Linda Ung's Story

Chapter 1: Childhood in Cambodia

I was born in the mid of 1940’s in Kompong Cham, a northern province of Cambodia which was situated in the southeast Asia. Cambodia was ruled by France for about 80 years. Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam were once called Indochina.

We were a family of nine children which consisted of four boys and five girls. I was number three on the girl side and number five in the family. My father was immigrated to Cambodia from China around the 1930’s. He married my mother who was born in Cambodia and lived in Kompong Cham. She was Chinese Cambodian.

My mother who had asthma did not breastfeed her children. She hired five nannies at one time to take care of the younger children. My nanny was hired when I was ten month old and lived with us for many years. The other four nannies took care of my younger siblings.

My father owned a fishing equipment company which was very successful. Our family lived quite comfortably at that time.

My mother passed away when I was ten years old and my youngest sister was six month old. My father never got remarried. Although my oldest brother helped him running the business, my dad was so busy and didn’t have much time to spend with his children. He asked his sister who was a widower to move in and help in the household. We were lucky as my aunt was very nice and took good care of us. As each nanny was already assigned to each kid individually, my aunt focused more on running the household. There were cooks and servants to help her in the kitchen and did other household chores.

In the morning, my nanny took me to an elementary school by bike and picked me up in the afternoon. She was the only nanny who stayed with our family for many years.

My oldest brother got married in early 1960’s and his wife became head of the household with the assistance of my aunt. My sister-in- law is the cousin of Richard, my husband to be.

I grew up with four languages at the same time. I communicated with my father in Chinese, my nanny in Vietnamese, half of my siblings in Cambodian called Khmer language, and my teachers in French.

All high schools in Cambodia followed French curriculum set by the Ministry of Education. All subjects in high school were taught in French language and the majority of teachers came form France. Students must complete thirteen years of school. In high school, they must pass the three exams to receive the high school diploma called Baccalauréat 2. The exams were taking after grade 9 called Diplôme, grade 11: Baccalauréat 1, and grade 12: Baccalauréat II. School was not mandatory and was not a priority, especially for the girls. Some children started school at the age of eight or ten depending of the decision of the parents.

During my study in high school, there was no guidance from parents nor the teachers. There were no counselors in the school system. I was self motivated and did everything on my own. I was determined to go as far as I could to get a higher education. I studied hard and got excellent grades. Students from all the provinces must go to the capital (Phnom Penh) taking the three nationwide exams consisted of two parts: written and oral. Students spent about ten days in the capital waiting for the result of their exam. The written tests were graded by the teachers from other provinces and so was the oral part. Among 56 students from my hometown taking Baccalauréat 1 exam (grade 11) in Phnom Penh, only eight students including me (the only girl) passed the exam. Students who failed the exam, had to take it a second time in September. If they failed again, they must repeat grade 11 and took the exam in the following year. They could repeat the class for two more years, otherwise they must drop the public school and went to a private school. As I passed Baccalauréat I, I moved up to grade 12 which was called “Classe Terminale” in French. I received my Baccalauréat II exam at the end of my senior year.

There was only one high school in my hometown. It was called “Lycée Sihanouk”. There were about three thousands students in my high school from grade 6 to 12. Students from all the small towns around Kompong Cham came to attend this high school. They had to pass the “concours” to be able to attend the grade 6 in this high school.

After completing the high school program, two students, a boy and a girl should be nominated to receive an award from King Sihanouk for their excellence in school. I was one of the two students who was chosen by the school principal.

There was no college nor university in my hometown. I went to study at Faculté des Sciences in the capital which was situated about 150 miles South of my hometown. I left Kompong Cham to Phnom Penh in September 1966. My father rent an apartment for me to study in Phnom Penh. My aunt, my nanny, and my two younger brothers came along to the capital to stay with me while I studied in the university. My two young brothers studied in a private Chinese high school. My aunt and nanny took care of everything. In my second year in college, I hired two young girls who came from the country side as my maids. They both were 15 years old and never went to school. I hired them just to help out their parents financially. No special job for them. They lived with us to help my aunt and did some house chores.

I completed four year courses and met all the credit requirement. I received a diploma “License es Science”. During my fourth year in the university, I took some courses in Education to earn a degree in Secondary Education at the “Institut de Pédagogie du Seconde Cycle”.

In June 1970, it was the first graduation at Université Des Sciences” in Cambodia. Students received a diploma called “ License es Science” which was equivalent to a Bachelor Degree. There were fifteen graduates which comprised of seven girls including myself and eight boys.

Dating was not allowed at that time for girls who were not attending school. Marriage must be arranged by the parents. It was uncommon for girls who were at school and dating. However, there were few girls in high school who dated boys secretly. I was approached by some boys to get a relationship during my study in high school and college, but they were turned down. My goal was to finish school and got my college degree.

Towards the end of my fourth year in college, I was introduced to Richard by a sister of my oldest brother’s wife who was Richard’s cousin. Richard was at his fourth year at Institute of Technology. He graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Mining. We dated for six months under a surveillance of a chaperone. We got married in June 1970, a week after our college graduation.

Other siblings:

As of December 2019:

• My older brother lived in Kompong Cham helping my dad in business. He had three children: one girl and two boys. As of to date, they live in Paris, France.

• My two older sisters went to Chinese school in Cambodia, but continued their education in China.

• My oldest sister (#1) who lived in Beijing got married and moved to Hong Kong with her husband . She has two children: one girl and one boy. They still live in Hong Kong.

• My older sister (#2) had a hard time living under the communist regime. She returned to Cambodia in 1968, got married in 1970 and had one daughter. Her whole family died during the Khmer Rouge era in 1974.

• My younger sister (#4) finished high school, got married in January 1970 and lived in Kompong Cham. Her husband was a high school teacher. They had two kids: one boy and one girl. They all died in 1973 during the Khmer Rouge regime.

• My two younger brothers (#3 and #4) who stayed with me in Phnom Penh returned home after finishing high school. Both got married a couple years later. Both families live in Paris, France. My younger brother (#3) passed away in 2013 in Paris, France.

• My youngest brother (#5) left Cambodia for the United States in 1973. He got married and has two children. They live in San Francisco.

• My youngest sister (#5) lives in Paris with her husband and her son.

Chapter 2: Life after college and beyond

In September 1970, I was assigned to teach in a prestige high school, Lycée Sisowatt, in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. I taught Natural Science in French language to grade 12 students. Most students were well disciplined and eager to learn. They respected the teachers which made my teaching job very easy.

Six months after our marriage, Richard got a Full Bright scholarship from the American Embassy to continue his education in the Untied Sates of America. Family was not allowed to accompany the recipient of Full Bright scholarship to the States. Richard left Cambodia in January 1971 while I was pregnant six months. Our daughter, Podaly, was born in March 1971 while Richard was in Washington DC studying English.

Richard in the United States:

Our school system in Cambodia was mostly conducted in French. Richard had to learn English at Georgetown University in Washington DC in 1971. After finishing his English courses in Washington DC, he got accepted at School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, to continue his master degree. Richard was the first Cambodian who came to Denver, Colorado, 1972.

I came to America to visit Richard during the summer of 1973 for three months. My daughter stayed with my father during my trip to The United States. I was pregnant during my vacation in Golden, Colorado. I went back to Cambodia to continue my teaching job in September 1973. My baby boy, Porendy, was born in May 1974 while his dad was in School of Mines preparing his theses. Richard got his Master Degree in Mining in September 1974. After graduation, Richard could not stay in America because of his student visa. He must go back to Cambodia. At that time, Dr. Charles Frush who was Richard’s advisor wrote a letter to the Immigration office in Denver requesting them to grant Richard to stay in the States as he got a job for Richard in a mining company in Idaho Springs, Colorado. It would be a good experience for Richard to learn in the mining field before returning to Cambodia.

Towards the end of 1974, the political situation in Cambodia was getting worse. For Richard’ safety, his professor did not want him to return to Cambodia and with his recommendation, Richard got a contract as a mining engineer with a big mining company, Gécamines, in Zaire (Congo), Africa. He left the United States in December 1974 for his new job in Congo while I was teaching in Cambodia.

Cambodia was a neutral country. But in 1974, the Vietnamese guérillas, Vietcong, infiltrated along the Eastern border of Cambodia with the consent of the Cambodian King Sihanouk. This was an act against the neutral Cambodia. At that time people lived with fear as the United States began to drop 2,000 tons of B52 bombs every day for sixty consecutive days on Cambodia lands (“New York Times” 1974) as it was to chase the Vietnamese guerrillas who secretly hided in Cambodia. During that time, the value of Cambodian money devaluated so much. People had a hard time to adjust to their living as everything including the food became too expensive. People who had money began to send their children to France. People began to exit the country in February 1975.

Richard was so worried about the situation in Cambodia, he sent a telegram asking me to leave the country with our children as soon as possible. I applied for a visa to enter France with my two children and it was granted. I had to pay many fees with the Department of Education in order to leave the country legally. My father paid all expenses including the air tickets for the three of us to France. I left Cambodia on March 23, 1975 with my daughter, 4 years old, and my son, 11 months. The new chapter of my life was to continue my journey in a new country.

