MENU

A Minnesota PBS Initiative

Rothana Walbolt

My name is Rothana Walbolt. I’m from Cambodia. The Cambodia has been though a lot of difficulty during the time that I grew up. All the time when I grow up, all I remember is running. 

So, when I was six years old, the Khmer Rouge had split me away from my family to work on a rice field. For a while working, and a lot of use get sick, not enough food to eat. And later on found a letter- my dad had wrote a letter to the commander saying that my mom is really sick and he needed us to be home. So, gladly, that commander let us, you know, to go with my dad. And some commanders very, you know, very mean and some are very kind. So, gladly that he let us go home to see my mom.

And then the next day, the war started, and my mom and dad bring us… to run to the pond and somehow I kind of hesitated, doesn’t want to go to the pond. I remember the smell and the feel of the whistle of bullets past my ear and my mom grabbed me down and pushed me into the pond. So we’re all in the pond and then later on my dad said you know, don’t move. So we don’t move and then later on we feel like a snake, a lot of snakes. I get goosebumps. A lot of snake. Don’t know what kind, don’t know what kind it is. So we stand there and not move, and gladly the snakes swim around to another side of the pond. 

Most of the kids they grew up here, they don’t know how difficult it is [for] a parent, that they sacrifice for them. When they get here, they just see everything here, and they happy, they grow up, they have friend, they have food, they have… but the elder and during my time, during my parents’, it’s: grow up with fear, grow up with starvation. So we have not lived like this. No, we grew up in the jungle, in the camp, in the tent.

So we finally, the UN had called all of us to go to the camp, the different camps. So we get into the truck and go to the Khao I Dang camp. And that’s how we stayed there for a while. That’s how I grow up there at the Khao I Dang camp.

And then later on we find a letter from a family live in the US: my uncle looking for a family. So my uncle he came here. He’s a solider so he came here first and he lost all his family. So he write a letter with his picture, put in the camp, looking for family. So that’s how my dad know him and we write that we here, we in the camp. So we write a letter back and forth and connect each other and then we have interview with immigration and we pass the test, and we come to the US. 

Cambodian refugees standing in a group.

Biographical Details

Primary Location During Vietnam: Khao-I-Dang Holding Center, Cambodia Vietnam location marker

Story Subject: Refugee

Read More Read Less

The first year that we came to the US was the first Fourth of July. And when the fire[works] start my mom… run to the basement when the fire[works] start because it sound like, you know, war… so she run downstairs and she call all her children to go downstairs and [we] let her know that it’s not war, it’s just the fireworks. Most of us Cambodians that lived in the camp think that USA is a heavenly place to live because we have everything. We don’t have to worry about food. We don’t have to worry about what we wear. We have everything.

Over there in the camp, we gladly to survive you know for, to have food to eat. Instead, we have so much choice: what kind of food we eat gonna eat today and over there we eat the same thing. So when we have a space, we like to invite the elderly and the youth, you know, to talk to each other. To connect. Most of the kids they grew up here, they don’t know how difficult it is [for] a parent, that they sacrifice for them.

When they get here, they just see everything here, and they happy, they grow up, they have friend, they have food, they have… but the elder and during my time, during my parents’, it’s: grow up with fear, grow up with starvation. So we have not lived like this. No, we grew up in the jungle, in the camp, in the tent.

Close
Cambodian refugees gathered in a large group.

This story is part of the Immigrant Stories collection. Immigrant Stories invites immigrants, refugees, and their families to create digital stories about their experiences. Each story is preserved in the Immigration History Research Center & Archives at the University of Minnesota, where we have collected materials related to immigration in the U.S. since 1965.

Story Themes: Cambodia, Escape, Immigrant Stories, Khao-I-Dang Holding Center, Khmer Rouge, Refugee Camp, Video, Women

Previous Story
The Story Wall
Next Story
Return To Top