Lyfu Vang

Love your culture and learn other cultures. And learn what you have, keep what you have and learn what they have out there so you can be versatile, you can function everywhere, so anything that anybody ever wish, a person of your ability be able to contribute to the culture and to other people wherever you live.

Lyfu Vang

So you want to hear my story? Do you want to hear a story about a boy? Now you can hear me very well and I can tell you a story about a boy, a very good boy, a fabulous boy, named Ly Fu. And that’s spelled L-Y F-U.

Do you want to know why it’s spelled that way? That’s my name and also because that’s in the French spelling, not English. Not English like your name because your name is spelled English way, right? And in my way, if you spell it the wrong way, then some people in this country cannot say it. You know, they cannot say Ly Fu. They have to say Lee Foo.

You know what that boy was born? Yeah, that boy was born December 8, 1956. You know how many years ago that boy was born? Wow, that’s long, long time ago. And you know what? By that time, the boy was just a little boy like you guys. Michael, and you come and sit right here so I can tell that story to you.

And that boy happen to be who, you know? Ly Fu. Who’s Ly Fu? You know? (You) That’s right! That’s me. Alright.

Now I’m going to tell you what I did when I was little kids like you are. And you know what name they give to me when I was just born? They call me Meh Tu. Mm-hmm. But after three days, what they do? Yeah, they call me Ly Fu because Lao Ho Pli-vee-ah. We have a ceremony that they give me my name Ly Fu.

And all the time, I keep that name. and then that name still beautiful. And I still want to keep it and I want you to say it right when you say Mr. Ly Fu. Right? Yes.

And when I was a little kid, I…my dad…how many of you have a daddy who’s a teacher? Yeah, we have some. So my daddy was a teacher. And he’s also a soldier. And he also parachute down from the airplane.

Now when he’s a teacher, you know what? He…listen really carefully so I can say it really fast and you can catch everything. And I was born and he was going to school, but because I was a little, little boy he said, No, you don’t go to school, you stay home with your mommy.

And I said No, I want to go to school! And you know why I wanted to go school? Because so much fun out there, they have lots of boys and girls at school. I want to be there, I want to play with all of those people. But at home, I got to stay with my mommy and my little brothers.

I say, It must be boring at home. I want to go to school. I want to learn something. I want to play with those people so much fun.
And you know what? When I got bigger and bigger…because when I was born, it’s not like Minneapolis. See there was lot of cars, lot of things, we don’t have any car. We don’t have any bicycles. We don’t have anything but we have horses, we have chickens, we have pigs, we have dogs. Yeah, we don’t have any cow, but my grandpa have tons of cows all over everywhere and horses.

But my father doesn’t raise cows. We just have pigs, chickens, horses and dogs to guard our house at night just in case something try to come at night and bite us in the butt.

Alright, now when he becomes a little bit bigger, because the school has to be way out from where we live. We don’t live very close to where the school is so everybody has to walk to school.

And when I was a little kid, sometime my mom did not look at me and I said, Mom I’m going to play out there somewhere and I went to the school and play with those kids and sit down with them and pretend like I am one of those kids.

And my father just said, Ahhhh. We don’t have telephone where I was born. We don’t have telephone so I cannot call…ah…my dad cannot call my mom and say, Hey! The little boy named Ly Fu is in school here, can you come get him? No, we don’t have a telephone so he just let me sit there.

And you know what? I learn everything like those big kids. By the time I was five years old, I already know everything what the 3rd graders knew about. You know? Five years old, I already knew everything.

I know my subtraction. I know my division. Not talking about addition. And I can read in French. I can read in Lao. I can write and I was so proud playing with those big kids and when they learned, I listened and I learned along with them.

When they recite the lessons, I already know the lessons before they finish reciting it because I hear so many people trying to recite just like a poem. They talk, talk, talk, talk, talk and then I listen and I already knew the story. They’re still trying to recite it because they are learning. But for me, I learn everything from when I was a little kids, every year, every year, every year…by the time I was five, I knew everything like people who are in 3rd grade.

