My oldest sister Tam, on the far right, is dressed as a peasant man back in Vietnam tending the rice fields. She along, with other girls around the Detroit area dance in many of the cultural show and dances that were generally sponsored by the Vietnamese Catholic Church or Budhist Temple. It was the communty's way to maintain Vietnamese culture among the children and deal with the accultration into American Society. For our parents, the flags in the back symbolize, the Vietnamese people living in America. For our family, our social life centered around the Vietnamese Catholic Church.

Very soon after we arrived in America, we began attending Vietnamese mass every sunday. Not only did we go to mass but we had to attend catechism and Vietnamese language classes. After mass, there would generally be a community gathering. Many times it composed of selling Pho, a beef noodle soup, to the congregation to raise money. Other times, it would be egg rolls or some other Vietnamese dish. Thus our entire Sunday was spent at Church.

The Church was the only place for me to see other people of my own culture, and in many ways maintain it within me. What Vietnamese language I know came in part from the classes. All of my childhood friends were alter boys with me. As I grew older, I too, participated in cultural dances like the ones above and stopped being an alter boy because I was much taller than the priest, so I joined the choir.