Chapter 3: Leaving Cambodia

In January 1975, the political situation was intense in Cambodia. People feared that the country would fall into the communist regime. Some people began to migrate to different countries all over the world such as Europe, America, Canada etc,.. Richard got a contract with a national mining company in Zaire formerly called Congo in Africa. He began his new job in January 1975 at Gécamines in Kipushi, Zaire.

Cambodia’s political situation got worse with bombings in different parts of the country. It was not safe to stay in the capital as the bombing was dropped in the suburbs of Phnom Penh almost everyday, and soon would be in the capital city. One day while my daughter took shower, a bomb was dropped very close to where we lived, she came out of the bathroom with the shampoo bubbles on her hair and was so scared. I tried to calm her down and assured her that it was ok at our house and took her back to the bathroom finishing her shower.

Richard sent me a telegram asking to leave the country as soon as I could. I decided to leave Cambodia as I thought that the government wouldn’t last to the summer. I applied for a visa at the French Embassy to go to France and was granted. In February 1975. I submitted a letter to the Ministry of Education and requested for a leave of absence from my job and was granted. I left Cambodia with my four years old daughter and my eleven month old son. The departure date was set to March 23, 1975. As I left the house around 2:00pm, most of my family members including my aunt along with my children’s nannies, about fifteen of them, stayed in line at the door to say goodbye. I hugged each one of them with my teared eyes without saying a word as it was so painful. Tears came down to everyone’s face. This was my last goodbye to them.

My brother drove us to Royal Air Cambodge Office near the Central Market in Phnom Penh to take the bus from there to the airport. As the bombing was quite intense around the airport, people were not allowed to go there. Only the airlines bus could drop the passengers. Richard’s family including his mother and sisters and some of my friends were waiting to say goodbye to us at the airlines office. We talked a little bit while I was waiting for the departure. It was so sad to say goodbye to them when we entered the bus. We waved to each other with tears while the bus was moving out of the station. Words couldn’t express how I felt that afternoon. I was so sad leaving my family.

Arriving at Pochentong airport, passengers needed to move quickly to the airplane that was running and ready to depart. I hold my son in my arms. My daughter was hold by a young man whom I asked to take care of her during our bus trip. Another young man helped me with my carry-on. When getting on the plane, we buckled up and the plane began to take off without announcement from the airlines crew. When the plane was in the sky, I felt relieved as I could escape Cambodia safely with my two children. But on the other hand, I was sad thinking of my family and Richard’s who didn’t want to leave the country because of the business or other reasons. On the plane I was upset with Cambodian politics and the corrupted government that made the country fell into this sad situation. I prayed for the situation to get better and that people in Cambodia were safe and one day we could come back to our country. How little I knew about the communist regime.

We had to stop over in Bangkok, Thailand to make a connection to France. When we arrived in Bangkok, we saw hundreds of Cambodians that were stranded there because of the shortage of flights to go to France. The airlines asked the new passengers to form a group of ten and needed a leader for each group. I volunteered to be the group leader. The airlines provided us accommodation while we were in Bangkok. We waited for three days in order to continue our trip. I only brought a few clothes for the kids and there was no pyjamas for me and didn’t have enough milk for my son. I did not expect to be delayed in Thailand. I asked our group if they wanted to go shopping for clothes or other stuffs. We all went to a local market near by our hotel and got things that we needed.

After three days, we left Thailand and arrived at Paris airport around 6:00am the next day. I got my two luggages and went through the immigration. At the gate, I expected to see Richard’s cousin whom I sent a telegram from Cambodia of my arrival date in Paris. But no one was there. The cousin didn’t know that I was delayed in Thailand for two days. We took a taxi to the cousin’s house. He lived with his family in an apartment in Paris 13, France. He worked at the Cambodian Embassy. We stayed in his apartment for about two weeks.

I wanted to send a telegram to Richard from Paris to inform him of our arrival in Paris, but did not have his contact number. As a new traveler and no experience, I didn’t take with me the name of Richard’s company in Zaire nor its contact number when I left Cambodia. I went to Belgian Embassy in Paris with the cousin and looked for the name of Richard’s company. We checked from page to page and looked for the name. In one page, the name of a company, Gécamines, caught my attention as I was vaguely recalled it. The cousin contacted Gécamines headquarter in Brussels and informed them that I arrived in Paris with my two children. Gécamines in Brussels asked us to fly to Bruxelles in order to continue our trip to Zaire. As I hold a Cambodian passport, I need to have a visa to enter Belgium. Fortunately, the cousin who worked in Cambodia Embassy got a diplomatic visa for me from the Belgium Embassy in Paris.

When we arrived in Brussels, Belgium, an agent took us to the company’s apartment. Again, I needed to have a visa from Zaire Embassy in Brussels in order to enter Zaire. It was not easy to get a visa to visit Zaire at that time. We stayed in the apartment while Gecamines office worked with Zaire embassy to get a visa for us. During our stay while waiting for the visa in Brussels. The next morning on April 1975, I heard from the radio that the communists “ Khmer Rouge” took power, overthrown the government, and controlled Cambodia. Since that day, it was a complete silence from Cambodia. No news was leaking to outside world. We didn’t get any news from the media and did’t know what happened to our family and people who lived in Cambodia.

Richard was so happy to hear of our arrival in Brussels from his company as we lost contact since I left Cambodia on March 23. Richard never got my telegram that I sent from Cambodia of my departure date. He called me on the apartment telephone from Zaire and assured me that the company was working on my visa with Zaire Embassy and we will reunite soon. He also was worried of our Cambodian passport as the country had changed the political status. But fortunately, we didn’t have any issue and got a visa to enter Zaire.

It was the first time that I had to manage to live in an apartment with my two kids in a foreign country and got three meals a day on my own as I never did household chores before in Cambodia. I used to have servants and maids who took care of everything. I was lucky that I could speak French and got all things done easily. We left the apartment a week later. I was told to meet a Gecamines agent at Brussels airport around 3:00pm to get my air tickets and my passeport. I called a taxi to take us to the airport. He just dropped us and the three luggages at the curb. I asked my four years old daughter to watch the suitcases while I hold my son in my arms and ran inside the airport asking the agent to take Podaly and the suitcases inside the airport. It never crossed my mind at that time that it was not safe to leave the kid unattended on the curb. One lesson to learn about children safety.

We departed Brussels in the late evening on April 23, 1975. The travel time from Brussels to Zaire was about 14 hours including a connection in Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire.

It was about time to reunite with Richard after four years living apart. My two children never met their father before. It was the first time for the kids to meet their father. New adventure was awaiting for us in Zaire, Africa.

Chapter 4: Part 1: Kipushi , Zaire, Africa

We arrived at Lubumbashi airport in the morning of April 24, 1975. Lubumbashi is located on the Southeast of Zaire, near Zambia, a neighbor country of Zaire.

While waiting to exit the airplane, an European lady, madame Stelios, came towards me from the door. She knew that we were Richard’s family as we were the only Asians on board. I was told that Richard asked her to help me with the kids. She hold Porendy who was 11 months old in her arms. I hold Podaly’s hand and followed her. Podaly was four years old. When getting out of the airplane door, I looked around and saw a big open field with few airplanes and a building. We had to use the staircase to get down to the ground and walked on the concrete pathway to the building. It was warm and a little breezy that morning. All passengers must go through that building for immigration and for luggage. The lady walked towards Richard who was waiting outside of the field behind a wire fence. She hold Porendy up and handed him over the fence to Richard without going through immigration, then she came back to me and asked us to follow her to enter the building. No need for me to stay in line with other passengers for immigration. She took me through a small door and exited the immigration booth. I met with Richard who came in the building with Porendy who was crying as he never met Richard before. We were waiting there for my luggage and passport. Finally we got everything and left the airport. Richard drove us to Kipushi which was a small town where he was working for Gecamines. It was a 30 minutes drive from Lubumbashi to Kipushi which was situated to the Southeast near the border of Zambia.

Zaire was a Belgian Colony between 1908 and 1960. Gecamines is a huge national mining company. The production was mainly copper. Gecamines was the main source of income for the country. There were four branches of Gecamines in Zaire, mostly located in the Southern of the country: Lubumbashi, Kolwezi, Likasi, and Kipushi. At that time, Gecamines was mostly ran by a Belgian administration, but under a Zairian CEO called PDG ( President Directeur Général) in French. The headquarter and administration office of Gecamines was located in Lubumbashi, a major city in the South.

The majority of Gecamines employees were Zairian working as mining workers. Foreigners were hired as engineers, managers, and supervisors which were called “conducteurs” in French. The local people were called “ Zaïrois ” in French.

There were about ten thousands Zairian miners, fifty expatriates, and a dozen of Zairian mining engineers working for Gecamines in Kipushi. Each mining department was supervised by an expatriate manager. Gecamines in Kipushi had a clinic that also ran by a Belgian doctor and a nurse, a private elementary school and a preschool school ran by French and Belgian teachers and staff. The clinic and the schools were for expatriate families only.

There were about 200 tribes in Zaire. They spoke different dialects and couldn’t understand each other. The government adopted “Swaihili” for local people to communicate among them and French as a national language.

