'My Come to America'

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On a cool winter morning, Pang Yia and her classmates lean over their desks and pass crayons to their neighbors as they busily color large sheets of butcher paper.

The 5th- and 6th-graders, all recent Hmong refugees, belong to a combination ESL class at Hayden Heights Elementary School in St. Paul, Minn.

Last year, Hayden Heights received a grant from the district to create an artist-in-residence program. As a result, artist Ed Williams will visit each classroom, helping students explore their "immigration stories".

In preparation for Williams' visit, students wrote their family's immigration stories in their native languages; afterward, their multi-lingual teacher, Bao Yang, translated the stories into English.

Yang's students arrived in St. Paul a few months ago from Thailand's Wat Tham Krabok Camp. Life in the camp was crowded, they say. Many suffered hearing loss and chronic respiratory problems from the explosives used in mining the mountains that surrounded the camp. Most left relatives behind when they boarded buses for the Bangkok airport.

Their stories reflect this. One, titled, "My Come To America," reads:

There was a war in Laos. My family crossed the Mekong River to go to Thailand. They lived in Camp Vinai. My family moved to Wat Tham Krabok (another refugee camp). Interview, physical exam. We went to check if our family was selected to go to America. Took bus to Bangkok airport. We stopped in Japan. We stayed one night in New York. We arrived in Minnesota. We were welcomed by our uncles.

After comparing American quilts with Hmong story cloth, students are illustrating their stories with paper "story quilts": large sheets of paper divided into squares, a picture in each one to represent scenes from their stories.

The paper quilts are vibrant and different, though each child's version of Thailand includes tall mountains, lush trees and stick-figure people swimming across flowing, blue rivers. Most quilts include pictures of long bus rides, long plane rides and confusion upon arriving in America.

"They never really thought about their story," says Yang. "This shows them that they have a story, too. That they are important. It helps them realize that they have something special to share."

Stories to tell
The next day, Williams, an instructor with The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis, shows up with a boom box.

He gathers the students in an area of the room without any chairs or desks.

Williams is animated, with exaggerated facial expressions and body language. "What did you do before school today?" he asks.

Yang translates the question. Slowly the students speak up. "Brush my teeth," one boy calls out. "Wash my face!" another says. A girl at the back isn't sure of the English words, so she mimics brushing her hair.

"Good, good!" Williams says. "Now, I'm going to act out everything you just said without using any words."

He pushes 'play,' and spirited music fills the room. Williams pantomimes waking up, brushing his teeth and changing into his school clothes. The students laugh as they recognize each gesture.

When Williams is done, he leads the students through their own pantomime of the morning. It's a neutral topic that helps them become comfortable with exaggerated body movements.

"Now, your teacher shared with me some of your immigration stories, and there are a few I want to explore in a few different ways," Williams says. "Did anyone's family farm when you lived in Thailand?"

After Yang translates, a sea of heads nods excitedly.

"I want you to come to the middle of the circle and show me in a frozen position what it's like to farm in the fields," Williams says.

In groups of three, students take turns pretending to plow an imaginary field.

Williams then asks each group to pantomime waiting in long lines to get food or water, saying goodbye to loved ones, and riding a crowded bus long distances.

Using chairs lined up to resemble the inside of a bus, groups of students take turns acting out the journey from the refugee camp to Bangkok. "Were there babies crying? People singing? People arguing? People sleeping?" Williams asks. "Think of a sound you heard and make that sound when I say, 'Go.'"

The activities are fun, says 6th-grader Pang Yia, but they're sad, too.

"It made me think back to my life and remember everything that happened there," she says through an interpreter. "Life here is different; it makes me miss home."

In the following weeks, Williams will help students produce a play that weaves together the immigrant experiences of a diverse group of students.

"In the end, I hope they'll learn about each other," Williams says. "Everyone has a story to tell."