On Borrowed Land: A Refugee's True Story of Escaping a Homeland and Finding a Heartland

When he was only five years old, Bounthavy Soukthideth and his family fled their village of Banh Dong, Laos, in the darkness of night. His father E-Paw, a former Royal Lao Soldier, had been part of the Anti-Communist Rebels hiding in caves from the Red-Lao Dang communist forces. Boun shares their harrowing escape through dense jungle vegetation filled with grenade booby traps, across the rushing Paleeng River, and over the looming Hin Soung Mountain into Thailand, where they live on borrowed land with Thai friends. A heartfelt tribute to Boun's family and everyone who helped them along the way, this triumphant memoir chronicles their journey as they search for a place to call home.

A gifted storyteller, Boun recounts a magical time of carefree innocence when they live on the lush farmland of friendly Thai peasants by the Sirindhorn Reservoir-a place of paradise on the beach with tropical trees, a vegetable garden, and wandering livestock. But when the Thai government orders all illegal immigrants to vacate the land, they are forced to leave their peaceful haven. At seven years old, Boun enters the Ubon Refugee Camp with his family, where the tiny, thatched bamboo huts are surrounded by rusty barbed-wire fences and they survive on meager rations of sticky rice and small mackerel fish. Boun not only captures the piercing hunger but also the sense of childhood wonder and curiosity, as he and his younger brother long for adventure, make friends in the camp, and spend their afternoons chasing grasshoppers and shooting marbles.

After living in the camp for three years, Boun's family eventually receives sponsorship to America from the Jewish Family Service. They arrive in New Haven, Connecticut, where they finally experience the comforting feeling of being home . . . for good.