"Life Can Change" by Carmen - An Anjali House Writing Project Story

I found Carmen's story very moving.  Read with the care and respect it requires, it brings out much of the anguish and hopes of the children of the survivors of terrible years of the killing fields of Cambodia.

Like all the authors, she is in the opening stages of learning English. 

Sue Guiney's Introductory Post  - contains important links 

My Overview of the Project

My Q and A with Dana Hui Lim author of Mother and the Tiger- A Memoir of the Killing Fields. - essential background information 

" Life Can Change" by Carmen

 

   Ten years ago there was one big family. They were a rich family. In their house there was a grandmother. Her name wasPov. The father’s name was Litto. The mother’s name was Soy and they had a son named Sokthai. Sokthai was a good student. He studied hard. But then his father started to drink wine andSokthai didn’t study hard any more. He was too lazy to go to school. He always went to play games. His mother worked

hard.

   One day Sokthai’s father went to drink wine. When he came back home he was drunk. He started fighting with his wife for their money. Grandmother said to her son, “Can you look at your wife. Your wife is always going to work. You have to go to work like your wife.” Sokthai felt sad. He went to drink wine like his father.

   When he travelled from the shop that sells wine he saw his friends. He said hello to his friends, but they didn’t say anything to him. Sokthai got very angry with his friends. He started to fight, and he killed one of his friends. Then the police came to get him to go to the prison. He had to stay at the prison for 5 years.

   When the grandmother heard that news, she got sick and she died. The father thought, “I have to change my bad ways.” Finally he changed his bad ways to good ways. He went to work and after five years his son came home from the prison. Now they are very happy. They live and love each other for the rest of their lives.

Carmen, age 14 (author supplied data-all authors are using pen names to protect their privacy)

 

One day I went to the market in my village not in Siem Reap. I went there to buy some food. When I arrived I had an accident with a motor. That motor hit me and I hurt my head. The man who drove the motor gave me some money to buy a tiger balm and I said thank you to him. That time I was hurt very badly, but I took the money that he gave me to buy a tiger balm. I took it to play a game called Pushing Shoes. I lost the game.

When I went back home my mother asked ‘where is the food?’,and I said I lost the money. She said some bad words to me and she gave money to me again. The next day I told her about the game I played and she got very angry with me. I promised her that I would stop playing that game in my future.