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GREENSBORO - In this converted classroom, where rows of church pews are pushed beside the wall, H Dang Aran writes everything down in a pink notebook.

Sometimes, she scrunches her face. Other times, she repeats the words she hears to help make them stick. But mostly, she looks over her glasses and listens.

It's hard for her. She's 65, a mother of 13, and she didn't go any further than the second grade. But three mornings a week, she goes to the United Montagnard Christian Church to learn about America.

Afterward, she goes home and studies all the time for her citizenship test - in the kitchen, in the bedroom, in the living room, even while holding her 3-month-old grandson, her 21st grandchild.

She wants to become an American citizen. Like other elderly Montagnards, she wants to feel that sense of being free.

It's easy to understand why.

The Montagnards come from the remote Central Highlands in Vietnam. They have been cheated, persecuted, even killed because of their land, their Christianity and their conviction to help us during the Vietnam War.

So, they come here - to Greensboro, where at least 7,000 Montagnards now live. They believe in what the Rev. Y Hin Nie calls "the Land of Peace, the Land of Freedom."

But think about the obstacles, particularly for elderly Montagnards like Aran. She grew up in a simple culture - no running water, no electricity - and she's growing old in a complicated culture.

Then, think of what's at stake. If she can pass this one test, she can vote, pluck family members in Vietnam quicker and continue to receive monthly payments from Social Security. She has only three more years to become an American citizen; otherwise she'll lose that income, about $200 a month.

It's tough. Just watch one classroom session at the United Montagnard Christian Church and listen to teacher Eugene Washington drill his students.

Then, watch their faces. They're worried, befuddled, even scared. They don't know what the interviewer in Charlotte will ask. And so much rides on this one test.

Plus, it's expensive. It costs $675. It's expected to go up to $1,000. And these expenses hit elderly residents who can't find a job because they're too old, too frail and too uneducated to all things American.

Yet, they say they're undaunted. They know sacrifice and struggle.

Like Y Tung B'ya. He's 74, a father of eight. He worked as an interpreter for the Americans, including the U.S. Special Forces, from 1962 to 1975.

But for his work with our country, he spent eight years in a Hanoi prison, living in clothes as thin as paper and eating twice a day two small bowls of corn and rice.

B'ya came here in 2001 and left four of his children behind in Vietnam. In January, he lost his Social Security - $623 every month. He gets food stamps; his wife works as a waitress. Her take-home pay: about $400 a month.

He and his family of six live off Summit, in a rented two-bedroom apartment with a trio of mattresses in the den. That's where B'ya and his 56-year-old wife, Hnang Nie, sleep.

B'ya missed his first appointment in Charlotte to take the test. He was too sick. He's battling bone cancer. He hopes to take the test again soon. So, he comes as often as he can to Washington's class.

"It's very good, but my memory is very old," he says. "I get mixed up."

So does Rok Ka. She's 78, and she's been studying for years. She came here in December 1994. She's taken the test twice and failed.

"No school since I was small," she says.

Elderly Montagnards get help. There's the English and citizenship classes as well as a nurse on call at the United Montagnard Christian Church.

And there's this dream - the dream of the Rev. Nie of the United Montagnard Christian Church - of finding land to build a 27,250-square-foot assisted living center so elderly Montagnards without any family don't end up lost.

This month, the city of Greensboro helped Nie find a potential spot: a 11.5-acre tract in southeast Greensboro. But Nie needs at least $4 million to pull off his plan. And he has nothing.

Still, he dreams. And so does H Dang Aran.

Next month, she'll go to Charlotte to take her test. Ask her why she wants to become an American, and she smiles broadly.

Just flip through her pink notebook and find page 5.

Right below an explanation about the symbolism behind the colors of the American flag, you see the four words she wrote in Washington's class in her ever-so-precise script.

"I want to vote."

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com