Climate Change and Unfamiliar Things

We arrived in late fall, I would guess in the

month of November 1976. We all experienced our first colds and

snowfalls. I would put a cup of water out during the night, and the

next morning it was in the form of ice. Now that was really "cool" in

my understanding what being "cool" was. If we had to rely on

evolutionary processes, we could not have grown a fur coat fast

enough to ward off freezing to death.

Military personnel acted as guards to keep law and order for us

rowdy boys. They introduced us to snow ball fights. I remember

one time we creamed them so bad, that we didn't know when to stop.

We learned not to do that to them again. Sorry guys, we didn't mean

to hurt you.

More chocolate milk please! Here we are introduced to drinking

milk. Everyone fought for the chocolate flavored milk; plain milk

was a last resort. The Asian stable is rice. We know how to have a

"rice" day, every day--not just some days. Well, Arkansas is a

rice growing state as I later learned. But the way Americans fix rice

is not anywhere close to how we like our rice. Burnt bread? Toast?

Jelly? Heaters used as toasters? Sitting to take one's ease?

We like squatting much better. We all needed potty training, at

least I did anyway. Every knob, switch, and lever are becoming
inquisitive objects.

For evening entertainments, buses would come around and pick

up those who would like to go. They took us out of the base

to a church building, I would assume. They had puppet shows,

ventriloquists, and movies. Of course everything was foreign to us.
I don't think it was every evening, maybe twice a week. When they
brought us back to our barracks, there would be deer along the road
and in soccer fields. I never saw a deer in Asia, I know we had them too.

Rabbits were everywhere. I'm sure that they were hunted for meat

to grill. Stones to throw at them were the best weapons we had.

Didn't know the method of shaking salt on their tails to catch them.

One evening a group of people wanted to go on a hike out into the

woods. We were stopped by the guards. Maybe they

thought that we would escape back to Asia, or they were afraid

we might get lost, or simply we are not allowed to leave the
premises. I think it was the latter. I was disappointed myself.
We insisted, they insisted, and they prevailed.

English classes were open for people who wanted to learn. I must

have learned a few words myself. I probably didn't apply myself to
the learning of the language like I should have. Our stay in Arkansas

was short. I would guess it was less than a month before our group was

summoned to come to Iowa. By saying group, I mean the four families
that had been together all this time.

Leaving Asia Behind

When our time came to leave, we had to get up in the wee hours of

the morning to get to the airport and go through all the paper

work. I remember seeing the sun coming up when the plane

lifted off into the eastern sky. I didn't really care where we were

going at the moment. Sorry Cambodia, I didn't shed a tear for

you when I left you behind, but I have shed tears for you

since then.

The flight would have taken 20 hours or more across the ocean.

I don't know where we stopped. Anchorage, Alaska, could have been

one stopping point. Our destination was Little Rock, Arkansas.

We were placed at a military base. Yep, they enlisted us into

the military armed forces to fight for Mr. Bill Clinton so he could be

our next president in the coming years. I know that he has denied

that we did such thing for him back then, but we were happy for

him when he became our 42nd president of the United States

of America.

From there, every family awaited sponsorships from one of the

48 states. While waiting, we boys played soccer against the

Vietnamese boys that were among us. The Khmer against the

Viet. When there was a dispute, there could have been fights

to settle the score. To get the litter picked up, guards

paid us a quarter per person.

I was sick when we arrived in Arkansas. I think I was sick before

we left Asia. Salt water must have got the best of me, especially when

there was no fresh water to rinse off the salt.

Would You Like To Join In? Yummy, Yummy!

The Dreams

It was during this time of staying in Thailand that I had these two
dreams. I never remembered any of my dreams until these occurred
to me in such a vivid way that I shall never forget. And I would like to
tell them here.

The first dream: I dreamed that my very own mother rejected

me. I will leave it at that. I felt hurt, but not emotionally damaged.

The second dream: A voice from heaven spoke to me asking

me a question, "Do you want to go?" I answered, 'Yes.' Then the

voice told me, "You must die." I died in my dream as though it

was real and the voice said to me, "Now you can go."

I recognized the voice, it was the voice of Seoung Veoung, but

she spoke from heaven above. I will tell of the possible interpret-

ation of this dream later on once I got to America and settled in

Iowa. Oh, the voice that spoke never specified where I was to go,

and I never asked the question, 'Where am I going?' I was just wanting

to go. Maybe that was the nature of my adventurous personality

back then.

