We
lived in the prison camp for five months.
During those five months, we witnessed and
experienced inhumane events. A few hundred
prisoners came and never left. A few tried to
escape but were gunned down and left to rot in
an open field. Even in the midst of these
trials, we still hoped; hoped for supernatural
events to take place. The supernatural events
did happen but they took place in natural ways.
One early evening in late May 1978, a monsoon
rain just passed by and left a tremendous amount
of water in the fields. A group of prison
guards walked lazily toward our building.
"Mardi. Sina. Lundi. Come with me," our guard
called. "We're going to the next village to
find stranded buffaloes," he continued. My two
brothers and I knew that was not true because
when we counted them two hours earlier; for all
112 of them were accounted. My mother knew what
was going on; she tried to put my sister Theary
and youngest brother Dar to sleep. A guard
unchained us and we followed him away from the
camp.
The clear quiet night was incredibly beautiful;
the heavens declared the glory of God. Against
the pitch dark canvas of infinite space,
thousands of stars radiated their diamond
quality. The waning moon reflected its golden
rays off the water-covered fields. The scene
was one of peace, tranquility, and contentment.
In
the midst of the splendor, I forgot about my
situation until Sina whispered to me, "Did you
see, there were a lot of guards with ropes, guns
and shovels outside the building?"
"No," I answered. He looked at me and his face
was saddened. I understood his thought. Tears
rolled down our eyes but we did not cry.
Thoughts raced through my mind. Anguish heavied
my soul but I was relieved that at least three
of us would survive this insane act of genocide
by Onka.
We
stayed at a nearby village for the night. There
we told Lundi what was happening back at the
prison. We tried to comfort him. In our
silence, we prayed that Theary and Dar did not
wake up while they took my mother away. We felt
(feel) guilty that our mother died and we
lived. But it was her wish that she should die
so that we might live.
The next morning, we hurried back to the camp
with the hope to see at least Theary and Dar.
The prison was unusually empty. Most of the
prisoners were killed the night before; my
mother was included. With relief, we sighted my
sister and brother. They were crying while they
were searching hopelessly for their mother.
Sina and I picked them up and told them that
everything would be alright. A prisoner told me
that they had been crying on-and-off since the
middle of the night because they could not find
their mother when they awoke. That same
morning, a guard told us to go back to our
village.
In
January 1979, the Vietnamese overthrew the Khmer
Rouge regime and established a puppet
government. Seizing this opportunity, my
mother's mother took her family and us (her
grandchildren) to escape into Thailand. While
waiting for sponsorship, we lived in refugee
camps in Thailand for one and one half year.
On
December 23, 1980, my family arrived in Grand Rapid,
Michigan under the sponsorship of Millbrook
Christian Reformed Church. The Church has provided
an incredible amount of support to my family. With
the Church's and family's support and direction, my
three brothers, sister and I have thrived in this
great country. We have been active and involved in
our church, community, and school activities. Lundi
and Theary, who did not know a word of English upon
their arrival to this country, became third place
winners in the National Spelling Bees for the city
of Grand Rapids. They also graduated from their
high school classes as Saluatorians, while Sina, Dar
and I placed in the top ten percent of our classes.
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