Universal truth: Working in a refugee camp showed me that people are the same the world over

Grandma and her two grandkids on the bank of the river at Innisfail, Queensland.

The mountain Hmong people lived mostly in western Laos and had an animist philosophy, believing in mysterious spirits in animals and nature.

They helped the Americans in the Vietnam War, and when that conflict ended and the communists took over, they were forced to flee Laos and cross the Mekong River into Thailand.