A Journal of Writings - SABES

SHARING EXPERIENCE ABOUT JOURNEY OF SURVIVAL ROSE LIM
Rose Lim
I was a teenager in 1979 when my family left Cambodia. It was the raining season. Five of
us had to walk from Cambodia to Thailand. My older brother had to carry all the
belongings while my mom and I took turns carrying my five month old baby sister. My
little brother was five years old. Everyday we would start walking early morning until the
sun went down and then we just rested on the side of the road for the night. The next
morning when the sun rose we started walking again. We didn’t have enough food to eat. I
remember my older brother was so skinny that his head and his knees were very big. My
little brother also had small legs and a big belly.
It took us about two weeks to cross from Cambodia to the Thailand border. Now we had
to cross. There were about twenty people crossing with us. I remember this one night when
we stopped to rest in the jungle. We had to separate ourselves so as not to make any noise.
If the soldiers or Khmer Rouge heard us, they would come kill us or take us away. One of
the leaders told my mom to stay a little distance from the group. He was afraid the baby
would cry and make noise.
There were a lot of mosquitoes when we slept in the jungle. I remember watching my mom
sitting, using a scarf to fan the mosquitoes away from my little sister and brother. The next
morning we woke and continued our journey.
We had to walk behind each other because there were a lot of land mines. At one time
there was a little girl who was walking quickly past my mom. My mother noticed this fresh
leaf planted in the middle of the road. There was a mine. My mom grabbed hold of the little
girl’s arm as her foot was two inches away from the mine. We were all so scared she would
step on it. If she did, we would all be dead. More walking lay ahead. Then my exhausted
feet finally reached the Thailand Camp. When I finally reached the Thailand camp I felt at
that moment so invigorated with freedom.
It was called Chumrom Thmaeh, which means New Camp. We settled down there under a
big tree. At one time there was a big rainstorm. We tried to move our stuff onto dry ground
but it kept raining harder. Everything we had was floating and my poor mom was very sick.
She was sleeping on the ground. I said to my mom, “Wake up! The water is coming up to
you,” but she was too sick to move. So she just lay there in the water.
About four months later we heard that the Red Cross was taking people by box truck to
another camp called Kowee Dan Camp. We had to sit on the floor for one and a half hours.
We reached the Camp. They dropped us off there and divided people into groups of twenty
families. They gave us a tarp to put as a roof, in case it rained. That night my mom tried to
tighten the tarp on the stick; there was strong wind. We all slept on tall sharp grass but it
was hard to get to sleep. I was happy because now we had somewhere to go for assistance.
They later built a shelter for the refugees where we stayed for three years. My mother then
found out about the sponsor program and she applied for our family. In the third year, we
were sent to Oklahoma in the U.S.A. Kyle Herbert was our sponsor.
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