We lived within the European community of 200 people including the children. There were many nationalities living in that community. The majority of expatriate families were Belgian. French came second and a mixed nationalities with a few English, and Eastern Europeans. We were the only Asian family living in that community. The population of Kipushi was about twenty thousands.

It was very advantageous for foreigners working in Zaire. Gecamines provided housing including the maintenance. They gave one month salary to foreigners who came to Zaire for the first time to purchase furniture for their new house. Every six months, they got one month salary bonus. Overall, the foreigners received 14 months salary for one working year. For single people, they were allowed to go home every six months for vacation and the air tickets were provided by the company. For family with children, the contract was to work two years consecutively and would receive a four month paid vacation including the air tickets to the country of origine. Richard signed the contract when he was working for the mining company in Colorado. His country of origine was the United States. It was a lifetime contract with no expiration date.

There was no job for expatriate women in Kipushi. Even if they got the job, they would lose all the benefits that were included in the husband’s contract. None of the expatriate women worked in Kipushi. All became house wife taking care of their own family.

We lived in a big European style villa surrounded by a tall fence and a big gate. The house was provided by Gecamines. At first, it was hard for the kids to adjust living with Richard as they just met him. Couple months passed by and the kids adjusted nicely to the new environment, new culture and the new language. Podaly attended the pre-school in the morning. I stayed home all day with my son, but once a week with a friend we drove to Lubumbashi shopping for food as there were more bigger grocery stores there. It was very rare to find rice or seafood in Lubumbashi or Kipushi.

Each expatriate family had maids to help in the household. The helpers or maids who worked for the Europeans must speak French. Only male helpers were working. The local women usually stayed home, took care of their own children. They were not working for foreigners. There were not many local educated women in Kipushi even in the engineer families. A few women could speak French, but they did not involve with the European community. They lived within their community.

We hired three Zairian helpers for our household: a cook, a gardener, and a nanny. The gardener worked outside taking care of the garden. The cook helped in the kitchen and did household chores. A young girl was hired as Porendy’s nanny. The helpers began their work at 7:00am, went home at noon for lunch and returned at 2:00pm. They left at 5:00pm. The cook lived with his family in a small cabin behind our house. It was built in the backyard about 45 feet from the main house. But the gardener and the girl went back to their own home for lunch and in the evening.

When expatriate families ended their contract with Gecamines, they sold the household furniture to the new comer. We purchased the whole household furniture and kitchen appliances from a Belgian family. There was no television. They also gave us a Collie dog named Titus that they couldn’t take back to Belgium.

There was a movie theater, a swimming pool, a library, tennis courts, and a restaurant building called “Messe“ provided by Gecamines in Kipushi. There was also a private horseback riding. The restaurant was private and managed by a Greek couple. We went to this restaurant so often and made good friends with the owners. There was another private bar for expatriates to get together on the weekends. Twice a month, we went to LubumbashI that was about a half hour drive from Kipushi for a brunch in a big hotel “Caraviar” that had many selection of European foods. Caraviar hotel chefs were from France. Sometimes, we stopped by the Golf Club visiting two American friends who lived and worked in Lubumbashi.

Life in Kipushi was so quiet and peaceful. It was hot and humid with lot of sunshine during the day, but cool in the evening. August was the coldest month. We needed to light up the fire place to keep the house warm. Raining season was from May to October. The majority of Zairois in Kipushi knew our family. The young zaïrois children always called Podaly name when we drove and passed by their house to the grocery store in Kipushi.

The cook could make European dishes as he was trained and worked for other expatriate families before us. The cook took care of the kitchen, did the laundry and cleaned the house.

We couldn’t find rice, coconut, noodle, Asian vegetables, canned goods and spices related to Asian cooking in Zaire. Sometimes, we went to Zambia, a neighbor country to purchase some rice, and canned goods. There was not much selection of Asian grocery in Zambia either. I began to grow bean sprouts, planted lemongrass, turmeric, galanga, glory morning, and other Asian vegetables in my garden. I found lemongrass in my neighbor yard. They didn’t even know that lemon grass could be used for cooking. We had two bananas trees, two mango trees, and two papaya trees in our yard. We raised some chickens in a big cage and some rabbits. In the morning, we got some fresh eggs. In the morning some Zairian women stopped by our house to sell the vegetables. Sometimes, I asked them to bring me some frog legs. One day a guy came with only one small frog leg. I told him that i needed more legs to make a dish. He did not know that we could consume frog legs. He came back with two dozen of frog legs. I made a Traditional French dish called “cuisses de grenouilles à l’ail “. It was quite tasty. Also we found some local giant vegetables in Kipushi. Some mushrooms were so big and looked like an umbrella about one foot diameter. There were also giant plantain bananas.

I did not work and became a housewife. I learned how to cook Asian dishes on my own using the recipe book that I brought from Cambodia. I followed the recipe book page by page, but sometimes could not find the right ingredients. At the same time, I learned to cook European dishes from my Belgian and French friends. Zaïrois did not have many national dishes. The popular one was called “Moamba” which was a chicken stew cooked with palm oil, paprika, and other spices. The base food was called “Bounga” which was a mix of corn flour cooked in boiling water to make a corn paste that they eat with dried fish. The majority of people were poor. They could not afford to buy meat for the family.

The dog stayed outside of the house day time and in the house at night as Titus was so frightened when there were thunders. One Saturday when we came back from Lubumbashi visiting friends and having brunch at Caraviar, we found Titus very sick that evening. The next morning, he could barely move. We placed him in a small shed called “hangar” in French next to our house. His tears came out and looked at us quietly which made us feel so sad. We took him to the veterinarian in Lubumbashi and let him stay there overnight for evaluation of his sickness. We went back the next day, the veterinarian told us that Titus was poisoned with food that mixed with broken glasses. Someone might throw the food over the fence for Titus to eat when we went to Lubumbashi that Saturday which was a day off for all the helpers. The veterinarian could not save him as Titus was so sick. Titus was put to sleep. We left the veterinary without Titus with broken heart.

A week later, one morning, I went to look for the eggs I found the cage was wide open. All the chickens and rabbits were gone. Someone broke in the cage at night. We believed that the theft poisoned Titus first as he was afraid of our agressive dog, then came to get the chickens and the rabbits. Couple months later, we adopted a German Shepherd dog, Bernard. He was quite small comparing to Titus.

Podaly went to a French school that was not too far from our house. When Porendy was three years old, we enrolled him at a French nursery school. In the morning, the gardener took him to school. Sometimes, Porendy was tired walking, he asked the gardener to carry him on his shoulder along with a small “cartable” which was a small leather bag. While taking Porendy to school on his shoulder, the gardener found a new way to transport Porendy. He placed him in the wheelbarrow and pushed it to school. Porendy was so happy and had fun sitting in that wheelbarrow.

We met lots of good people with different nationalities. What a coincidence that we met couple French families who used to live and work in Cambodia. Mr. Barraza, the principal of the French school in Kipushi, used to live and work in Cambodia. Mr. Fletch worked for Untited Nations in Lubumbashi had lived in Cambodia for two years. Mr. Rote worked for Unicef lived five years in Cambodia with his parents when he was eight years old. We were invited to many consulates in Lubumbashi for social events. We got to know French, Belgian, and American diplomats.

We also had them come to visit us in Kipushi for Cambodian lunch. We discussed about the food that they missed when they lived in Cambodia. All of them enjoyed Cambodian food very much. They did not know that I just learned how to cook when I came to Zaire.

During my stay in Zaire, our Cambodian passport were not valid anymore as the Cambodian government was overthrown by the Khmer Rouge communist regime. There was no news from Cambodia at all at that time. It was a complete silence for more than one year. We were so anxious to get news and wanted to know what happened to our families.

As vacation time was approaching, we had to find a way to renew our expired passport. There was no Cambodian Embassy in Zaire nor in any countries in the world due to the political turmoil in Cambodia. I flew to Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire, with Mme Stelios. She was the lady who picked us up at the airport when we first arrived in lubumbashi. She had connection with the big shot people who worked in Zairian government. We stayed in Kinshasa for a week and got two Travel Documents from the Zaire Immigration Office. The kids were included in my travel document. Richard had his own travel document. They looked weird and different from other travel documents in the world. It was an orange paper folder 12”x16” folded in half.

Richard began his job in January 1975. Two years passed by nicely and peacefully. As our family stayed in Kipushi for two consecutive years without any vacation, we are eligible for four month vacation with pay including the air tickets provided by the company. The four month vacation was from January 7 to May 6, 1977. The itinerary was a round trip from Zaire to Paris, France and to Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. We got our visa to enter France and the United States of America from the embassy in Lubumbashi before our departure.

Our first stop was Paris. When we arrived at the airport, Charles De Gaulle, we didn’t want to present the travel document to the officer. We waited until the line was almost clear, then stopped at the booth and presented it to the immigration officer. The travel document wouldn’t fit the small window, then we handed it over the big glass screen of the booth. We looked at the face of the French officer. He was smiling and amazed to see this weird document. He then shouted out to the officers at the next booth to look at it as he never saw anything like that. We were so embarrassed and stayed completely silent until he placed a stamp on the document.

