Rochester Cambodian community has stories to tell

By Matt Russell
Post-Bulletin,

Rochester MN

On Friday last week, a few days after reporting repeated acts of vandalism and harassment at the Cambodian Buddhist temple just southeast of Rochester, the Post-Bulletin wrote an editorial condemning the incidents.

"Temple vandals know not what they do," the headline read. The editorial addressed the vandals directly, talking at length about the suffering many in Rochester's Cambodian community endured during the regime of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, a time when mass executions occurred and at least 1.3 million people died from disease, illness and starvation.

Shortly before reading the paper that day, Tracy Sam of Rochester called the Post-Bulletin to express her thanks for the outpouring of support the temple had received from the Rochester community, including churches, after the vandalism was reported.

Sam, who has acted as a spokeswoman recently for the 350-member Cambodian Buddhist community, called the paper again shortly after she read the editorial.

"I have something I would like to add," she said.

Twenty minutes later, the 32-year-old arrived at the Post-Bulletin lobby holding a high school essay she had written about her family's struggles to survive during the Khmer Rouge regime. The pages had been laminated to protect them from damage.

The editorial had opened the door to go deeper in telling the story of the suffering many Cambodians in Rochester have gone through, she said. By sharing the decades-old details of her family's story, she added, she hopes to deepen the community's understanding of the experiences many in her community carry with them.

"People need to not just look at the outside of people," Sam said this week. "They need to learn what's going on inside of them."

Three years on the run in the Cambodian jungle

Sam's essay starts on April 17, 1975, the day her family's village was taken over by the Khmer Rouge. Hearing about the soldiers' advance from screaming neighbors, Sam's mom packed food and supplies and took her children into the jungle.

Sam's father was fighting the Khmer Rouge at the time, so Sam's mother was on her own with the children.

"Although I wasn't born when this happened, I know about this through my mother's stories because she has told me many times; and they have become part of me," Sam wrote in her essay.

For three years Sam's mother and her children lived in the forest, relying on plants, fruits from trees and rain water to survive. Finally, in 1979 they reached Battambang, where they reunited with Sam's father.

Sam was born in Battambang. Shortly after, the family was separated again, this time because the Vietnamese invaded the country.

Again Sam's mother was alone in the jungle with her children as her husband got caught up in the fighting again. They fled the country and eventually made it to a refugee camp in Thailand, where they lived for two and a half years apart from Tracy's father.

Sam's mother and her children next went to the Philippines, where they lived in another refugee camp before departing for the U.S. in 1982.

More to the story

Earlier this week, Tracy Sam and her parents shared more details about the turn their lives took during the Khmer Rouge regime.

When Sam's mother fled to the jungle in 1975, it turns out, she brought with her an almost unbelievable burden: seven kids to take care of and keep safe. Five of the children died in the jungle during those three years on the run due to malaria and dysentery, Sam said.

Sam's mother, Nou San, 69, talked briefly about her years on the run. She and the kids had to move constantly to keep safe, she said, and slept on the ground at night wearing few clothes. There were land mines to avoid, she said, and many dead bodies in the jungle.

Life was also hard when they made it to the refugee camp in Thailand, San said, as she was only given 2 teaspoons of rice a day to feed three children. She said she had to use a lot of water to thin the rice out and make it stretch further.

"It was very hard trying to feed my kids," she said, with her daughter acting as a translator.

Tracy Sam's father, Ros Sam, didn't get out of Cambodia until 1983. He said he went to refugee camp in Thailand to search for his family because he knew many Cambodians had gone there. His wife and children had left the year before, however.

"He thought we were dead, and we thought he was dead," Tracy Sam said.

Ros Sam, who is 67, talked about how hard it was to be apart from his family for so many years. He also talked briefly about the difficulty of making a new life in America.

After a while, however, he grew quiet and got a distant look in his eyes.

Seeking peace and serenity

With the worst of their hardships behind them, Tracy Sam and her parents express gratitude for where they are today.

For Tracy's part, she expresses special gratitude to her mother for protecting her during their years-long journey from Cambodia to the U.S.

"If it wasn't for my mom, I wouldn't be this far," she said.

Sam Ros said that he considered it a miracle when he was reunited with his family, and said his children have helped him learn how to live and get by in America.

Nou San said she's grateful just to be safe and to have the basic necessities needed to survive.

She also expressed thanks for the temple.

"She said that she comes to the temple to seek peace and serenity," Tracy Sam said. "She hopes that in the next life she won't have the bad things happen to her that happened in this life."