September 5, 2006

• …Cambodia revisited: She-roes…

  I’m spending the extended weekend back home in Long Beach with the familia. I didn’t get a chance to debrief with them after I got back from Cambodia, so this weekend’s just going to be me trying to make sense out of my experiences there, with the help of my family of course…

  On my flight down here, I was reading Asian American X, an anthology of short stories and essays from the perspectives of Asian Americans of my generation. While I was reading Vinh Nguyen’s piece, “Comings and Goings,” I was suddenly overcome by the emotions he was writing about: the feeling of coming full circle, of returning to one’s roots, of immersing yourself in your culture again, of being home. How does one make sense of it all? That’s been a question I’ve been grappling with ever since I got back. I took a little more than 1200 photos during my one month stint there and I can’t even begin to explain how each day there has forever changed me in some way, shape, or form. How, indeed, do I begin to describe the amazing people I met and their incredible stories? One story at a time I guess…

  SHE-ROES

  My mother is my hero. When we first arrived in the US, she worked two waitressing jobs just so my dad could go to school and learn English. She worked hard to make sure that food was always on the table. She made my sister and me go to Chinese school despite our hatred for it. She kept our family together: through the war, through the refugee camp, through the hunger pains. She kept us alive, and for that, I am forever grateful. The women I met in Cambodia were no less extraordinary…

  
  A woman’s work is never done.

  The Grandmother

  She sat boht-jeunged (prayer pose), unmoved and stoic letting her words move us instead…

  I’m 47 years old. All of my siblings and parents are dead, they were killed by the Khmer Rouge. My husband died 10 years ago, leaving me to provide for my 5 kids alone, one of whom has already been claimed by AIDS, she was only 19. Her husband had had sex with a prostitute that had AIDS, and had brought it home with him. Unfortunately, he didn’t tell her–not even when she had their daughter. My granddaughter could have been saved if we had known that her mother was HIV+, but we didn’t, and so she breastfed her, and now, only her daughter, my granddaughter, remains. I’ll probably outlive her too. In order to pay for the hospital bills, my other daughter took a loan from an extended relative. They told her that they would lend her the money if she came to work at their fruit stand in the North country. Seeing that her sister and niece were sick, she agreed. The loan was given, and a week later, my daughter was trafficked into the sex industry.

  
  …yet another survivor…

  
  …innocence stolen…

  The Fighter

  AIDS has surpassed landmines as the #1 killer in Cambodia, quite a formidable position to hold given the fact that Cambodia has the most landmines in the world. That said, when HIV/AIDS is contracted, many in Cambodia readily accept it as a death sentence and refuse to fight, thinking that living is futile once the virus is contracted. For Bong Lim though, it’ll take more than a deadly virus to prevent her from sharing her gift with the world. She is a master of sewing and is using her talents to teach girls who have HIV/AIDS how they can still earn a living despite the taboo associated with AIDS. Katie and Christy worked with Bong Lim and her girls and taught them to knit. They made brochures for their organization, Women Helping Women with AIDS, and showed that compassion is a universal currency that is needed and accepted by all…

  
  …the humanity!

  
  …thicker than blood…

  
  Bong Lim and myself

  The Teacher

  In a country where children were taken from their families to be trained to serve as judge, jury, and executioner of the very same people who gave them life, one would assume that compassion and love would have drowned in the bloodbath, but one need only look to the classroom of this amazing teacher to find the contrary…

  
  She taught them more than the Khmer alphabet, she taught them listen to one another, she taught them peace, she taught them hope…

  
  A clean future starts with clean hands….

  
  …and clean teeth too!

  
  …yes, I see hope…

  
  …now is their time…

  From 1975 on, the women of Cambodia have served as the stewards for survival. Upon their shoulders alone, Cambodia has been able to weather the hemorrhaging of a society brought about by hate, and the false hopes and broken promises from the international community. These are the mothers, the aunts, the sisters, and the grandmothers who are all my heros, my she-roes…

  • 2:31 am
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