By Lynne Anderson

“Hello, how do you do?” the soft voice asks as the three-year-old extends her tiny hand.

The manners seem remarkable for so young a child but when one considers that the greeting comes from a Vietnamese child who has only been in the United States for two weeks, it’s almost unbelievable.

The child is the daughter of Mr. Nguyen Van Tang, a Vietnamese refugee, who, along with his wife, two other children, and five in-laws, arrived in Atlanta two weeks ago.

The Tang family is living at Saint Philip Benizi parish where parishioner Pat McMahon, along with Father John Kieran and resettlement coordinator Bui Van Tam, have been helping the family adjust to America.

There are many details to take care of in helping a new family adjust to its new home, says Mr. Tam. The children must be enrolled in school, jobs must be found for the adults, and housing must be located.

“Housing is one of the biggest problems,” says Father John, “but there are lots of other things to take care of as well.”

Saint Philip Benizi has sponsored four families since 1975, Father says, and “it’s all worked out well,” he says.

Father says that after a family has been in the U.S. a couple of weeks, he usually tries to sit down and work out a budget for them.

“I try to help them to understand that money doesn’t grow on trees,” he says.

In the past, Father says, workers usually haven’t had a difficult time finding some type of work. With inflation and unemployment, he says, the problem of finding a job is more difficult now.

Often, a skilled worker will have to take a job in an unskilled capacity, or a person with a university degree will have to take a job not using his degree, Father says. This is the case with Mr. Tang, who is a pharmacist, but who will have to return to school for five years to practice pharmacy in Georgia because of language differences, Father says.

Still, Mr. Tang is willing to take any job, he says, because he is eager to get to work. Also, Mr. Tang says, he would like to return to school.

Mr. Tang’s sisters-in-law are already enrolled in public school in Jonesboro, and they are learning English very quickly, says Pat McMahon.

Mr. Tang’s brother-in-law will also be looking for a job, Mrs. McMahon says.

In the meantime, the family is busy adjusting to American life. Mr. Tang says he would like a job close to his apartment because gasoline prices are so high – the car Father John was able to get for him doesn’t get great mileage.

The Tang family tried unsuccessfully three times to flee from Viet Name before they managed to make it to a refugee camp in Singapore. Never having any experience in a boat before, Mr. Tang finally was able to get his family out safely in 1978. They had been in a refugee camp since then before arriving in America the first of March.

Although Mr. Tang says he wasn’t tired after the long flights from Singapore to Hong Kong to Tokyo to Seattle to Chicago to Atlanta, his wife admits she was “exhausted.” Of course, Mrs. Tang was also taking care of her month-old infant in addition to the other children as well.

Mrs. Tang says that when she saw the people who came to greet them at the airport, though, her exhaustion turned to happiness.

Mr. Tam says that his staff usually welcomes one family a day at Hartsfield International Airport, at all and any hours of the night and day.

It’s well worth it, Mr. Tam says, to help resettle the homeless people from Southeast Asia.