LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM
Chapter 2: Before The War
By: Kate Munson

A FARMING PEOPLE

• Lived in huts with no running water and cooked on a fire outside
• Their homes were crowded with every family member
• Planted corn and rice and owned pigs, horses, and water buffalo
• Some raises fish in lakes, others also flooded their rice fields when grown

CLEARING LAND

• In January men and boys cut down trees and then burned them
• A lot of the forest disappeared when the trees were chopped down

PLANTING RICE

• The women and children poked holes in the soil to weed the land
• Rice was dropped in each hole and later rice plants grew
• Each field was weeded twice in the summer, in fall women cut the stalks down
• They broke of the rice put in baskets and then tosed in air to get dirt off
• When they beat the rice it removed the husks

FARMING ON A MOUNTAINSIDE

• The land was getting used up so they planted on mountainsides
• Made flat area and built short walls to keep soil from sliding
• Walked hours to get to fields, carried plants and harvested crops
• Wove baskets to carry suplies

EVERYONE MUST WORK

• Life wasn't east for them even before the war
• They all worked from early mornings to late at night
• All work done by men and women were by hand
• Water buffalo were used to plow crops

LITTLE TIME FOR SCHOOL

• Few children went to school, had to work in fields, cook, or take care of family
• Some fathers sent a son to school for a cupple of years
• School was often in another village, could take hours to get there
• Stayed at school during week and came home on weekends to help family

THE FRUITS OF WAR

• Lived their life like this forever in Vietnam
• Life changed from simple to complicated
• Joined the U.S. or communists, some stayed out
• Others traveled to the jungel and left everyhting behind

QUESTIONS

• How long was life difficult for the Hmong?
• Life was difficult for them from when the war came to when they had free lives
• How many people were able to get to the U.S.?
• More than 100,000 Hmong entered the U.S.
• Credits: Long Road To Freedom Book