Personal Journey: A tourist, and a native, and comfortable
- From: Chim <ChimS1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2008 21:54:18 -0800 (PST)
Posted on Sun, Jan. 20, 2008
Personal Journey: A tourist, and a native, and comfortable
By Somanette Seang
For The Inquirer
It had been more than 26 years since I was in Cambodia. I survived the
Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s and, at age 7, emigrated to the
United States with my mother, grandmother, aunt and cousin.
Until last summer, I never felt ready to return to Cambodia because I
struggled with feelings of survivor's guilt. Why did I live when an
estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died?
My fear was that I would be just another tourist instead of Khmer. In
the end, I was a Khmer tourist.
I arranged to volunteer as an English teacher in Siem Reap through the
nonprofit organization Journeys Within Our Community
(www.journeyswithinourcommunity.org). I would be teaching two English
classes at Wat Thmey (New Temple). Wat Thmey is an old temple with a
modest memorial dedicated to about 50 people who died at the hands of
the Khmer Rouge.
My "classroom" was the open foyer of the temple, and I had a dry-erase
board. My students were teenagers and young adults who could not
afford to enroll in a high school or university. Poverty is prevalent
throughout Cambodia, even as the country builds and develops.
My 17 students did not know what to make of me initially. I looked
Cambodian enough, but there was an intangible characteristic that made
me not quite truly Khmer. I told them my story of emigration and the
loss of the father I never knew. Several of them told me stories of
their impoverished lives in the rice paddies, helping their families
find aluminum and plastic reusables in the polluted city, or selling
beef on a stick and coca (soda) along the dusty and crowded streets of
Siem Reap.
The students did not dwell on their struggles; they showed hope and
determination. For the week I was there, they rode their bicycles -
the luckier ones rode borrowed motos - to class. We studied present-
tense verbs and vocabulary for different modes of transportation. But
mostly, we talked about Cambodia. They were eager for me to know and
love their country.
Because they wanted me to see the true beauty of Siem Reap, two of my
students, Saphour and Vanna, picked me up on Saphour's moto (it is
amazing how many people ride at once on a moto) and took me to Angkor
Wat. I had read and seen pictures and movies about the 12th-century
stone temple built with three levels and four galleries. The
galleries' walls are covered with hand-carved, detailed scenes of
battles, gods, heaven and hell. When I walked onto the gateway of
Angkor Wat, I felt completely proud to be Cambodian.
My students thanked me for being their teacher. But truly, I was the
most thankful. I may have taught them grammar, as my father might have
done when he was a teacher, but they taught me about hope and self-
acceptance. It was fine to be a Khmer tourist.
.
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