We stayed at two cousins’ apartments, then moved to a friend’s house in the suburb of Paris. We visited many Paris landmarks and did shopping for clothes and other items to take back to Zaire. We bought dry goods and spices in an Asian store in Paris, put all in a big container and shipped the freight to Gecamines in Belgium to forward to Kipushi.

The next destination was Denver, Colorado. We stayed at the house where Richard stayed when he studied in Golden back in 1971. The landlord lady was so kind and did not charge for our stay there. We bought a house in Westminster for our future residence. We left Denver and stopped by Paris before heading back to Zaire. During our stay in Paris, there was no news from our families in Cambodia. The cousins had no news from their families either. We returned to Kipushi in May, 1977. Richard continued his job as he had a life time contract with Gecamines.

The next chapter is part 2 of Kipushi, Zaire with the stories of Cambodian tragedy during the Khmer Rouge regime while we lived in Zaire.

Chapter 4: Part 2.: Paris, France, July 1977

Stories of family escaped from Khmer Rouge

Before writing their journey during the Khmer Rouge regime, I would roll back the story of my family in my hometown, Kompong Cham and their moving to Phnom Penh before my wedding.

Our engagement and wedding dates were set in June after our graduation from the university. The engagement was set on the third week of June, 1970 and the wedding date was a week later towards the end of June. My father had planned a big wedding with more than one thousand guests to attend in my hometown and there would be many ceremonies to perform in the morning of my wedding day.

Unfortunately, there was an uprising of the anti-government group in April 1970. Their movement was quite agressive that people felt unsafe to live there. My father decided to leave our hometown with my brother #2 and his family to the capital. Other brothers and sisters’ families also moved to Phnom Penh. My father left our hometown with two houses behind: one for business and the other one for residence hoping that he would be able to return home some day. So many people left Kompong Cham and moved to Phnom Penh, the capital city. The political situation was intense in our hometown that the communication was cut off from people living there. Kompong Cham was isolated from the government at that time and it was controlled by the opponent Party. There was no hope for my father and the family to return to our hometown.

My father didn’t want to start any business in Phnom Penh, but needed a house for the family to live in. He bought a four floor house on Monivong Boulevard near the Central Market. This boulevard was a big and long boulevard for people to run business. Along both sides of the boulevard, there were many shops, stores, pharmacies, restaurants., etc…

The four floor apartment house was about 100 feet in length and 15 feet in width. Nobody lived on the first floor. The front door was usually closed and was half opened in the morning. The first half was used as a living room to receive friends. The kitchen was in the middle part of the house and the second half of the back was used for dining room. There was a stair case near the kitchen that we could use to go up to the upper floors. My father had a small room on the half way between first and second floor.

As my father and all family members moved to Phnom Penh in May 1970, our wedding would take place in Phnom-Penh. Before the marriage, I asked my father to rent an apartment for Richard and I to live in after the wedding for more privacy. This request was not usual as the children should live with parents if they could not afford to live on their own. My father agreed and had me furnished the apartment. We got married on June 28, 1970 . Richard graduated and got his Mining Engineer degree at that time. I began my teaching job in September 1970. I did not get paid while teaching in high school. The school policy was to pay first year teachers only when they finished teaching one school year from the month of September to July and they would receive monthly salary afterwards. We lived on the money that my father gave as a wedding gift to help us settled at the beginning of our marriage life.

After his graduation, Richard got a Fulbright Scholarship from American Embassy in Cambodia. He left Phnom Penh in January 1971 and came to the United States of America to continue his Master degree in Mining while I stayed in Phnom Penh and taught in Lycée Sisowath.The air tickets were provided by the U.S. Embassy. The Fulbright scholarship will provide room and meals when Richard got to the U.S.A. Richard left Cambodia with 400 US dollars with him. Our local money was Riel. The exchange rate at the time Richard left was $1.00= 30 Riels. The average of teachers’ salary was about US$100

After two years living in a rental villa alone with my daughter, the nanny, and the cook, I moved in to my father’s house as I planned a trip to the U.S.A. to visit Richard who studied his master degree in School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. During the summer vacation, I travelled to Golden, Colorado visiting Richard inJune 1973. I left my daughter who was two years old under the care of my father. I also had a nanny to take care of her. On the plane to fly back to Cambodia, I thought this was my last goodbye to U.S.A and never crossed my mind that I would come back to Denver. I returned to Cambodia in September 1973 and continued teaching until March 1975. ( in chapters 2 and 3 of my story) .

My father, my three married brothers, two married sisters, one single young sister, my aunt, a cook, maids, and nannies all lived in this house. We were twenty six people including the children living in there. We did not contribute financially to our father as the house was paid in full when he bought the house. My father took care off all the expenses for this household including foods. He gave me a new car to drive to work upon my return from the U.S.A. I left Phnom Penh in March 23, 1975 with my two children. The air tickets for the three of us and the fees paid to the school and other expenses were paid by my father. I only had $500 with me when leaving Cambodia.

In Paris, July 1977.

In July 1977, while we lived in Kipushi, Zaire, we received a letter from my father informing us that the French Embassy in Vietnam, had granted them a Visa to enter France. They were able to come to France as they were sponsored by a cousin who lived in Paris. They all arrived safely in Paris in the beginning of July. They rent an apartment in District Paris 13, located South of Paris. This place was later called Chinatown of Paris.

As soon as I got news from my father, I flew to Paris with my son to visit them as I had not seen them since I left Cambodia in March 1975.

Here is the story that was described by my brother #2.

In the morning of April 17, 1975, there were lots of military trucks passed by the streets of Phnom Penh. They were loaded with young soldiers called “Khmer Rouge”. Their uniform was all black including a black cap. They had a cotton scarf called “Krama” rolled around their neck.

My father and other family members stood in front of the house on Monivong boulevard along with the neighbors. Vendors, doctors, soldiers, lawyers, and government officials lined the streets cheering the Khmer Rouge. They all were so happy that the war between the Khmer Rouge and the government was over. Couple hours later, residents noticed that the troops were not celebrating with them. Their hope turned to fear as the Khmer Rouge asked people to leave the house immediately. They announced that Americans would bomb the capital Phnom Penh shortly.

My father and the family took essential things and put them in the car, but did not leave immediately. In the afternoon, the soldiers came to knock at the house and forced them to get out of the house. Some neighbors who were old and crippled didn’t want to leave. They asked their children to leave without them as they didn’t want to be a burden. They wanted to stay alone in the house. Some families had their grandfather or grandmother sit in a chair and had two people carry them. When walking too far, too long and no hope to return home, some older people didn’t want to continue. They asked their children to leave them at a place and continue walking to another town without them. People around Phnom Penh wandered and walked to the country side with no destination to reach.

My father sat in the car while my brother drove it slowly. All other family members walked near the car. The roads were packed with people from everywhere to get out of Phnom Penh. At night, they slept on the sidewalk. My father had a plan to go to Vietnam as he thought it might be safer there. Couple days later, the car was out of gasoline. They left the car and walked to another small town. They know some people who lived there for quite a long time under the Khmer Rouge. My dad asked if our family could stay in this town with them. The answer was no. They were directed by the Khmer Rouge not to accept any people from Phnom Penh to live in this town. My older sister #2 and her family could stay with them as her husband’s cousin was the head of the Khmer Rouge in that town. My father and the family stayed in the field and slept there for a couple days. He asked all the children: brothers #2, #3, #4, and sister #2 to decide what they wanted to do. My dad would head to Vietnam and asked everyone to show up the next day at 6:00am if they wanted to continue the trip with him. The next morning, as there was no sign of sister #2 and her family, my father waited until 8:00am. He decided to leave this town without saying goodbye to them.

It took about two months for my father and the family walking to the border of Vietnam and Cambodia. Their feet were swollen, their clothes were torn, and all looked like beggars. Passing through Vietnam customs was hard. They asked questions in Vietnamese language and people must respond in the same language. Otherwise, they could not enter Vietnam. Fortunately, my father spoke Vietnamese fluently as he did business with Vietnamese people in our hometown. They passed the test and continued walking to Saigon, the capital city. My dad had some friends in Saigon. One of his friend got a house for my dad to rent. The whole family stayed in that house together.

They met other people who also walked from Cambodia. They stayed there for about two years. Brother #2 applied for a visa to migrate to France and they were granted. They arrived in Paris in July 1977.

People who lived in Cambodia were under the control of the Khmer Rouge. There had no news from Cambodia since April 1975. In March 1979, the Khmer Rouge was overthrown by a new group of new Cambodian people( Hun Sen group). As people had a hard life during the Khmer Rouge regime and were afraid of the soldiers, they immigrated to Thailand and stayed in the refugee camp waiting to move to a third country.

●     After the passing of my mother, my oldest sister #1 left Cambodia in 1955 as teenager to continue her study in China. She didn’t like the communist regime. Later, she got married and moved to Hong Kong and lived there since. The whole family still live in Hong Kong.

●     My sister #2 and the whole family of three people did not want to come with my father to Vietnam. They could not survive this regime. With no food the whole family starved to death.

●     I am the third sibling on the girl side, they called me sister #3. (Refer to chapter 1). I left Cambodia three weeks before the government collapsed in 1975.

●     My sister #4 and her family did not come with my father as her husband who was a high school teacher wanted to stay and the family moved to his hometown. The whole family of five died during this cruel regime.

