
The teacher.
Who did you go to school with? Did you go to school
with people older than you?
I went to school with kids my age.
How many languages can you speak? What are they?
I can speak three languages. I can speak Hmong and some Thai. I can only
speak a little English.
Which language do you think is the hardest?
I think that Hmong is the
hardest because there is still some that I don’t know.
Do you think that English is hard?
Yes. The hardest part is
when they give you books to read and you don’t understand them. I
can sometimes read them, but I don’t know what they mean.
What do you eat in Thailand?
We eat lettuce, meat, and eggs.
Can you tell me about the Hmong culture?
Yes. Hmong don’t have machines to make their equipment, so they make
their own equipment. They use
metals to make knives and wood to make carts, wagons, and many other things.
How long have you been living in America?
I have been living in America for about four or five months now.
How old were you when you arrived in America?
I was 11 years old.
What do you think when you know that you’re going
to get to come to America?
I thought that I would see a free country.
Did you know anyone in America before you came?
I had relatives in Wausau.
When you came to America, who helped you?
My Aunt Mai is the one who helped us get to America.
When you came to America, did you have to go through
any check ups?
They checked our blood by drawing blood from our bodies. They also
examine your urine and solid waste.
My whole family had to have a check up.
What did you think about the plane ride? Were you
scared?
It was not that scary.
What did your family think about the ride?
It was ok for them.
When you lived in Thailand, did any of your relatives
call you?
Yes, they called us. When we were still in Thailand, sometimes our aunt
called us.
When they called, did they say anything about
America? What did they say?
Yes, they said that in America, there isn’t as much sand dust as in
Thailand.
Did you ever go to any big cities in Wisconsin, like
Milwaukee, Chicago, or Minneapolis?
I haven’t, but the teacher had just taken us to Six Flags. It
was very fun.
In Thailand, what was the average age for marriage?
The average age was 15-16 years maximum.
In America, there are laws saying that you have to be
a certain age before getting married. So in Thailand, are there any laws saying
that?
No, there aren’t any.
When you first came to America, what did you think
about the Americans? Did you think
that they were good people? Were
they nice to you?
Yes. They were good people,
but when they spoke I didn’t understand because I didn’t know English well
yet.
Have you been to the local stores like Wal-mart, and
Target?
Yes, I’ve been to a couple of them.
Does Thailand have stores like that?
Yes, there were stores like that, but they weren’t in our town. They
were all in other towns. They were
mostly in big towns.
Have you been to the markets in Thailand?
Yes, I have.
Are the summers here as hot as it is in Thailand?
It’s not as hot as in Thailand.
How different is the weather here in Wausau compared
to Thailand?
In Thailand, the weather is very hot. Here, the weather is cold and it
snows.
When you came and was it snowing?
No, it wasn’t snowing when we came here. In Thailand, we came the 9th
month.
How different are the clothes here compared to the
clothes in Thailand?
Not that different at all.
If you could, would you rather live here or go back
to Thailand?
I would rather live here because there is a lot of freedom and it’s
civilized.
In Thailand, there’s a king and a president, right?
Yes.
So how are they different?
The king is considered more superior than the president.
Does the king personally visit the cities and
villages, or does he stay in his palace?
The king does not visit small villages, but he does visit big cities.
Have you ever seen the king?
I haven’t, but there’s a big statue of him in the village that I
lived in.
Were there any Thai people in the village that you
lived in, or was there only Hmong?
There was both Thai and Hmong, but there were more Hmong than Thai
people.
In Thailand, do you guys watch TV?
We didn't own a TV, but we do go and watch TV with relatives and friends
that own a TV.
Do you know any popular people like singers or
actors?
I know Kwm Lee. He’s an
actor and a singer. One of his famous movies was the Hmong legend, Nuj Nplhaib
Thiab Ntxawm. He lived in our
village.
In Thailand, did they tell you how electricity
works or how to use it, or did your relatives teach you?
If you are going to come to America, they’ll teach you, but only if
you’re 14 years old and up. If
you’re selected to come to the U.S. you have to take these classes, which
teach you about the U.S. I wasn’t
able to learn.
Was it hard for you when you came, like to use the
bathrooms, sinks, etc...?
Yes.
Did you have the same kind of sinks as the ones in
Thailand and the ones in America?
No. In Thailand, we didn’t have any faucets. We would go to a river,
and then we used a bucket with a rope tied around it and filled it up. Then we’d
bring it back home and pour it into a huge water jug.
We would then use a cup to get water out of it.
Do you still have any relatives in Thailand?
Yes, but they all came to America.
Do your relatives live in Wausau?
No, they live somewhere else.
Oral
History Project 
