The Dao Dynasty

Coincidently we went to the Ngoc Suong (my mom's name) Restaurant for our family dinner

I am back from Saigon and finally met my mom's family. I was really interested in meeting them, since I find I have my mom's mannerisms and personality (don't you remember as a kid thinking you weren't like your parents at all and then when you got older you did things that reminded you of your parents that you swore you wouldn't do? or maybe it's just me ...). My uncle and aunt came to pick me up at the airport and my aunt from Sydney sent them the link to my blog and they thought I was a lot bigger (I guess the camera really does add 10lbs)! They had a sign with my name but decided not to use it and tried to guess who I was. My uncle has a strong ressemblance to my uncle in Sydney, so as soon as I saw him, I knew it was him. As we were in the taxi going back to my uncle's home I noticed a lady on her motorbike outside my window and as soon as we saw each other, we knew we were related. Her face is a spitting image of my mom - she was at the airport but my flight was a little late coming in.

We had a huge family dinner and I met everyone, and I mean everyone, speading across 3 generations. My mom is the oldest of her siblings, so I technically pull rank on all of my cousins (which I am not use to because my dad is one of the younger siblings so I am low on the totem pole on that side). My mom's mom died when she was 12 and my grandfather later remarried, so I have only seen one photo of my grandmother that my mom has at home. I saw that the same photo at my aunt's alter and met my grandmother's sisters and brothers. I met my mom's brother, two sisters, and their children, so within one weekend I probably met over 20 new relatives.

My mom is her early 20s

I was quite pampered over the weekend. One aunt owns a salon, so I had my hair washed everyday and another owns a cafe so we would go there after every meal for fresh juice and dessert. My relatives were very generous to me and I wish I could have given more back. I only had a few Canada momentos to offer, but I hope sometime in the future I can help pay for them to visit our family in Canada. My aunt in Sydney has been able to treat a couple of my relatives to come to Nova Scotia, but when they were down I was away in Ontario.

One of my aunts was supposed to go with her husband to Canada last year, but her application was denied because the Government of Canada considered her a flight risk, someone who would try to stay in the country even though she has 2 daughters who are still in school and also owns property in Saigon. I am not going to dwell on this, but it has always made me quite frustrated to hear people assume it is so easy for immigrants to come to Canada - it really isn't, it took my aunt in Sydney almost 10 years to become a Canadian citizen.

My cousins and I at my aunt's salon and home

I figured I would never shoot a gun anywhere else and if I ever was forced to shoot a gun least I would know how. I also thought of my father who was in the Vietnamese Army for the south.

I went to the Cu Chi Tunnels which were the underground tunnels that ran over 50 km to the Cambodian border built by the Viet Cong. It was pretty crazy, I have no idea how someone could live down there for months. They have reconstructed 90m of the tunnels for tourists and I was only able to crawl through the first 30m before paranoia and clastrophobia set in - they are credited with winning the war against the Americans. It is interesting how in Canada we call it the Vietnam War and here they call it the American War.