●     My brother #3 and #4 and the families also stayed with my father in Saigon, Vietnam. They all came to France the same time.

●     My youngest brother #5 did not live under this regime. He left Cambodia in 1973 and came to the USA two years before the fall of Cambodia. He got married and have two children, they all live in California.

●     My youngest sister #5 was a teenager when she arrived in France with my father. She got married and has one son. She and her husband own a restaurant in Paris near Eiffel Tower.

Richard’s family:

We did not hear from the family until some people migrated to France later. They told us about Richard’s family situation, but they were not sure of what was exactly happened at that time.

Richard’s family lived in a town of PreK Phnau that was situated about 20 kilometers from Phnom Penh. Because of the political turmoil, the whole family moved from his hometown to live in the capital city since 1974, a year before the fall of Cambodia. I was in Cambodia at that time when they moved in to Phnom Penh. I left Cambodia in March 1975. ( chapter 3)

Here was the story that was described by people from his hometown.

On April 17, 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took power, they forced people out of their house. Richard’s family along with other families walked among the crowds. They wandered and did not know what town to go.

They ended up in a town in the province of Pursat, North West of Cambodia and about 120 kilometers from Phnom Penh. According to people, his parents and all the children all died during that time with illness and starvation except one sister who survived.

Richard family consisted of nine children. He is the oldest.

There were five girls and four boys including Richard.

●     Richard left Cambodia in January 1971 for the USA to continue his Master degree (chapter 2).

●     His brother #2 along with his wife and three children went to a different town with his in-laws. His brother was executed by the Khmer Rouge as he was a former lieutenant in the army. His wife and all other family members couldn’t resist the regime and all died, except the second son who lived with his maternel grandmother survived.

●     All other siblings died except one sister survived. Richard’ younger sister (Marilyn) got married in 1973. A baby girl (Serena) was born in October 1974. On April 15 1975, her husband who was an officer went to the military headquarter to check his next assignment. The military headquarter rotated the officers and soldiers around places regularly. The officers needed to check their assignment when they came to the capital. While he was checking the list of names posted on a board, a rocket bomb was landed at that place. The debris hit him and he was killed on the spot. The situation was very bad at that time as the rocket bombs were landed so often in Phnom Penh. Richard’ sister was so shocked as she was waiting for her husband to come to the house for lunch. Not a tear was dropped on her face as she was stunned with this news. She and her 6 month-old daughter left and went to her in-laws house for making arrangement for her husband funeral on April 16. She stayed at her in-laws house overnight and planned to return home in a couple days. The next day, April 17, the Khmer Rouge invaded Phnom Penh and forced people to leave the house. She and her daughter could not go back to their house as the streets of Phnom Penh were packed with all people who wandered around without destination to reach. They were stuck with the in laws family and walked with them to another town. Arriving to a small village, she remembered vaguely that there was a distant relative living there. She decided to leave her in-laws and was heading to that relative’s house. They let her stay in the back of the house and she needed to live on her own to survive. Fortunately, later on she met her older brother #2 who moved to a village near by. He came along with his family and his in-laws, about ten of them. She could not join her brother as there were too many people in that house. She stayed at the relative’s house.

There were endless stories of this tragedy in Cambodia. Each family was affected in one way or another with this tragic situation. The majority of people especially the young people were traumatized during that era. There were countless disturbed children after this tragedy.

All the news that I heard from my brothers and others broke my heart. I was so sad with the death of my sisters #2 and #4 and their family along with my cousins, friends etc…

I stayed in Paris for two months to help my father and our family get settled and returned to Zaire in September 1977. Richard was so sad with all these news. He was grieving for the loss of his father, mother, grandmother, his siblings, and relatives for quite a long time in Zaire.

Chapter 4, part 3: Leaving Zaire**

I stayed with my father and brother #2 for two months to help them get settled in Paris. My father, my younger sister, and my brother #2 and his family lived in an apartment in Paris 13.

My brother #3 and his family arrived to France before my father. They lived in Tourcoing, a small town on the northeast of France, near Germany.

Brother #4 and his family lived in a suburb of Paris.

After helping my father settled in Paris, I returned to Zaire in September 1977.

After my return to Kipushi, Zaire, life was so peaceful. We had helpers to do house chores and work in the garden. I learned how to cook Cambodian and European foods. (Chapter 4, part 1). We continued our routine as usual with not much entertainment at that time.

However, in January 1979, there were an uprising of Zairois who were so poor and couldn’t afford to support the family. They rose in rebellion and looted the stores in the mining town of Kolvezi, about 300 Kilometers from where we lived. The houses of some expatriates were vandalized by the rebels. They went through their houses, took some of their belongings and destroyed things that blocked their way, but no one was injured. Despite this turmoil, the mining operation was not affected.

In Kipushi where we lived was fine as there was no looting. The company had taken precaution to protect people living in this town. The uprising was quiet down in Kolvezi a week later.

Richard and I were so worried with this event as we had bad experiences with the sad tragedy in Cambodia. We decided to leave Zaire for our children sake and their future. It was about time for them to have a good education either in France or in the United States of America as Zaire didn’t have much to offer in education. Podaly was 8 and Porendy was 5.

As we approached our second vacation that would begin in May 1979. Richard decided to leave Gecamines and had resigned from the company. At that time, we didn’t have valid Cambodian passports, but still hold Travel Documents from Zaire government (orange color documents, chapter 4, part 1). We got visas stamped on Zaire travel documents from the consulates of France and the U.S. A .

We sold our household items to the new comers and also passed our dog Bruno to the new owner. We limited our belongings to two suitcases for the trip as we planned to do some shopping in Paris.

Addendum to chapter 4 part 1: Kipushi, Zaire. Vacation in Paris 1977

During our first vacation in May 1977 in Paris, we had no news about my father and other members of my family, nor Richard’s family. We stayed with our cousin. While we were in Paris, we were so desperate to meet some Cambodians and wanted to get some news from Cambodia. We remembered that the best place to look for Cambodian people in Paris was “ La Maison du Cambodge” which was a dormitory of Cambodian students who came to study in Paris, France. This dormitory was located in the campus of Cité Universitaire in Paris 14. It was a big university that had many dormitories around. There were so many nationalities of students living there. They came from Asia, Africa, Middle East etc…

One day, we came to this university at lunch time and stood at the door of the campus cafeteria hoping to see some friends from Cambodia or any other Cambodians. When we heard people speak Khmer when they passed through the cafeteria door, we approached them and spoke in Khmer. They ignored us as they were afraid to talk to us for some reason. We came three days consecutively to the cafeteria, but were unable to contact any Cambodians. We were so disappointed and left the campus.

We returned to Zaire in May 1977 from our vacation. Two months later, in July, we received a letter from my father informing us that he got a visa from French embassy to come to France with my brother #2 and his family. ( chapter 4, part 2).

Chapter 4, part 3 (continued)

We left Zaire in the evening of May 6, 1979. Our first destination was Paris France. We were so excited to see my father and my family. It was about eight years that Richard hadn’t seen them since he left Cambodia in January 1971. We stayed in their apartment and caught up news with what we were missing for so long, especially for Richard.

We only got sad news about Richard’s family. Rumors spread out that Richard’s family couldn’t survive. His parents and his siblings died during that regime (chapter 4, part 2). This was only the rumor from people as they only heard from other people. Nothing was concrete. Richard and I were praying that all these sad news were wrong and hoping that we would hear good news from his family some time soon. We heard that so many Cambodians had escaped from Cambodia, fled to the refugee camp “Kao Y Dang” located at the border of Thailand. People were so uncertain about their future living in that camp, but kept hope that one day they could escape from this place and began a new life in another country. Thai government wouldn’t let them stay in Thailand. Red Cross organization, American, French, Canadian, Australian organizations, doctors, interpreters, representatives etc…flew to this camp to help out the refugees. Foods were also distributed to those people.

Many refugees got interviewed in the camp with French embassy to go to France. If they passed the test, visas were granted to them and their family. They were able to leave the camp in Thailand and moved to Paris. Among those people who came to Paris, there were some of our relatives and friends. We went to visit them and got some news of other relatives and friends.

My sisters #2 and her family died of starvation. Sister #4 and her family were executed as her husband was a teacher. (Chapter 4, part 2).No news from my other aunts, uncles, and cousins from my mother side. We kept hope that we would hear news from them when the refugees came to France. No news from Richard’s family or relatives.

My aunt (my father’s sister) who took care of us after my mother’s passing was separated from my father since the exodus of people in Phnom Penh on April 17. My father got news that she was with my cousin and lived in the refugee camp. My father planned to have her and a nephew to come to France.

We stayed a month in Paris visited different landmarks of Paris and did some shopping for some clothes. We could stay in France and applied for political asylum, but Richard and I had decided to come to the U.S.A because Richard got his diploma from School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

We left Paris, France on June 12, 1979 to America. Our destination was Denver, Colorado. A new chapter of our life in a new country was awaiting for us.

Chapter 5: Challenge in America

Part 1: Learning English and new culture

Richard was the first Cambodian who stepped in Colorado in 1972 after studying English language at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He was accepted to continue his Master Degree at School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. With the help of his adviser Dr. Charles. Frush, Richard got a contract with a mining company Gecamines in Zaire. He left Colorado in December 1974 (Chapter 2).

