Sing refugee camp on the coast of Thailand. Among the thousands of refugees who were waiting for sponsorship to go to another country, the Ungs waited four months in Lam Sing before they found out that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Holy Family Church in Essex Junction, Vermont, would be their sponsors. In the middle of June 1980, Loung, Meng, and Eang boarded a plane at Bangkok International Airport and headed for their new home. Life in America: 1980–2011 Education in the United States Their sponsors brought the Ungs by car from Burlington International Airport to Essex Junction, Vermont, and ushered them into a small one-bedroom apartment above a dentist's office at 48 Main Street. The dining room doubled as Loung's bedroom. Church members continued to help the Ungs adjust and provided tutoring in the English language. In a few months, Meng, whose grasp of English was good, obtained employment as an interpreter for newly arrived refugees in Vermont, and Eang found work at a local manufacturing company. In September, Loung, age ten, began her formal education in the United States in the third grade. The early years of her education were difficult for Loung because of the language barrier, and she continued to be tutored during those years. In the late stage of Eang's pregnancy, Meng abandoned his studies at a nearby college and began working at two jobs; on December 21, Meng and Eang's daughter Maria was born. In 1983, Loung entered the ADL Intermediate School, and continued with English language learning and teaching (ESL) sessions. Meng and Eang both found employment with IBM on the evening shift, and Loung, now thirteen years old, cared for Maria after school until they returned home late at night. Meng sent money and packages, via the Asian community in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to his family in Cambodia as often as he could throughout the 1980s; some packages either did not arrive or arrived with some of the contents missing. In 1985, Eang gave birth to her second daughter, Victoria, and Loung entered Essex Junction High School as a freshman. A few months later, Meng and Eang were sworn in as naturalized citizens of the United States. In early 1986, the Ungs moved, with the help of their sponsors, into their own modest two-story home in a nearby neighbourhood, and Loung, now nearly sixteen years old, delighted in having