Just another day, or so I thought, dance class at 8:30 followed by a few rounds of disc golf for my morning workout. Class was fantastic and it's a total joy to have a class that challenges me to the degree that Dana's does. She's really coming on as a choreographer and the routines are getting a little bit more difficult, but I find that they are exactly the right level for my development. I'm having to concentrate fully, and give maximum effort. You can't ask for more than that from a class. And I can do it, maybe not perfectly, but the further we go, the more I can recognize and integrate. She adds new twists for each combination, and we're getting quite the repertoire of moves and techniques. Love it.
And then on to the golf course, feeling nicely warmed up by the class, and as usual, it's pretty quiet in the morning. I see that older Thai guy who is there most every day, and I slip in ahead of him, as he's throwing a bunch of discs on number two. I tee off on three so I can stay out of his way. Normally I go pretty fast playing two discs, so everything is as it should be.
Until I temporarily lose a disc on number 4 and have to spend some time wandering around looking for it. As I'm searching about, I see him on the tee, so I wave him on to pass me. I find my disc shortly after so we end up on the 5th tee together and start playing with one another. He introduces himself as 'Sy' and offers me his hand. I say, 'I know you're Sy, we've met before', and then I add that I'm going to Thailand this winter, just like last year. He says, 'I'm not Thai, I'm from Laos, the next country over'. and we begin a fascinating conversation that took a surprising turn.
He mentioned that he hadn't been back for 35 years and added that he had been in jail before he left. The mid 70's was when the Communists took over so it piqued my interest, and sure enough, he had been jailed for working with the Americans during the war, but not just working with them, being a highly placed translator during the 'secret war' in Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam conflict.
I said, 'what? were you in there with Henry Kissinger?' and he said, yes, many times. I got his basic story.... he was a lawyer trained in Vientienne, the capital of Laos. The Americans paid for him to study in Paris and in London. I said, 'so you're fluent in English, French, and Lao'... to which he added, 'yes, and Spanish, German, Russian and Thai'.
I just got the bare bones of his story, how he was part of the negotiations and translations during the secret war, when the Americans were trying to prevent North Vietnam from supplying their forces along the Ho Chi Minh trail which went through Laos and Cambodia. I will have to ask him much more about it as it is really interesting to me, and what an opportunity to have this guy to talk to.... on the golf course, no less. So the story will continue.
In his personal tale, once Saigon fell and the Communists took over and then the dominoes fell in Laos and Cambodia, he was arrested and imprisoned. At night he was kept in a pit underground and during the day he was part of the 'forced labor'. He had to cut down trees to build settlements, and during that time, there was some kind of accident that broke his leg and put him in the hospital. He was able to escape from that less restrictive environment and fled over the border into Thailand. He tells me that he snuck back into Laos to retrieve his wife and young son and the three of them eventually made it to the US, thanks to some of those connections he had forged in the 60s and 70s. He worked here as a painter and is now retired and living across the street from the disc golf course where he spends most mornings. To be continued.