Richard decided to move back to Colorado after working four years and a half in Zaire. We could not go back to Cambodia at that time because of the Khmer Rouge regime.

After our vacation in Paris, France, we flew to Denver, Colorado on June 12, 1979. We stayed at Richard’s landlord’s house in Golden for a week, then we moved to our house in Westminster. We bought this house during our first vacation in Denver in February 1977. (Chapter 4.1)

When we arrived in Denver, we learned that many Cambodian refugees were settled there. They were granted to come to Denver, Colorado at the beginning of 1979 from American Embassy at the refugee camp in Thailand. At that time, the Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown in 1979 by a group of invading Vietnamese troops and a group of Cambodians.

We applied for a political Asylum at the Immigration Office in Denver. With the intervention of Sister Mary Nelle Gage from Lutheran Organization and a letter from the governor of Colorado, Richard Lamm, emphasizing that we did not seek for any financial assistance from the government, we were granted the Asylum.

Richard was able to communicate in English with people in Denver. Myself and the children did not speak English, but only spoke French. At home, I could not answer the phone because of the language barrier. I felt so handicapped.

I enrolled to learn English at Spring International School located on Lowell Boulevard across Regis College in Westminster, Colorado. The tuition was quite expensive for this private school. This school offered four levels of intensive English courses for foreign students who came from Asia, South America, Europe, etc… to continue their academic study in the university in America.

I began studying English from level 1 to level 4 consecutively, but skipped level 3 and jumped to English level 4 class. One project of the last class was that each student were required to do a presentation with any topic of their choice. The teacher invited a group of guests that were not the school personnels to listen to the presentation. My topic was genocide in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge era. At that time, people were not much aware of Asian culture and its history. I introduced Cambodia to the audience with a map of Southeast Asia with three countries: Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos that was called “Indochina”. It was the first time that people heard about this tragic event in Cambodia. They were so interested and emotional while listening to what I described. My English was not fluent at that time and I didn’t know how much they understood me, but a few people people had teared eyes.

As I completed my four English courses, I must take TOEFL test (Test of English as a Foreign Language). TOEFL was a standardized test to measure the English language ability of non native speakers wishing to enroll in English-speaker universities. My test scores were good enough for me to enroll at Metro State College in Denver. Great things that I brought all my diplomas from Cambodia with me when I left Cambodia on March 23, 1975 (chapter 3). This helped the college to evaluate my credentials and convert the credits to an equivalent of a degree in the United States. I needed to study for more courses to meet the required credits.

My advisor at Metro State College was Dr. Elizabeth Friot. In addition, I studied more courses in education to meet the requirement of obtaining a teaching Certificate. More tests were administered to me in reading, writing, mathematics, and speaking. I was oriented to get teaching certificate in Science and secondary in French. I had to take a test to measure my proficiency in the French language at University of Colorado Boulder (CU). I passed all the tests and was able to apply for a Colorado Teaching Certificate.

At first, It was so hard for me to study all these courses as my English was quite limited. The hard part of the English language was speaking skill. I wished they had a conversation class that I could enroll. However, as I resided in the English speaking country, no need to have speaking class. I could speak to people in English everyday.

For the courses In Metro State College, It took me more hours to read and understood each chapter of the books. My head was so heavy and almost exploded as my brain was overwhelmed to hold new words and vocabularies. For the native English speakers, they had no problem understanding the topic. For me I needed to check new vocabularies first and then tried to understand each paragraph of the chapter. It never crossed my mind to quit, I told myself that if people could do it, I could too. It was just a matter of time that I would reach my goal. I came to America from so far and fought to survive in different countries, I would not stop there. I pursued my dream to have a good life for my family in America. My personal mentra was: “I could do it. I could make it”.

I studied at Metro State College for two semesters and met all the required courses. I did my student teaching at Oberon middle school in Arvada, Jefferson County School District, for six weeks. It was a tough challenge to teach for the first time in front of the American students. What a big relieve to hear that the students liked my teaching. I met all the requirements and got my first teaching certificate from Colorado Department of Education in September, 1980.

As we arrived in Denver in June 1979, it was summer vacation for all schools. We enrolled Podaly and Porendy during the summer in a private school near our house to learn English.

In September 1979, Porendy went to Kindergarten class in the morning in a public school in Westminster. Podaly went to second grade class at Mesa Elementary school in Westminster, Adam County School District 50. It was hard for both of them to start school as they didn’t speak English. The first day, I took Podaly to school, I told her teacher that she didn’t speak English, but only French. She needed extra time to learn English language with ESL program (English As a Second Language) beside her academic study in a regular class.

After the first semester, the kids spoke English fluently and forgot most of French language as they did not have anyone to practice French with. At home, we communicated in Khmer, but as time passed by, the kids spoke more English and less Khmer at home. I wanted to preserve Khmer language at home, but felt like it would hold back the kids in learning English. So we mixed English and Khmer language communicating at home that only us could understand. We also incorporated the three cultures : Cambodian, French, and American in our home.

The kids learned extra English during summer vacation. The teachers gave lots of books for them to read at home. We were quite strict with the kids. They went to bed at 8:00pm and did not watch much TV in the evening. They watched some specific TV programs on the weekend. For us, our goal was that the kids worked well in school. We were so lucky that both of our kids understood so well that school was priority number one in our family and they worked hard to help reaching our goal.

In second grade, Podaly was placed in the lower reading group in class. Then the following years she was moved to a higher reading group. At the beginning of 5th grade, she was placed in the top reading group in her class. Her writing, reading, listening, and speaking were not an issue anymore. Her academic grade was excellent.

As Porendy began with Kindergarten class at young age, there was no problem for him. He had a good background in French language as he went to school in Zaire at age three and continued until we came to the States. He learned how to write and read like everyone else in the classroom, but needed to work extra time in learning more vocabularies with ESL program. When he finished first grade, he did quite well. He moved to second grade the following year. His academic grade was excellent. No problem with English language.

There were not many jobs in mining field offered In Colorado at that time. But Richard was lucky and was hired as an engineer in an Uranium Mine company in Golden, Colorado in February 1980. At that time, I was studied at Metro State College to obtain my teaching license.

Richard was involved with Cambodian Community in Denver. There were about 1,500 Cambodians living in the suburbs of Denver. There were not many educated Cambodians in Denver at that time. Richard was elected as the president of Colorado Cambodian Association. We helped out the new comers who came to settle in Colorado from the refugee camp. The association began to introduce Cambodian culture to American community. We celebrated first Khmer New Year in Colorado with the presentation of Khmer traditional dances. Cambodian young girls and boys were trained for many months to perform those dances. We also presented Cambodian foods and culture as well.

We also exchanged and shared ideas with many Cambodian Associations in other States. We learned that Prince Norodom Sihanouk who was the Head of Cambodia, had exiled in Bejing, China since January 1970. It happened before the Khmer Rouge took power in April 1970. He wanted to come to America to meet with Cambodian people. We invited the prince to come to Denver to make a presentation to American community about the tragedy of Cambodia with the killing of 2 1/2 millions of innocent lives of Khmer people.

We received prince Sihanouk and his wife Monique at our house in Westminster for two nights, March 1 and March 2, 1980. The prince entourage who came with the prince stayed with other Cambodian families. We did not prepare lunch or dinner at our house as we wanted the house free of smell. We asked a Cambodian family to make Phnom Penh noodle soup for lunch and other dishes for dinner. They brought everything to our house before lunch and before dinner.

In the morning some Cambodians were invited to our house to meet with the prince. For protocols, we placed only the prince and princess at each end of the table for lunch and dinner. But the prince insisted that our family with the two kids should be with him and the princess during lunch and dinner. So we had six people at the table having lunch with the prince. In the evening, the prince went to do his presentation at Women College in Denver.

*Note about Norodom Sihanouk

Sihanouk was head of State of Cambodia numerous times.

●     1941. Crowned as King of Cambodia

●     1955: Abdicated and was succeeded by his father,

●     Suramarit

●     1955-1960: Primer Minister

●     1960-1970: Declared himself Head of State in 1960

●     1970: Ousted by a Cambodian Coup, fled to China and

●     North Korea, and exiled until 1975

●     January 1976: Returned to Cambodia

●     1976- 1978: Head of Khmer Rouge government, but

●     kept under arrest in the royal palace

●     1979: allowed to fly to Beijing, China and sought asylum

●     in China.

●     1979-1991: Asylum in China

●     1991: Returned to Cambodia in November

●     1993: Reinstated as King of Cambodia

●     2004: Abdicated once again.

●     2012: Died of heart attack on October 15.

At the time we received the prince at our house, we didn’t know that he returned to Cambodia in 1976 and was head of the Khmer Rouge government until the fall of the regime in 1979 (No news leaked out from Cambodia from April 1975 to January 1979).

We learned that Prince Sihanouk supported the “Vietcong”, the Vietnamese guérillas, and allowed them to hide at the border of Cambodia and Vietnam since the mid 1960’s.

Vietnamese leaders, especially Ho Chi Minh, always wanted to take over Cambodia and put it under their control.

