Narrator: Su Co

Content Warning: Violence

Summary:

Topics: Cultural Adjustment, Education, Employment/Service, Family, Food, Historical Context, Identity, Language, Politics, Religion, Violence, War

Outline

Section 1: (00:00-8:56)

• Cultural Adjustment: Su Co describes living in a ramshackle mountain residence in Creston, Colorado

• Violence/War: When asked about dangerous wildlife, Su Co instead discusses harrowing encounters with U.S helicopters and compares the dangers of war to the dangers of wildlife.

Section 2: (8:57-21:49)

• Education: Su Co describes her education in psychology at West Chester, and explains her path to social work

• Service/Family/Violence: Su Co describes two women suffering from domestic abuse who came to the temple for help, and how  she tried to assist them

Section 3: (21:50-37:12)

• Politics: Su Co describes effects of the Amerasian Homecoming Act, which gave preferential immigration status to children born in Vietnam who had American fathers. According to Su Co, one consequence of this was that rich families in Vietnam would buy these children from poorer families, allowing themselves to more easily immigrate to the United States.

• Service: Su Co recounts serving one such women who had been bought by a rich family and had immigrated at a young age, but was essentially abandoned by them at the age of 18.

• Religion: According to Su Co’s Buddhist faith, showing compassion, kindness, etc. isn’t anything extraordinary; it is simply natural and expected to do these things, a duty refined and engrained through constant mediation, chanting, and prayer.

Section 4: (37:13-)

• Cultural Adjustment: Su Co offers her perspective on how, as a nun, she can still help the people who come to her afflicted by worldly problems

• Religion: Su Co says that she prays for everyone in the world every day, telling Matt “every day I take a pinch of salt and put in the ocean”

Section 5: (43:23-

• Education: Su Co describes her application to Harvard Divinity School, and her time working and studying there

• Employment/Service: Su Co recounts living and working at a homeless shelter and her interactions with the residents.

• Religion: Su Co then describes living with Catholic nuns while still studying at Harvard Divinity School, including a strong bond with her Catholic roommate. Su Co also recounts how back in South Vietnam there used to be conflict between Catholics and Buddhists and her mom had burned their Buddhist books to avoid oppression from the catholics.