MEMORIES of PFAC Palawan Part 2

 

ELEANOR G. STEWART and BENNY G. ONG

Shared some of their memories of 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.

 

OOOOO

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 Palawan Volunteers Reminisce Part 3

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

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When I started teaching in the VRC (PFAC) we didn't have classrooms and it was my very first job as a teacher.

The students had to sit on rocks as they learned listening, speaking, reading and writing. We had to use portable blackboards, ones that we then put against the tree trunk in front of the students. The students had to move around with their rocks to follow the shade as the sun moved. I found that situation unique and I'm indeed grateful to God that at my very young age He allowed me to experience something that was truly remarkable and that I believe very few human beings will ever experience in their lifetime.

ANDREW TAYLOR
PFAC Palawan English Teacher
and HTC-PFAC Academic Supervisor
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Some PFAC VOLUNTEERS' REACTIONS to PFAC Palawan as the best Refugee Camp in the World
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There was an elected Vietnamese Committee that served four months at a time. They were usually older men. They did things such as seeing the garbage was picked up every day. When I needed to work on a camp wide health problem in 1982 (scabies), I did some teaching in classes with a translator and then worked through the Committee to organize a zone-by-zone procedure to get it done successfully. So much more effective than having non-Vietnamese people enforce behavior. This helped to keep the camp peaceful and cooperative. Other refugee camps in other countries had riots. Also, people could go to language and vocational classes, assist the foreign volunteers, make small loaves of French bread in the bakery, They could also go outside the camp--either into Puerto Princesa, to the Filipino cantinas across the road or to the beach. They had a curfew at 10:00 p.m. I know all these things because I lived inside the camp, although UNHCR provided a large house for its volunteers.

ELEANOR STEWART

Former VRC Palawan Education Coordinator

Author of the book "Not Only a Refugee" 

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WESCOM administrators were strict but also flexible and approachable. I was medical coordinator from 1988 to 1989. The Vietnamese committee representatives were very active in enforcing camp sanitation procedures. We worked well together and I am forever grateful to them.

Dr. Vic Salas

PFAC Palawan Medical Coordinator

1988 - 1989

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My dear Quan,

Writing in this book brings back memories when I was young like you. Asking some special friends to drop some lines in my autograph book, hoping against hope that friendship once shared will last till the end of time.  Well, as your teacher, I've not advised you anything but I hope this piece will help you something to live by.

You must have a hope to inspire you, a path to pursue, an object to work for, a plan and a purpose to view.  You must have a sense of direction, or lost, you'll go drifting along.  You must have faith to hold you when life holds us light and strong.  You must have stake in the future though swiftly the years depart.  You'll always have something to live for if you have a dream in your Heart. 

The best of luck in every endeavor that you'll undertake.  God bless and always be good.

Love,

Teacher Mona

RAMONA SAN LUIS

Former Assistant School Coordinator

and Teacher Assistant Teacher Trainer

HTC-PFAC School