We arrived at one of the villager’s houses. The house was owned by a man named Tauy Nga, and the first thing that we saw when we entered the area was how the house was surrounded by huge palm trees with firewood laying everywhere. Another thing that caught our eyes was the large amount of bamboo containers in the yard. The containers are used to collect the juice from the palm hanging around his house. We introduced ourselves as DC-Cam volunteers and we asked him for his permission to interview him.
DC-Cam volunteer, Phorn Soksan, who is 24 years old, conducted the interview of Tauy Nga. (Grandpa) Nga is 76 years old and he is a farmer. During the Khmer Rouge, like other villagers, he worked as a dam construction worker in Stung Phae, before getting transferred to Koh Sla to cut down forest trees. Afterwards, he was evacuated by the Khmer Rouge to Domrei Romiel Mountain (Ta Mok’s home village) to plant corn and potatoes. He worked there until the country was liberated in 1979. After liberation, he made his way back to his hometown.
One interesting circumstance we learned was how he hates the sound of bells even to this day because it reminds him of how he was overworked during the Khmer Rouge regime.
