Joe Fark

I love the internet. Sometimes I hate it too, but I love that the internet allows us to connect with people that otherwise we might never have had contact with again. My old office-mate from grad school found me on facebook this week, and now I'm waxing sentimental about people I'd really like to find again but probably never will be able to.

One of those people for me is Loan (pronounced Low-Awn) Nguyen. Many of you have heard me talk about my brief (not brief enough!) work experience with the beef jerky industry in Detroit. Loan and I started work the same day. The jerky baron didn't want his employees forming any relationships (because then they might revolt), so he insisted that all lunch times be staggered. Now, you can't really force people to eat lunch at 10 a.m., so some people got to eat together, and Loan and I got that privilege. There was just one problem: Loan didn't really speak English. Not much anyway.

So each day we would sit in the little tiny lunchroom for an hour and have a conversation in broken English. I learned that her daughter's name was Mimi (short for Miriam) and I knew each day that I could ask how Mimi was, and that would start a conversation that was comfortable for Loan.

In the middle of October, I asked what Mimi would be for Halloween.
"Joe Fark," replied Loan.
"That's nice. What will her costume look like?" (I had no idea who Joe Fark was, but I was trying to play it cool, you see....)
Loan demonstrated pulling a sword from a belt, and I thought, ok, Joe Fark carries a sword.
She showed me something that looked like armor, and I still had no clue......

Let me break in here and give a little background on Loan that I later learned. She was born in Vietnam, and her father was somehow working for or with the American government. She and her sister were sent to France during the Vietnam war. So she grew up in France. She was educated, and she was a teacher before she came to the states. Her husband had grown up in the middle east, and had spent some time in prison for being a Christian and had sustained serious injuries. I never knew how they came to the states. But they got to Detroit, and he worked as an electrician, and she as a bookkeeper. And they were learning English from Mimi, their only child.

So you probably can guess now what Mimi was for halloween. She was Joan of Arc. And it only took me about a week of asking questions until I put it together (so cool, you see...). My lunches with Loan were by far the best part of that job. I'd love to see her again.

Anyway, forgive my sentimental ramblings. Loan, wherever you are, I hope you are doing well.