Sihanouk fell into this trap and let the Vietcong infiltrated inside of Cambodia territory, especially hiding in the jungles in the mid 1960’s. At that same period, many Cambodian intellectuals who were chased by Sihanouk government because of the political differences. They were considered as the party of the communists. They hid in the jungle and were afraid that Sihanouk would execute them if they were caught. More people entered the jungle and joined them. With the help of the Vietcong, they formed the Khmer Rouge young soldiers and began to have their own government within the jungle. The tragic genocide of Cambodia began in April 1975 when the Khmer Rouge entered the capital. (Chapter 4, part 2).

We would NOT invite prince Sihanouk and his wife to Denver in March 1980 if we knew about his involvement with the Khmer Rouge. We would hold him among other leaders responsible for the loss of many innocent lives.

Chapter 5, part 1 (cont’d)

From January 1979, more Cambodian refugees came to Denver from the camp. We sent many flyers to the office of the refugees camp in Thailand and asked them to post our flyers on the board. We were looking for our family, relatives and friends who arrived in the camp and asked them to contact us. We received many letters from Thailand, but none of them were related to us.

Even we learned sad news from people in Paris about Richard’s family (chapter 4.2), we prayed and kept hope that we might get some good news from his family. In February 1981, we received a letter from Richard’ sister (Marilyn) informing us that she arrived to the camp with her daughter, but did not mention any other family members. She came to the camp with a Cambodian family from her hometown. We sponsored her and the family that came with her. They came to Denver with the assistance of the Red Cross Organization in February 1981.

We also sponsored another family that was my second cousin’s family. With the assistance of a church in Arvada, this family came to Denver in 1982.

We learned more of the loss of Richard’s family from his sister and how she could survive and managed to come to the refugee camp with her daughter. They were the only survivors. His father, mother, and other siblings all died and we did not know exactly where their lives were ended. In April 16, 1975 his sister was not with her parents; she went to her in-laws for her husband’s funeral (chapter 4, part 2). No news from his uncles, aunts, and cousins. We assumed that they could not survive the Khmer Rouge regime. Overall, about 100 people in Richard’s family including uncles, aunts, cousins etc… were deceased during that time.

Culture and holidays in the new country.

When we came to Denver in July 1979, it was summer time. The weather was nice and warm like in Cambodia and Zaire. I learned new things about the four seasons and the three months of each season and the daylight savings with setting the clock back in the Fall and forward in the Spring. It happened to me once when I went to school on Monday morning after the weekend of Fall daylight saving. The parking lot was empty. When I entered the school building, I did not see any students nor the teachers in there except the janitor who swept the floor. I thought that the school was closed for some reasons that I didn’t know. I asked the custodian why it was so quiet. He told me about the daylight saving. Darn it.

In October, it looked so beautiful with the changing of the color of the leaves and their falling off the trees.

In November, the weather turned in cooler and then cold. I was so amazed to see the first snow flakes falling from the sky, it was so beautiful. On the contrary, on the gloomy days and when the sky turned gray, and when looking at the skeleton trees with no leaves, I felt sad, melancholic and nostalgic of Cambodia.

In the Spring, I was happy to see the trees foliated and the flowers blooming. Everything turned green.

We learned about holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas etc… that we didn’t have in Cambodia. We added some holidays to our family. The kids had fun during these holidays.

I learned how to make Thanksgiving dinner from my next door neighbor. She came to our house and taught me how to bake turkey and make some side dishes. We like one of her side dish called “Grandma Salad” that consisted of cool whip, cottage cheese, jello lime, walnuts, and crushed pineapple.

Later in the mid 1983’s, we found two of Richard’s classmates from Cambodia who came to work in Colorado. We invited his friends and their family to spend Thanksgiving dinner and stayed overnight at our house. One family came from Colorado Springs and the other family was from Fort Collins. We took turns to meet at Christmas Day and New Year Day. We had a great time during the holidays and enjoyed our friends’ company.

The kids adapted and coped nicely with the new culture.

Addendum to chapter 5.1

Gifts with Cambodian children

Christmas was a good holiday as we bought many gifts to the children. During this holiday, it reflected me about Cambodian children who did not have this privilege. As I remembered during my childhood, the Cambodian children did not receive money gift. However, the kids with Chinese background would receive red envelopes with money called “Ang Pao” from parents and relatives during the Chinese New Year.

For my family, as my father was Chinese (chapter 1), we celebrated Chinese New Year. We received red envelopes every year. In the evening of the Chinese New Year’s Eve, my father had red envelopes ready to give to the children. He called each of us by our age from the oldest to the youngest to his desk one by one and handed the red envelope to us. The money was also given by the age. The older you were, the bigger amount of money you would receive.

My father gave me the money, not only at the new year, but also at other times. I didn’t want to ask money from my father every morning before going to school. We never had cafeterias in school. There were some stands selling noodle or rice for breakfast in the morning. We returned home at lunch time and went back to school at 2:30pm. I requested a monthly allowance since I was in 5th grade. He liked my idea and agreed to it. He set my monthly allowance to 500 Riels (Cambodian money) which was an equivalent of 15 US dollars. At that time, the elementary school teacher’ salary was about 3,000 Riels.

He also gave me extra money of 500 Riels each time I received an Award Certificate from school. After showing him my certificate, I placed it on his big wood desk with glass top on it. My father smiled each time I placed the certificates under the glass top. I was so happy to see my father smile.

After the passing of my mother in 1955, my father stayed widowed for so long. He never got remarried as he was afraid that the step mother wouldn’t get along with the children. I could see that he felt emptiness even there were many kids in the house. He didn’t have time to have conversation with us as we was so busy with his business during the day. I felt so sorry for my father and I wanted to see his smile more often, but didn’t know how. None of the kids came talking to him as they were afraid of him. After the loss of our mother, each kid stayed with the nanny around the clock (chapter 1). I was not afraid of my father as he was so gentle and nice when I approached him. I talked to him time to time, but not so often as I needed to study in the evening.

He passed away in 1995 in Paris, France at the age of 90.

Chapter 5: Part 2

Employment and Cirizenship

After obtaining my teaching certificate, I began to look for a teaching job, but it was hard to find. I worked as a substitute teacher for Jefferson School District for about one year. It was a hard job that I did not like because it was not a steady job, and it went on day by day basis.

In September 1982, I got two part-time jobs as a tutor at Arvada high school in the morning and at Lakewood high school in the afternoon. I was working closely with the classroom teacher to help students with limited English. Most of the students were Vietnamese. We had a few Cambodian students in Arvada high school.

As I could speak five languages: fluent in Khmer and French, proficient in Vietnamese, Chinese (Teochew dialect), and English, I was hired in August 1983 as a part time French teacher working for Adams County School District 50 in Westminster. I began my teaching job at a vocational school, Career Enrichment Park (CEP) in Westminster. There were two French teachers at CEP at that time.

I taught two classes of French at CEP in the morning, then went to an elementary school in Adams county district 14 in Commerce City working as a tutor helping the kids learning English in ESL (English as a Second Language) program in the afternoon.

In the following school year 1984, the Administration decided to move the Foreign language department from CEP to the two high schools in the district. I got a new contract teaching French full time at Ranum high school. The other teacher moved to Westminster high school.

There were three languages that were offered in the district: French, Spanish, and German. I was the only French teacher at Ranum high school for a long time. The enrollment of foreign language was increased towards mid 1990’s and an additional part time French teacher was hired.

I had a hard time to cope with American school during my first year. A lot of challenge to face with American students. Thanks god that the majority of students were well behaved. It was a different school system and everything was new to me.

I worked very hard to cope with the new culture and school system. How many times did I cry because of the frustration and the dealing with tough parents who sometimes gave me a hard time. I was so grateful that most of the students did not give much trouble.

My English was proficient, but not fluent and it was hard for the students to understand me with my Cambodian- French accent. At the beginning of the school year, I had a letter for the students to sign. It was stated that if they didn’t understand my English, they should ask me to repeat again. Fortunately that I taught French, so they didn’t complain much about my English.

The lunch system was completely new to me. In Cambodia, there was no lunch offered at school. Everyone went home for lunch. Morning classes 7:00am to 12:00pm; lunch 12:00pm-2:30pm; and afternoon classes 2:30pm-5:30pm. It took me a long time to cope with food from cafeteria because I was not used to American food. I had lunch in Ranum cafeteria for one semester, then I brought my own lunch afterwards. I sat at the lunch table with other teachers in the teacher lounge. I was not comfortable to speak I only listened to the other teachers talking. They always had stories to tell. My listening skill was excellent as I understood new things day after day. I learned a lot from the school meeting that was set once after school on Mondays. I wanted to express my ideas, but English was a barrier for me. I wished that the meeting was in French or Khmer, it wouldn’t be a problem.

As years passed by, I learned new things and ideas everyday from my work place and how the school tackled each situation differently. Dealing with the students and their parents was a difficult task. But teaching job became much easier as I understood the system and the students better. I was ready to go to school every morning and I loved my job. My attendance was perfect, no absence from school for my first year teaching at CEP.

There was not much discipline problem in the classroom. But sometimes a few students misbehaved, but no major issues.

