Spirit Catches You

In chapter eight, Foua and Nao Kao, the author finally talks about how she has gotten the opportunity to meet Hmong families because up until that point she had never been able to. She discusses how there are so many cultural differences between a Hmong and herself, she did not want to offend anyone by doing something wrong. Her encounter with Sukey Waller, a physiologist at Merced Community Outreach Services, greatly helped her to understand how the Hmong thought and what their beliefs were. Waller gave the author a tip to ask "Is it okay?" before she did anything with them. The author found May Ying Xiong, a clerk typist at the Merced County Office of Refugee Services, and brought her along to visit the Lees with her as a cultural broker. With May Xiong at her side, she was of less status, which is what she needed for the Lees to feel comfortable with her. Throughout the entire interview with the Lees, the author would ask Foua and Nao Kao a question, while May would translate it so that they could understand. Although there was a language barrier, after the author got to know the Lees better, they got more and more comfortable with her and helped to improve her manners in Hmong. While improving her manners, Foua also gave her a makeover so that she could get married because in Hmong culture she would have been two decades past the time she was supposed to. The author soon realized how good of parents they were to Lia and how they had her best interest at heart in their eyes.

The author did a great job of going about meeting the Lees, she learned the right way to go about it and how to act so that she did not disrespect them. Also, the fact that she brought May with her as a translator was a smart idea because how else would she get her questions across and be able to understand their answers. Without her she would have been left clueless and would have accomplished absolutely nothing from the meeting. I loved the fact that after they spent more and more time...