Penelope Khounta

Love Began in Laos Penelope Khounta

Everyone has a story to tell. This tale is mine. I went from a sheltered childhood, growing up in middle-class America in the 1940s and 1950s, to traveling to Thailand and Laos, then falling in love with Laos and marrying a Lao man.

With no one to answer my questions or sources to guide me, I jumped in. No American woman had ever married a Lao from a broken family educated in France. I didn't know what to expect or what to do. Living in Laos, language barriers, and cultural and generational differences compounded my Lao social and family circumstances.

I lived in a jungle of ignorance, misunderstanding, and confusion to the end. I am surprised I survived.

Mutual love, respect, and commitment were the invisible epoxy that cemented us together through the hardships we endured, leading to an extraordinary life.