Spirits

Do you believe in spirits? Have you ever felt the presence of a spirit or have come in contact with one? I have and I do believe in spirits. A spirit is a force. Spirits can be good, dangerous, and powerful.

In the Hmong culture, many believe in Shamanism. A shaman is a person who has the abilities to see spirits on the other side and can come in contact with them. A shaman has the power to heal other people’s soul from coming in contact with a bad spirit. Shamanism has a belief that our world is a spirit world too. Shamanists believe that there are three worlds: the lower world, the middle world, and the upper world.

Seven years ago, I had been in contact with a spirit. One late night, my two cousins, two brothers, and I were up late watching movies and playing games downstairs. As we all were getting tired, we decided to go upstairs to sleep.

About half an hour later, my cousins tried waking me up telling me they could hear the sound of a baby crying. At first, I ignored them. But soon enough, one of my cousins started to cry. The thought of my cousin crying was out of the ordinary and by then I was fully alarmed. Suddenly, I could hear the cry of a baby.

For that second, I thought to myself that there weren’t any young children at my house. I then suddenly felt fear. The cries of the baby gradually grew louder and closer. It felt as if the baby was crawling up each step of the stairs. I then decided to get up to open the door and turn on the lights. As I opened the door, nothing appeared to be there.

My cousins and I then decided to huddle and stay up. While staying up, I could not bear to keep my eyes open throughout the night. Within a few minutes I knew I was sound asleep.

Through my sleep, I felt paralyzed and felt I was trapped in a dark, cloudy place. I could feel the energy around me, and by then I knew a spirit was lying on top of me. I struggled moving because I could not make a movement and I tried screaming with all my might, but that was no help because no one could hear me. All of a sudden, I woke up from the dream gasping and terrified. I told my cousins about “maj chua” or in other words, “getting squashed by a spirit.”

After the contact with this spirit, it was an awful experience. Not did this just happen to me, but it also happened to my cousin that cried that night; he experienced getting “maj chua” the next night. With that experience, I believe there are spirits out wandering the world. Some are good, some are dangerous, and some are powerful.

Its is time to get ready for ice fishing. I hope to get out there when the ice is thick enough. This will be my very first time going out there. I hope that i can find a hot spot. I always like fishing. But mainly I fish for are bass (large mouth, small mouth) during the spring, fall, and summer times. So fishing from that time to winter time is going to be fun... So i think that going ice fishing will be a challenge to me. I think that it is all about patience. The water is too cold for fish to be active. To they are slow.

Work.. Yesterday it seems like a long day at work. I had to go in to do the work order and put things away. That is the day of our shipment of thing such as cigarettes, candy, ice cream, and other stuff. it took two to three hours to get all the thing put away. Then i had to stay from another three hours for the next guy to come in. It seems like it was a hole day there. Got home about seven. Then I had to cook. It took me about an hour to make dinner.

Sunday morning. it was about time for the football game to start, but i had to my some calls to place my bets so i can win some money. afternoon came by. the teams i pick play... they were down, worry about losing now. then they came back and won the game... second team was the same... won too... third team plays late so have time to get homework done.. the games starts. they were leading the other team by two touch downs. so the team won... i made three hundred dollars.....

thanks giving... had to work on thanks giving day.. it sucks. had thanks giving with family on Friday... i went to toys r us on Thursday night at 11 to be in a long line that went around the corner. sat there till 12, when it open people just rush every where to get what they wanted... as i got in just grab any thing that looked good. got in line to pay and left.. i heard the line was pretty long...

no!!!!!!!

hunting season!!! its sucks that i couldn't go out with my dad... i had to work.. plus school.. maybe next year... oh.. yeah thanks giving is tomorrow... gotta get things prepare.... got to cook a turkey and duck and other foods.... its just going to be like a buffet.

its time to go hunting this weekend... my dad goes every year... he always get one or two.... i might go hunting with him... just so we can spent time together. its always fun to spent time with the old one. hopefully i get out there with him. weather!!!!! hope it is nice but not that cold in the morning... it sucks to sit in the tree when it is 10 to 30 degrees...... damm... that is cold... yeah, just got to see if i can get a buck this weekend.... just to show it off to the cousin that hunts.

what!!!!! my son just turn 3 on 16th of November.... he was excited. we celebrated his birthday at home with friends and family. we had bought a full sheet of cake just for him to dig into.... my wife made his b-day theme Diego. i guess he was happy about that... as friends and family members came over, we had made some food such as BBQ ribs, Pho'(noddles soup), and papaya salad. as the day went by, it was tiem for the present to be open. me and the wife had go him a train set that hed always want.... friends and family got him toys and clothes...... it was a good day for us and him....

Halloween!!!!! it is time to get my son ready to go out and trick or treat.. he was dress up as a skeleton. we both went out at 6 and got back at 7 to 8. he was getting tried of walking so he decided to come back home. at least he got half of his bag of candy. as we got back he just wanted to eat every thing at once that night.. don't want him to get cavity or a stomach ache.

OH NO!!!!!!!

Last Monday, something happened to me as I was driving to my in-laws house. I live about a mile from them. Half way to my in-laws house, I was driving and pass a lady walking her dog on the other side of the road. Out of nowhere a dog shots out from my right side and saw it in front of my car. Then it happens. I ran it over. As that moment I felt bad and sad about it. As I ran it over, I stop right away. Two ladies came towards me and I came out of my car just saying sorry, sorry, and sorry about your dog…. The owner said “It’s not your fault.” Her dog was not on a leash. So, the owner went to her garage and grabs a towel and pick up her dog on the road. As I left, all I kept on saying was sorry about it.

Hmong New Year

Upcoming event that one might go is the Hmong New Year. The New Year happens once a year and held in October 10^th and 11^th at Veterans Memorial Park, West Salem, WI. It’s the time of the year for everyone to gather up and dress up in traditional clothing. There are many tent shops that you can buy Hmong traditional clothing, movies, herbal medicine, toys, and other that things you can buy. After all the shopping, you can stop at the food tents to eat. The most popular food that they have is pork or Hmong sausage or chicken with sticky rice. Other foods that can be found are eggrolls, Phở (fuh), papaya salad, nava, fried rice, and other good food. At the New Year you can watch them traditional dancing, singing, or watch they play traditional musical instruments. Another thing that you could do is participate in traditional ball tossing. It’s a game where young men and women forms two lines and toss a cloth ball back and forth, and sing to each other. By this game, getting to know each other could lead into a relationship and eventually get married.The last things you can do are watch or participate in the sports such as soccer, volleyball, kato, and tuj lub (top spin). Kato is game sort of like volleyball, but you would use your feet, head, knees, and chest to hit a ball made of bamboo. Tuj Lub (top spin) a traditional game play by a handmade top spin made out of wood and a stick with a long string that is use to wrap around the top spin and thrown at a target. Just at this event there are many things that you could do.

ME!!!!

Here is some information about myself. My name is Phong Thao; I’m 5ft and 1in tall. My nationality is Hmong. I was born and rise in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. I have 4 brothers and 3 sisters. I’m a husband and a father. I have a son that is 2 years old who keeps me on my toes. His name is Vincent. One sport that I most enjoy is fishing, because it‘s my time to be care free, stress free, and just to relax when I’m out there.