The Best We Could Do

Thi’s mother was held at the hospital in Malaysia for three days, while the family ate only rice and butter and struggled at the camp without her. However, Thi writes, “Once Hắng returned, order and comfort returned. She got us a place in a bigger tent, supplies for cooking our own food, our names registered, and identification pictures taken for processing” (267). Page 267 reprints the family’s refugee identification photographs.

Thi tells us that Pulau Besar already housed 3,000 people by the time Thi’s family arrived. Delegations from various countries made weekly rounds of refugee interviews for people wishing to resettle. Many refugees changed their legal names and ages at the camp in order to begin anew and try to carve out any advantages that they could foresee for their new lives. The children enjoyed a small vacation away from school and the strictures of everyday life, although life was not easy. There was no reliable clean water or plumbing, and Hắng gave birth at the camp. However, Thi’s family was fortunate enough to only have spent a few months in the camp: Hắng’s sister “Đao and her husband acted as [their] U.