Memories of PFAC Palawan Part 1

 

GEMMA LEDESMA and DWIGHT RUSSEL

Shared some of their memories in PFAC Palawan. Please send me a PM if you want to share yours. Every week, I will be sharing 2 memories written by members of the VOLAGS in the past, starting March 24, 2025.

 

Teachers Gemma, Tina, Andrew, and Violy

 

Dwight with the VRC Receptionists

OOO

 

WHAT HAS BECOME OF THIS BOAT?

This Vietnamese Refugees boat carried around twenty-seven refugees and sailed across the China Sea from South Vietnam. It landed on Palawan Island sometime during the late 1982 and early 1983. The boat may have been brought close to the camp by the French ship Le Goelo.  It may have been too big to pick up and place on the ship, but it reached the refugee camp anyway.

DWIGHT RUSSEL says,
"We moved it by rolling it on pipe into the camp and I think it was placed next to the IOM Office almost across from  the UNHCR building and not very far into the camp and on the left-hand side as you enter the camp from the VRC Main Gate."

"It was a lot of work to move it. We were glad though that Eleanor Stewart, Dr. Erick Abbot, and some energetic Vietnamese refugee volunteers were there to lend their helping hands." 

 

The boat stayed near IOM Office until 1985.The following year, it was moved somewhere. Or was it damaged? Was it used for the filming of the French television film "CHINA SEA?

Where is this boat now? What has become of it?  Could this be the boat that was brought to Washington DC in 1985 to commemorate the struggles and sufferings of the Vietnamese refugees?If you have any information about what actually happened to this boat or where it is now, please drop us a line.

(Thank you very much Mr. Dwight Russel for sharing these photos with us.?)
  

PFAC Volunteers Reminisce Part 1

Former PFAC Palawan International Volunteers Reminisce their Time in the Refugee Camp.

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"It's more worthwhile to work in a refugee camp.  These people are displaced.  They lost their families, their homes... I know they need my help badly and only a person with a good heart will be able to serve the less fortunate without having second thoughts or mental reservation".

MARISSA LADICA

Former HTC-PFAC 

English Teacher

 

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I'm so blessed to be a part of these beautiful people in their journey in life.  I'm so thankful to HTC-PFAC for playing an enormous part in molding the person that I am today.  I’m eternally grateful to my Vietnamese students and beloved interpreters, who opened my eyes and taught me to see the true essence of life. They’ve been through a lot of struggles in their journey to freedom, but have always remained positive and have lived their lives in an honorable way and have always been grateful to the country that gave them a second chance.   

Last but not least, I am so grateful to you Andy for inspiring me to be a good language teacher.  The Vietnamese refugees’ stories will always be my inspiration in my journey to where I am teaching now and to where I am going to be in the future. However, and I say it from the bottom of my heart, if I could bring back those times, I’d rather serve the refugees... the less fortunate.

 

GEMMA LEDESMA

Former HTC-PFAC English Teacher 

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As a camp engineer, I designed the water system of the refugee camp, the VRC or PFAC, way back in the very early eighties. Those times were memorable to me. During my free time, and when I could, I would take some refugees to town and we would eat together at our favorite restaurant called "Golden Horse". 

DWIGHT RUSSEL

Former VRC Civil Engineer, PFAC Palawan