You know how old they are in 3rd grade in this country? Seven. So, you’re six to first grade. Seven to second grade. Eight, third grade, right? (I’m nine) You’re nine, see? Yeah, you’re in 3rd grade some of you are nine already.

So when they’re five, I already knew like you guys. ‘N-kay. Right, Michael? Now, when I knew everything, you want to know what happened? I already knew like you guys, you want to go back to kindergarten? No, you’re in so much like a 3rd grader, right?

So, when I knew everything like you guys, the way I was, we had to take a test. You don’t pass the test, you cannot go to 4th grade or 2nd grade or 1st grade, right? So I pass all those tests that they give us to, it just like you go to the computer and take your test? Yeah.

So I pass all of those tests so they said, You go to 4th grade when I first walk into the school. So I a little boy like you, like those kids in Miss Sue’s class, I am already in 4th grade. Yeah.

And you know, when I get to your age, you know what happened? I saw some big kids, they already have moustache in there. You know why? Because they came to the school very, very old. They already 8 or 9 or 10 before they come to the school and they start 1st grade.

And they’re very old like Mr. Ly Fu already, but they are in 3rd grade. So when they get to 3rd grade or 4th grade, they have moustache just like me, see?

So, we have so much fun when they go there. we have a lot of kids. On the weekend, you know what we did? we have those flower plants, just a huge them all over on the whole side of mountain. But they’re not tall. They’re only about ah…about that door-tall, ‘K?

And we walk up there. We trying to compete with each other. We said, Do not touch the ground. If you touch the ground, then you lose. So we walk on top of those flower-trees. We go from one side of mountain to other side just like monkeys in the trees, you know? Yeah, we had so much fun.

And you know what, one day, just a huge tree that we have vines coming down. Huge vine like this microphone here everywhere. And it so much fun it’s just coming down like whatever monkey down the hill. And they play with some of the kids. Yeah. So there’s somebody used to do that, too. Yeah?

And I was playing with them and you know normally when you roll down the hill like you do outside here? You used to do that you kinda be on the floor when you roll your body on the hill?

Hmong parents say you don’t do that because if you do, you’re gonna be dead. Because they think that inside your body you have a balloon like something to hold your blood. You do that, you’re blood pull and it’s gonna be bursted like a balloon and you’ll die. And they don’t have a son or daughter anymore. So they won’t let you do it.

But when we went down those vines from the tall-trees down, it’s just kinda sloped like this, it’s not straight down, just kinda go like this. And then I was so much…ah…had so much fun. And everybody went down and I wait and wait and wait and when everybody’s down there, I just roll down that way because it just like the hill out there that you usually roll down the hill.

And then, some people saw it and they went to tell my mom and dad that, We saw your son roll like this down from the tree down all the way down there. He must get hurt a lot. I said, No, I’m not hurt. I just have so much fun out with the big boys and girls. And then they say, No, you must be hurt because you roll down like this. So we have to have a ceremony for you and make sure you won’t get sick.

And so they kill a pig, they have a good meal and they do the Shaman thing to me. Yeah, that’s what we did. And you know what? After that, by the time I was a little boy about nine years old, because back way in the countryside, my dad taught every kid just like, I think, bigger than this room.

Bigger than this room, it must be here to way over there by the hallway where Miss Sue lives…ah, teach. You know Miss Sue class? She has kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade kids in there so everybody sits in a different place and he’s the only one who teach. He teach this group, he teach that group, he teach this group, he teach that group. He’d go back over here to teach like that.

People just came from all over the country. They walk—sometime they walk four days—just to get to the school. They don’t have bicycles. We don’t have cars. They don’t ride horses to school because they have to work very hard to feed the horses so they walk, walk.

If they walk that far away, what they do for food? They carry on their back. Boys and girls like you guys bigger, they carry a lot of food on their back for four days, go up the hill, down the hill to where just to get to school and then they built small houses right around our house so they can go to school.

And they eat the food, they shared the food because you get some, you get some, you get some, you get some and all of them shared their food. And they stayed there for maybe a month. When they run out of food, on the weekend what they do? Yeah, they run to look for food.