Just how long we were temporarily camped in Thailand as refugees

was likely around 3-6 months at the most. Just who was

responsible to relocate us to other countries? One organization

that comes to mind is World Vision. If such an organization doesn't exist,
it must have been some other. We and many others in the same predic-

ament were accepted to come to the United States of America. We

were transported to near Bangkok, to a military base I believe,

near the sea to await our flight out.

We were bused in by charter buses. It was a whole day's trip from the

camp to our holding camp near the military base. And it was during

rainy season, and in some places water flooded the road surface, and
drivers had to take it easy. The route took us by steep mountains
which fascinated me. Mountains just held my admiration.

Back in Cambodia I could see some mountains from a distance and

there is this alluring pull from my heart to want to scale the heights

of those majestic friends. At one particular place that my father

had his rice fields was the closest mountain in sight. I often wish

I could have reached the mountain. It was just standing there all by

itself like it needed a friend like me. It had a nice peak point.

I felt sorry for those who were left behind. I hope that they did get

to go at a later date after we left Asia. Since the base camp for

departure was limited to how many they could handle, it couldn't

possibly fit everyone in there. There were at least five buses or

more that shuttled us over to the base. And there were other

refugees from other camps that were there already besides our

groups that came in. I swam every day in the sea salt water.

And sometimes the fresh water would run out to rinse off the salt.

Whose The Thief?

One place they moved us to was near a good-sized city. I

frequented the city with other people, browsing for work or just

enjoying mingling with the Thai people. There is a lot of

similarity in the language, and getting around was not a big problem.

Here we were placed in tents. One night a thief stole--the best

I could figure out would have been silver bars. I remember the

bags were heavy. Maybe it was just only one bag or several

bags. We heard the snap of the tent either being slit or ripped.

The bags were checked and were missing. The pursuit was on for

trying to recover the stolen item in the night, but to no avail. When

day break came other people helped to search the surrounding

area, looking under every bush. We suspected that the thief

could have not gone to far because it was heavy, and because

we were alerted to give the chase at the onset once we found items

missing. Before we gave up hope, there was a pond next to the

tents. One was sent down to dive for the lost treasure in the

muddy water, and sure enough at the bottom lay the silver bars.

I don't remember if the thief had taken any out of the bag or not.

If we had not recovered the stolen items that very day, our chance
was slim against the thief's trickery.

Oun Iem made it to Thailand

I have mentioned of Oun Iem being in Battambong when we left

Oddar Mean Cheay. I remember him telling us how he faked

being "dumb" to escape captured by the Khmer Rouge patroling

the route on which he rode his bicycle to get to Oddar Meancheay.

Of course, when he arrived and found that we were not home, he

made his way to Thailand through the forest. By this time,

the Khmer Rouge were guarding the main road that leads to

Thailand and planting land mines for those who tried to escape.

We had no idea of what happened to him until he showed up at

camp unexpectedly. Another incident was of a woman whose

husband was suspected dead and she was prepared to marry

a Thai husband, when her original husband showed up and

reunited with her again.

As Refugees In Thailand Part 1

Like I already alluded to, the first waves of refugees were well-

received by the Thai government. The refugees were moved

farther into the interior, away from the border, free of any clashing

between the Khmer Rouge and the Thai soldiers. They moved

us at least three times. We were given liberty to travel about in

the surrounding areas. Having plenty to eat was not a problem.

Each family was even given a cash allowance each month.

One of the places that the Thai government had allowed us to

stay was in a monastery ground. Facilities were already available.

No, we didn't chase away the monks. We were separate from

them. I believe all the refugees were Cambodians. There could

have been Vietnamese also. The shelter was modern with board

structures and tin roof. Business was conducted among the

people and natives, though it was limited I'm sure.

Men could go out to look for work. I went along whenever I could,

which I think was about every time. One time we went to a mountain

to pick stones to load up dump trucks. We camped out at the

mountain until the work was finished. I think they told scary stories

at nights. Asian people are superstitious.

