At the end of 1989 we were all fired and given the option:
“Either you go back to Vietnam
“and receive 3000 marks compensation,
“and we’ll organize the flight, or you can remain here
“because the contract is not finished, but you’ll have to find a place to stay yourselves.”
Then I went back to Rostock to my German girlfriend.
I didn’t know how I was going to live.
I didn’t even know that you could get unemployment benefits.
I had around 3000 marks in savings.
I used it to buy a car, a big tank of a thing.
It was an Audi 100. Very old.
Then I would go to Berlin, Kreuzberg and to Hamburg
to get goods and deliver them to the Vietnamese traders
who sold things on the street: cassettes,
giftware, tea sets, video cassettes,
all of the things that were sold on the street soon after reunification.
I managed to earn pretty good money that way.