We moved on from the house and we enjoyed the beautiful landscape that the village offers. We were amazed by the large mountains behind the village. We stopped at a villager’s house and observed the surroundings. It was notable that this house was deep inside a forest surrounded by only trees. An old man came out and welcomed us warmly. Our volunteer, Phorn Vanny, conducted the interview with him. Granpa’s name is Ieng Song, and he is 63 years old. He is a farmer and is living in Bak Nim village.
During the Lon Nol regime, he studied and helped out with his family’s housework. His life changed drastically when the Pol Pot regime took over, and he was forced to evacuate from his hometown to Anlong Tien village. In Anlong Tien he was assigned to the mobile unit brigade building dams. They assigned him every person to dig at least 3 meters of dirt each. During that time, people were even forced to work at night without getting enough sleep. He witnessed the soldiers walking the prisoners to a forest to shoot them. It was a terrifying sight to see but he turned a blind eye to it and focused on doing his work. Grandpa lost 3 of his closest sisters during the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge period left a terrible scar inside his heart.
