Project Sekong 2013: We Take Pleasure In Re-connecting Families

The United States is now home to more than 150,000 Hmong-Americans. Readers of this blog are probably among the tiny percentage of Americans who can correctly identify Laos as the country from which most of those new residents began their journey out of Asia. (The funniest incorrect answer to the question, “Where did the Hmong come from?” I heard from a middle aged adult: “Mongolia?”)

Yet, even people well versed in the history of the Hmong diaspera misjudge the size of the Hmong population in Laos. People often mistakenly think that after the war every Hmong in Laos either fled the country or died trying. In truth, the Hmong in Laos constitute nearly eight percent of the population–nearly four hundred thousand citizens.

One of our great pleasures is meeting villagers who show us mail from their relatives in the United States. In turn, we share photos of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California to people who wonder about the lives that their relatives are now living. Most enjoyable of all are the occasions when we can reconnect family members in the US with relatives in Laos who have lost track of one another through multiple moves.