Giving Thanks From a Cambodian Refugee

I’m going to tell you the story of a social media master who laughed at me when I told him I was sitting with the foursquare mayor of his restaurant.

This guy probably has never been on Facebook, Twitter or Youtube. But all of us social media “experts” would do well to study his technique.

As we are sitting at the sushi bar of Golden Dragon Restaurant in Cuyahoga Falls Ohio, Frank S., the foursquare mayor says to me: “Ask Hon to show you his cobra snake bite.”

“You did not get bit by a cobra,” I say in disbelief.

“I sure did,” Hon says showing me a white welt between his thumb and forefinger There’s a nasty scar like he was in a knife fight. “When I was 10 in the Cambodian jungle.”

“Did you go to the doctor,” I naively ask him.

He laughs at me again. “What’s a doctor? Mud and piss is how I treated it.”

Political commentary of the GOP debates is playing on the TV above the bar.

“Are you a Republican,” I ask.

“I don’t like either Democrats or Republicans. In wrestling, Hulk Hogan and Rody Piper both come out yelling and screaming at each other. After the match they sit together in the back laughing and counting all their money. That’s what Democrats and Republicans do.”

“Where I come from we want the government as far away from us as possible. In Cambodia the closer the government gets to you the more likely it is you are going to get killed.”

He then patiently recounts his story of walking through the landmine filled jungles of Cambodia to escape the Khmer Rouge. He walked the distance of Chicago to Akron making his way to a Thailand refugee camp.

He did this at the age of 10 years old with his two brothers and mother.

“Your dad didn’t go,” I ask.

“He got blown up by a landmine.”

I say I’m sorry. He easily makes a joke about wanting reparations.

He had relatives that had moved to Canada and Australia. So his mother tried to apply to move there. They weren’t accepting refugees at the time. They then ran out of time. The camp ran out of money and his family was sent back to Cambodia… the same Chicago to Akron trip through the landmine-infested jungle only eating what they could find along the way.

They didn’t give up. They eventually once again made the trip back to Thailand.

This time they had a sponsor… a church in Akron Ohio.

That was enough to get them over here. America was sensitive to the cause and had room.

Hon, Ming, Chai and his mother moved to Akron. The kids went to North High School. Their mom had a skill. She was a seamstress. Otherwise they probably would have gone to the Philippines.

The mayor asks, “How did you afford this restaurant?”

Hon says “entitlements.”

We’re quiet for a minute. Hon then laughs and says, “No, man. The owner before us had enough of running a business. We just took it over from him.”

I’m sitting there on the edge of my seat. My mouth is gaping open.

Hon says, “Do you know the movie “The Killing Fields”? That was my life. Do you remember the blue tent at the end of the movie? That was the Thai refugee camp I spent two years in. They had ice cream and free food. It was heaven. In Cambodia I lived in a cave. I drank the same water the cows pissed in.”

He says, “Today my daughter tells me she wants a flu shot. I tell her I see her washing her hands all the time. What does she need a flu shot for. The west is the only place in the world where people have food allergies. It’s because we all have so much.”

“In Cambodia we were allowed to own 2 things: a neckerchief and a spoon. 1 spoon. Everything else was owned by the government. If you took a piece of fruit off a tree you were stealing from the government.”

I am sucked in. I can’t believe the story I’m hearing.

And you know what, when I’m in Akron there is no other sushi for me than the Golden Dragon Restaurant in Cuyahoga Falls Ohio.

It’s great sushi. That’s no doubt. But now it’s more than sushi for me. It’s a family living the American dream to its fullest. It is a place of love, happiness, hope and dreams that have come true. It has magic.

Good social media has magic. But there’s no trick to it. It tells a story. It pulls its viewers in. It has a soul. It’s honest and open. That’s the secret to social media.

This post was written by

Sage Lewis – who has written 333 posts on SageRock Digital Marketing Blog.
My name is Sage Frederick Lewis. My kid's name is Indiana Sage Lewis. I am filled with love and passion for many things in life. The list of things I like about life is MUCH longer than the things I don't like about life. So, since you don't have all day reading about the mundane things I love (some of which, btw, include: Rocky, Indy, SageRock, movies, pizza, cheesecake, running, exploring.) here are the things I don't like: Driving Meetings Zucchini (I like it fine. I'm just allergic.) I think that's pretty much it. My Twitter account is: http://twitter.com/sagerock My YouTube Channel is: http://www.youtube.com/sagerock