Sabaydii,

 

Here is the continuation of a series ‘Coming home’ entitled ‘Lycee de Vientiane[1]’

 

Hakphaang,

 

 

I went to the Lycee in 1971

It was the same school

My dad used to go

Over 30 years before

Then it was called College de Pavie[2]

 

Being from the small public school

Kind of in the countryside – Thadeua[3]

Intimidated I was

With the city folks

Looking smart in everything

 

At that time

I was fourteen

Kind a year older

Than most of my classmates

 

Still I figured out

With eight years of Lycee

If I passed every school year

I would graduate when I was twenty-two

 

And then adding eight more years

Studying in France

Following the footsteps of my dad

I would receive a ph. D at the age of thirty

The right age to work and settle down

 

Wishfully

If all went as planned

I wanted to be in charge of the education

Or foreign affairs

Being that

The former was what my heart resided

And the latter because of a place in history

 

Hardly did I realize

It was just a pure dream

But still it was a dream

Pushing me forward

 

Who knows

With my strong urge for knowledge

Persistent quest for truth

And passionate love of the country

My dream would become true

Some way somehow

 

Then out of nowhere

The old regime began to crumble

Not a few of my classmates

Left the country for good

 

In their place

Came the new guards

A pride of the new regime

 

This new breed

Some recruited from the old regime itself

Was more than people in the right mind

Could swallow

 

On what counts

Did they think of themselves

As a superior breed

Dictating fellow students’ lives?

 

All their acts dedicated to the revolution

As they seemed

Not thinking of their own benefit as they appeared

Were but subtle ploys robbing decent fellow students

Of their rightful place

 

No wonder

When it was time to pick

Candidates to study abroad

Where the future of the country resides

Their do-gooders had booked all the vacant slots

Leaving nothing but stung positions

To their hard study fellows

 

Not sure myself

What kind of society

The new regime helped create?

 

If it is a society full of pretenses

Why wasted the precious Lao blood

Fighting for so long?

 

Why depleted all the country resources

Chasing the Lao youth and educated away?

 

And why dragged this school standard of excellence

To a pitiful status of mediocrity?

 

Lycee de Vientiane

My dream my hope

If I have one thing to ask

It will be

Why me?

Why my generation?

 

Sad indeed

To the many disappointed parents

Whose only hope rested on their children

Studying hard days and nights

 

Painfully indeed

To see our potential thwart

At the early age

 

And chilled to our hearts indeed

To witness the perpetual cycle of defeat

Depravity and hopelessness

Befalling to our beloved country

And we could do nothing

 

Lycee

If there is one thing bestowing on us

More precious than anything else

It isn’t the superior complex embedded in us

It isn’t the intellectual height we could command

Or it isn’t even the place great as it may be

But it is the role we Lycean have to play in society

Given what we got

Irrespectively of our status in society or whereabouts

 

With this gem

Fellow Lycean

Either with a blue or a green tag on our shirt and blouse

Let’s join our hands

Heralding our school

And our country to a place

We’re all capable of

 

 

9.15.03