"The Unlucky Boy" by Van - A Story from the Anjali House Writing Project. Siem Reap, Cambodia

Master Link to All Project Related Posts

Sue Guiney's Introductory Post  -Project Director - 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

Van, like all the work shop participants, is just starting to learn English. Unlike European languages, the structure and grammer of the Khmer language does not share Latin roots with English, making it very hard to master. The two languages do not even share a common alphabet and Khmer is written from left to right.

My thanks to Van (a pen name as required under Cambodian privacy regulations)

for allowing me to publish this very interesting well written story.

The Unlucky Boy, by Van

 

   In Cambodia there are a few floating markets in the water village. People sell around their houses. Some of them are fishing on the water. They went fishing in the night. When the sun comes up, they sell fish or something for food around the houses.

   One day, a boy called John went fishing. He wanted to sell his fish. But he was unlucky. He fell ill with a headache, and then he fell into the water. He can swim but he was so tired that he cannot swim that time. Nobody knew him. He died in the water. John never went home. His family cannot find him. They were very unhappy. Finally, they learned he was dead.

 

 

 

 

Van, age 16 

 

One year ago, I went to Tonlé Sap Lake. I went there with my friend. We also rode a boat to the floating village to see the floating village life. When I arrived there I also fished with my friend and we spoke about the floating village. We went to have lunch together and in the afternoon we climbed the mountain to see the sunset and we took a photo together.

Mel u