They had to go back home and they parents get a lot of rice, lot of stuff, they carry it back to the school to study. Do you have to bring lunch here? You’re very lucky. Do you have to walk to school for four days? No, you’re very lucky.

And do I have to walk to school for four days? No, because I live with the teacher. Who is the teacher? No, when I was a little kid. Who’s my teacher? Yeah, it’s my dad. Yeah, so I don’t have to walk that far.
But you know, sometime I love running like you guys out there. I saw some of you chasing each other for fun. Guess what I did with the little kids at school, too?

But when it’s little kids like you, I love something in the air flying. What we call those things? Airplanes. Yep, airplanes. Whenever I hear the airplanes coming in because the airport was not in my back yard. The airport was very close to the school. So it’s about maybe here to…oh, very, very far away like ah…I have to run.

Whenever I hear airplane, r-r-r-r-r, from the horizon, you know horizon is? Way out there in the sky, then I know there is gonna come and land over there. I just say, what are those things? They can fly. I just love those little things. And they fly up there. I see them just like a little bird. I thought I gonna take them and carry home and play, but when they get there, you know how big they are? Huge airplane!

The people sit inside of the airplanes. People are flying the airplanes and I go and I try and touch the airplanes and some other big people said, Don’t touch the airplanes! Don’t touch the airplanes! And you gonna break something. So we don’t want any damages to the airplane or they not gonna fly again.

But I said, I want to see them fly. I want to see them come down and land at the airport. Every day when I stay home and I hear r-r-r-r-r in the horizon, I just ruuuuun, run, run! I try to be the first one at the airport before the airplane landed.

That’s why I learn and I learn and I learn and when I grow up, I became a pilot, too. You know I am pilot? Yeah, I can fly up there. I used to take kids like you guys up there to go fly on the weekend.
I ask the parents, I say, You like to have your boy and girl go flying? They give me a paper, I say, Sign and then you just go and pay and we get a lot of people and some people to help supervise you.

You know the word supervision? They watch some of the kids, yeah, they watch some of the kids in the airport. And then, now….and when I am a pilot, I still want to be up there all the time and never enough time to sit up in the air.

That’s why say, Ca Kae jae mang, do you like to feel the way I do? If you like to go up there, I can take you and take a lot of kids up there for flying.

And those people, when they call, they also ?19:07? pilots, they give me a little award. Yes, for ah…for teaching kids to fly, too. Right?
Now talk about some other thing. Are you really good at school? No? You know what? What can you do to be good at school? Yeah, listen and learn and learn and learn and at home learn. Because you know what? What we did back there?.....Back there kids like you would be go home, you cook, you clean, you help out older brothers sisters and parents.

And then after that, we don’t have…we don’t have light like this. You know that? We have candle. We have candle and oil so we study like that until we fall really, really very sleepy. And then we go to bed. And you know what time we get up in the morning? Yeah, we get up about 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning because that time is really cool.

So we study from 2 or 3 all the way ‘til sunrise. My mom would cook breakfast and then we ate and then we went to school. So we study at night, we study in the morning, we study whenever we can.

Do you study like that? Awwww. Yeah, but you could get up and then learn and you come to school and you learn. So you’ll be really good at that.

Okay, now you want to hear some more about that boy named Ly Fu? About when he’s bigger? Yeah. When he’s bigger like your brother, sister? Right, Evan, Evan? You have bigger brother, sister? He doesn’t? Yeah, he does. He does, too.

So when I was bigger, you know, I went to school with those big ol’ kids. Because when I was little kid, like your brother and sister in high school, you know what I did? I was already in college. Yeah, I was already in college. And almost finished my college work by the time I was 18.

So by 19, I almost finished everything I need to do in college. You know what college is? Yeah. You want to go to college? Yeah. Alright. So that’s cool. And I gonna stop right here. And when I grow old, guess what I become? Okay?

I finish all my college in French and in English, that’s why I become a teacher like this. Alright? If you have question, I can tell you some more about some times in my life so you know that boy named Ly Fu grew a little I bigger where he grows old and has grey hair and becomes a teacher at HIA.