One particular job was digging trenches for pipelines across

rice fields with mud and water to contend with. The paid was

defined by the length, width, and depth per trench. My guess was

that I could do three trenches or less in a day. Being the young boy

that I was, I don't think I broke any records. The men were helpful to

complete what I couldn't by day's end to notch me a trench more.

At another time we just went to look for work. The other times, our

work was known before we ventured out. This time we hopped on

a tap-tap (a kind of transportation--if you can hang on, you're in

for the ride of your life). We would stop here and there to inquire for

work until we happened upon one. Finally, we chanced upon picking

silk worms and other odd jobs. I believe the men had a limit as to

how far they wanted to venture out from camp. At this particular

place, a Thai family that had taken a liking to me had asked the men

if they could keep me as their son. Well, I assume they

objected to the request imposed upon them, because I'm here

in America writing this journal for you to read. If it was up to me to
decide if I would like to stay with them, I could have said 'yes'.
I assumed the men had disclosed to the Thai couple that I was alone
in Thailand without immediate family members other than my cousin.

I want to clarify who the men are. Some of them were the people

I was with from Oddar Meanchey and some were from outside of

the group. All together, from five to ten were in the group. I don't
want to leave a wrong impression of hundreds of men scavenging
for work.

After work had dried up in this particular place, there

weren't any tap-tap for our return trip, so we had to walk on foot

across rice fields full of water to get back to our base. It was

a tiresome trek for all of us as we had to walk through water.

We came upon a monastery and took our refuge there for the

night. Being that monks only eat one meal per day, having food

on hand is not a common thing at a monastery. They had to

go out to beg for their sustenance every day. But it must have

been a festival of some sort when the common people would

bake certain goods and bring them to the temple. It was not

strange for us to know that. That was a blessing as we were

given the leftovers. Some tasted on the spoiled side. We

roasted them for a crisper, crunchier taste. By roasting the baked

goods, it helps to preserve them longer. The baked goods were
wrapped with green banana leaves and cooked in water.

Some may ask, " how do you communication with the Thai
people being you are Cambodians"? Either one of us knew how
to speak Thai, or those Thai people near the boarder knew the
Khmer language. There are also Khmer Surin living in Thailand.
They could speak both languages. Khmer Surin are Cambodian
people who got sucked into Thailand when the Thai moved their
boundary farther into Cambodia territory. We call it an infringement.

Arriving In Thailand

We arrived at the border as it was getting dark. The crossing

was a mountain passage. As we were stopped at the check point,

the tractor wagon I was on started to roll backwards, but the driver

was quick to gain control of the situation and saved us from rolling

down the mountain. When the border watchers were satisfied

with our reason for coming to their country, we were ushered in to

Thailand. Beyond the check point, as we got deeper into Thai

territory, there were other refugees that had gotten there before

us. The commotions went on all night with helicopters ferrying

people in from Cambodia, I assume. I went to sleep in the midst

of the chaotic activities to await a new beginning.

At this point I want to present the situation of the refugees that

would come into Thailand later on from Cambodia. We, being the

first waves of refugees, got a red carpet treatment from the Thai

government due to the presence of the U.S officials

in Thailand. The U.S had just withdrawn from Cambodia before

the country fell. What I'm about to expose of the situation is

from a book I read concerning the matter that transpired.

There are two accounts I will mention:

1. 600 or more refugees were shipped out by army trucks

driven by Thai soldiers to a cliff and probably pushed

off the cliff at the border in a secluded area. There were no

other explanations of what they might have done with them. Due

to how they did treat other refugees that sought refuge

in their land, the conclusion is not too presumptuous according to the author.

2. 40,000 were forced back after they were stripped of the little

valuable possessions they had along. They send them back by

way of rugged terrain laiden with land mines. How many survived,

no one knows. They either died by stepping on land mines,

died of starvation and thirst, or died by the sword of the Khmer Rouge.

If it had not been for humanitarian organizations coming to our aid, I hate

to speculate the plight of my people in the time of our distress.

The quality of mercy wasn't there from the Thai government, nor

from the UN, though their aid was much appreciated on behalf of

my people, thought it was not without a price for them to get gain at the

expense of the unfortunate. The Thai government relented later on

after they saw the plight of my people. On behalf of my Khmer

people, I want to thank all that brought relief to our suffering. I

know this is 30 years late. I was not the one that experienced

the winds of calamity that did befall us. I was too adventurous.