I would say in my teaching career at Ranum for 18 years, I only had two discipline problems and referred the students to the principal. The first incident was a misbehaved female student whom I kicked out of the class went to the parking lot during the recess, scratched my car with her key and sprayed some bad words on it. She was removed to another class and she was not allowed to enroll in my class for the next school year.

The second incident was a student threatened me that he was a mafia member and he could kill anyone easily. I referred him to the principal. His parents were called in to discuss about this issue with the principal and myself. The parents apologized for it and the students said he was just joking. He was expelled from my class. Couple weeks later, when we crossed each other in the hall, he still smiled at me.I was so relieved that he was not mad at me.

In our classroom, students had lots of activities in the classroom which made learning French fun. I also introduced some Asian culture in my classroom which the students were so interested. I introduced Khmer alphabets with 33 consonants and 23 vowels to the class. I had them write “I Love You” in French, Khmer, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc… on their Valentine card with their name in Khmer. I did this activity only on Valentine’s Day. The students also loved to listen to the stories of Cambodia and its tragedy and other things related to Cambodia culture.

I also incorporated French and Cambodian foods with Home Economic department. The students learned how to make French crêpes and Cambodian egg rolls in the kitchen of Home Ec class.

I had good and bad times during my teaching at Ranum, but enjoyed teaching and loved my job and my students.

I taught at Ranum high school in the same classroom for eighteen years and was retired in 2001.

Richard was working at uranium mine in Golden for two years. Then he got a job offer at a mining consulting company and moved to work for this company for two years. One year later, this company went bankrupt. Richard was out of job. He was looking for a new job in mining, but no luck as the mining industry was so bad.

Since we moved to Denver in 1979, I went to school and did not work for a couple years. Richard was the sole person who worked at that time. We depended on his income to run the household. As years passed by, we used most of our saving money from Zaire to pay my school tuition, house mortgage and household expenses etc… Our family was struggled financially for a while. At one point, I was working at four jobs: teaching French at CEP in the morning, tutoring English in an elementary school in the afternoon, private tutoring Math to a young boy at his home twice a week, and working part time as cashier at Kmart in the evening and on some weekend. Life was hard, but I kept staying positive and praying for a better life for our family. Richard and I stressed out so much during that period. This was the worst chapter of our life in America. I felt so uncertain of our future. Was America the land of opportunity as people said? Not so positive about it.

Fortunately, Richard got a job offer as a project engineer in a small company IGSS in Aurora, Colorado in 1984. They had an office in Aurora, but the main company was in Santa Fe. Richard worked weekdays in Santa Fe and came home on the weekend. We called Richard “weekend husband” as he only came home on the weekend. Sometimes he traveled to San Francisco and other states. No steady place to stay and he ended up in the hotels most of the time.

The company got a project in Eureka, California. Richard was the engineer in charge of building a small tunnel. He stayed and worked in Eureka for a while until he completed the project.

While working at IGSS, Richard wanted to go back to work in Africa because he felt that this company was not stable and wouldn’t last long. The mining industry went downhill and it was very difficult to get a job. He was thinking to get a job in Africa, but the problem was he did not have a travel document or a passport to travel there. He put this idea aside.

At that time in order to get a passport, we had to follow the procedure with Immigration and Naturalization Office. First, he must apply for a green card to become a U.S. Permanent Resident. The requirement was to reside in the U.S. for two years. We got our green cards in 1982.

Next step was to become a citizen of America and had to wait for three more years to apply for naturalization. The requirement for obtaining the US citizenship was to reside and live in the States for five years consecutively without any interruption. We did not travel overseas and waited for five years (1979-1984). We also studied US history and other subjects from a booklet that was given to people before going for an interview with Immigration Office.

We applied for Naturalization and got an interview with an Immigration Naturalization Officer in Denver in 1984. What a coincidence that we got the same officer who interviewed us for our Green Card. The oral test was to recite the ten Amendments in the Bill of Rights. Richard and I answered the Amendments alternatively and we did it all right. More questions were about the Congress and Senate. We passed the oral test and we were asked to wait for the Immigration Office to contact us for the Naturalization.

After six months of waiting period, we were sworn in to become US Citizens in August 16, 1985.

On that day, our names were changed by decree of court to Richard Ung and Linda Ung as part of the Naturalization. The reason we changed our name was that people never pronounced our name right. For me, people couldn’t guess my gender. A few times, I got a letter addressed to me as a mister. For Richard, he didn’t like his name given by his parents since he was a young boy. He felt very uncomfortable with his name. At young age he had a complexe with his name and stayed withdrawn from people for a long time.

The children wanted to keep their names and we respected their decision. As Richard hated his name given by his parents, he was thinking of giving good names to our kids. Our children names are so unique. It was a combination of “Po” combined with “Daly” for a girl name to “Podaly” for our daughter. “Po” combined with “rendy” for a boy name to “Porendy”for our son.

“Po” in Khmer “ពោធិ” derived from a Banyan tree that has a huge shade and in Buddhism it is a symbol of longevity. This tree is considered sacred. There are a few Banyan trees in the surrounding of Angkor Wat in Seam Reap and some near the other temples.

After we got our citizenship, we were able to travel overseas with our new passports. I went to visit my family in Paris in the summer of 1986 after seven years not seeing them. I stayed there for a month. Since then, I went to France every summer to visit my father, except the summer of 1988.

Richard’s company sent him to China for business meeting in July 1988. He asked the company if I could go with him on this trip. His boss approved his request. The company paid air tickets and hotel accommodations for both of us and gave us extra cash to take along.

We also visited Hong Kong and other provinces in China. We also went to Japan before heading back to Colorado.

While working at IGSS, Richard applied for a job in Africa. He got a contract with a Copper Mines company in Zambia on April 30, 1990. He was hired as a Senior Mine Planning Engineer. He resigned from IGSS and moved to Zambia in May 1990. Because of his new job, we lived apart for one year until May 1991.

He came home every six months for a month of vacation. It was hard for me to live far away from Richard, but there was no other alternative. The children did not have much time to spend with their father as he was away most of the time because of the job.

In May 1991, I had a surgery, hysterectomy. Richard resigned and came back to Denver to take care of me. I stayed home during the summer and went back to work in September 1991.

While staying with me during my surgery, Richard always wanted to work for Gécamines in Zaire, the company that he used to work for 1975-1979. With the help of a friend in Zaire, Richard was lucky that he got a contract from Gécamines and went to work there for a second time in October 1991.

He worked in Lubumbashi for five years from 1991 to 1996. Richard came home every six months for vacation. We lived apart again for another five years. We sacrificed our marriage life staying apart for so long because of a better future for our children. I believed this was our destiny to work hard and fight to survive in America.

Our children excelled in school. Podaly graduated from Westminster high school as a valedictorian in June 1989. She was accepted at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Porendy graduated with honor from Ranum high school in 1992. He got accepted at Babson College in Wellesley which was not too far from the school where Podaly attended. Both of our children attended colleges in the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts. While Porendy was a freshman at Babson College, Podaly was a senior at Wellesley College. She graduated from college in May 1993. Porendy graduated from Babson in May 1996.

I was home alone in Denver while children attended college. During that time. I felt emptiness everyday when I returned home from school. I cried every night for many year as I missed my family so much. I was so distressed especially on the weekend.

At one point, our family were in four different continents. Richard was in Zaire, Africa. Podaly was studying in Ireland, Europe, Porendy was in Singapore, Asia, studying Chinese for one semester, and I was in Denver, U.S.A.

In December 1994, Richard wanted to visit his friends in Cambodia during his vacation time. He stopped by in Paris for a couple days and continued his trip to Cambodia. It was the first time that Richard visited Cambodia after 26 years living abroad. (Chapter 2: he left Cambodia in January 1971). He spent ten days there.

As Richard planned to go to Cambodia during his vacation and didn’t have time to come to Denver, I flew to Paris to meet with him. Upon his return to Paris, Richard was sick with a flu. I spent ten days in Paris taking care of Richard. The vacation time was ended. Richard needed to return to work in Zaire, but he was so sick that he could not fly back to Zaire. Richard called Gécamines headquarter in Bruxelles, Belgium, requesting for an extension of one week.

My vacation time was almost over and I had to return to Denver. I extended my stay in Paris for another week to take care of Richard. I called the school and requested a substitute for five days and sent one week lesson plan to school via fax from the post office in Paris. The substitute was thrilled to receive a lesson plan from Paris.

In 1996, his friend from Cambodia contacted Richard that the government needed a mining engineer from overseas to help in the Mining Department. Richard’s experience working in different countries fit well with the job description.

His friend set an interview for Richard to meet with the primer Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen. At that interview, the primer minister was pleased and wanted to have Richard working for him .He was appointed Richard as his advisor to work in the Mining Department.

Richard was willing to help Cambodia and accepted the job offer from Cambodian government. He did not want to quit Gecamines abruptly, he applied for a leave of absence for a period of six months without interruption of his contact. Gécamines granted his request.

Another chapter for Richard working for the first time in “new” Cambodia. I couldn’t join Richard at that time as I needed to work for a couple more years until my retirement. WHY living apart again? How many years? So uncertain. That was our destiny I believed.