Last year, I published a memoir of my refugee childhood at Steemit and www.notesonliberty.com. The story was later on picked up by the Foundation of Economic Education.
If you haven't read it yet, you can find it at the following link:
https://fee.org/articles/memories-of-a-refugee-childhood/
In the article, I discussed some memories of my life in Khao I Dang - a Cambodian refugee camp on the border of Cambodia-Thailand and added some personal pictures of our family.
Here are some excerpts:
I understand that my story is just one, small, but essential part of my family’s overall journey for safety from the civil war (1967-1975), the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979), and the subsequent Vietnamese occupation. According to some estimates, 2 million out of 8 million people died during this long period. This figure has been contested many times. I don’t think anyone knows how many people have actually died, but if I look at the family members of my parents’ households: 40% from my mum’s side died and 25% from my dad’s side.
Khao I Dang, the Refugee Camp Where I Was Born
My parents were forced to work in labor camps in the countryside in Battambang by the Khmer Rouge. They eventually met each other while fleeing from Battambang to the Thai border when the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia. As with most fleeing Cambodians, my parents decided to get together – not out of love, but more out of the need and desire to share their hardships. This was, after all, a months-long journey through the heart of the Cambodian jungle in which my father lost his father, the granddad I never came to know. My mother lost her brother and her father. As my mother was separated from her brother early on during the Khmer Rouge regime and never witnessed his death, she had always held hope that one day she would find him again.
My parents’ long journey towards Thailand brought them to the Sa Kaeo camp which was the first organized refugee camp that opened in 1979. Within just 8 days, the refugee population grew to 30,000. The camp eventually closed down half a year later, because of unfavorable conditions. The drainage in the campsite was for example so poor that several refugees, too weak to lift their heads, drowned from a flood as they laid on the floor in tents made of plastic sheets.
One month after the opening of Sa Kaeo, the Khao I Dang camp was opened and many people were repatriated into Khao I Dang. My parents eventually ended up there as well.
Above is a picture of my two brothers, me, and my father after the funeral of my uncle. Behind me is my uncle's grave. My father hired a photographer to take this picture so that he could send it to my aunty. I am the one barefooted.
Please follow the link to read the full memoir: https://fee.org/articles/memories-of-a-refugee-childhood/
Nice article Lin
Read it. Amazing journey @chhaylin
Sad to see your Uncle had to pass away.
At least your story is getting out there and it can be used to spread awareness and hope.
I'm glad that you were able to make it onto this platform and make your superb philosophical posts @chhaylin
Keep staying optimistic and keep up the great work
Thank you for the encouragement. I'm glad you enjoy my philosophical posts. I greatly appreciate it.
There's more to come... :)
Thank you so much for share the story with us, I love reading this kind of stories. Every time I share bus with the older people who passed their life in the Khmer rough regime; I always asked them to share with me their story. I used to meet a lady, she was a nurse. She lost all her parents, siblings and event her husband and also daughter because of the civil war in Cambodia. She married to another man, and only her children make her feel that her life is meaningful. I heard about many family that lost their members, but none of my paternal or maternal side had lost any members during the Khmer rough regime; but they lost some of their relatives before and after the Khmer rough regime. While you family moved to live in the refugee, my parents just after their wedding in May 1979; they moved to live in Phnom Penh. I always heard from my parents that living in PP at that time was quite hard as my father continue his study for bachelor degree, he had to ride the Cyclo (tricycle) to gain money in order to survive. We were malnutrition and I could remember myself was so skinny and many people said that I was skinny because of my mum used pesticide to kill mosquito; actually we didn't have enough food, sometime we share 2 duck eggs with 6 members of the family :) I remembered waiting for half a day in hospital with other kids when I was sick. Fortunately we passed that hard time and have today ;)
I rate your post below with the following ratings on a scale of 1 to 10:
Presentation: 9.6/10 - Great work, some small room for improvement but nothing major.
Content: 9.2/10 - I loved it and not much you could improve on from my personal opinion you really captured it well.
Effort: 9.4/10 - You seem to really love putting effort into your work and I don't think it is just me who noticed it :)
Uniqueness: 9.1/10 - I haven't seen many posts similar to this during my time of lurking through steemit.
Love it fellow steemian!
❤ from ezpz
Is this for real? Those are nice numbers. I'm indeed putting a lot of effort to create unique content that is rare on Steemit. :)
Thank you for the comment!