Long time ago, but it seems like yesterday. I landed at Fort Indiantown Gap, PA with two sets of clothes, and an uncertain future. I saw an ad looking for a bi-lingual interpreter, only that it was a volunteer position.
Oh well, those unaccompanied refugee children needed help. So I signed up and signed on to work for free until the day I left camp for campus.
Those non A/C summer months went by so quickly. What do you expect from an almost abandoned Army barrack? I rotated among the 5 child- welfare workers in the office. When it’s their turn and their case (conducting a foster care placement interview) I was right in the middle.
The case workers chipped in for my birthday ( my first cake and college dictionary at the age of 19).
Here are excerpt from Steve Roth, Counselor III, Childlike and Abuse Registry of Bureau of Child Welfare, Annville, PA 17003
” his (mine) hours to say the least, were long. His command of the English language, both written and oral, never failed even in situations, which proved confusing, fatiguing and frustrating (the usual tempo). Most importantly, is his ability to culturally interface. ”
Little did I know, the experience led me deeper into the jungle of cross-cultures and how to convey the essential message of peace to hostiles.
Many years later, while walking with a (white) seminary student in the thick of West Africa, I realized he was shaking. “I am so scared?” he confessed. No street lights, no paved streets. Just a dark village full of pot holes and smiling faces. One cannot get more “cross-cultural” (from M1-M3) than that.
I wish the best for those foster kids as much as I do for mine.
I wish the same for currently caged kids. 545 of them (latest report arrived at 666). They need help with language and culture. More so with human connection and the assurance that out in the cold, someone still cares.
Kids need parents, not politicizing, postering and policies. Amidst all the class and cast division. Amidst all the barriers without bridges and steel walls without warm embraces.
Kids need to be released.
They are not ones to find their way to “flow the Cuckoo’s nest” all on their own.
Thang Nguyen 555 
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