Sothea He left her native Cambodia in 1981 and immigrated to the United States in 1985, settling in Long Beach. She now lives in Corona with her family, including her daughter, Mealia, 8, who is in the Girl Scouts. "I love Girl Scouts," Mealia says. (Photo: Jerry Soifer / The Press-Enterprise)
Sothea He, whose maiden name is Keo, was in a refugee camp in the Philippines in 1984.Saturday, February 2, 2008
By JERRY SOIFER
The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California, USA)
CORONA - When Corona resident Sothea He takes her daughter, Mealia, to Riverside for YMCA swim team practice, it is for fun, but also to prepare her for a world that He knows can be very dangerous.
When she was a child in Cambodia, He's father saved her from being swept away by a torrent of water by tossing her to people standing on the river bank.
The flash flood was one of many dangers He faced as a child in a war-torn land. He's older brother disappeared and is presumed to be one of 2 million casualties of the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror.
He wants 8-year-old Mealia to know how to swim in case of a flash flood and how to do martial arts because the Khmer Rouge attacked women.
The Hes are among several families from war-torn areas who have immigrated to the United States and found Corona a tranquil place to raise their children.
Kim Dang, a native of North Vietnam who survived the American bombing, is a Corona resident who is thrilled to see her son, Nick, play in the Corona recreational basketball program. Omar Alomar, a native of the Israeli-occupied territory on the West Bank, works and lives in Corona. His son plays soccer and basketball.
The Hes and the others from war-torn areas take special pleasure in their children's happiness, something they did not know when they were young.
He escaped Cambodia in 1981 and immigrated to the United States in 1985. Her family settled in Long Beach. She met her future husband, Sambo, 37, also a Cambodian refugee, in 1994. They were married in 1997.
Their daughter, Mealia, and son, Munind, 5, go to Promenade Elementary School in Corona. When news of the war in Iraq is shown on the television, Sothea He tells her children that was what her life was like in Cambodia.
Dang grew up in the town of Haiphong near the North Vietnamese harbor that was bombed repeatedly by the Americans during the Vietnam War. She was 11 when she escaped with her family by boat to Hong Kong and then America.
Now, she watches with joy as Nick, 9, plays basketball in Corona. "That's my son, he just made a basket," said Dang during a recent game. "I'm a proud mom."
Nick played for the Huskies, who beat the Sharks, 36-8.
"I would not want them to experience anything I went through when I was little," said Dang.
Alomar, an information technology manager for Watson Pharmaceutical in Corona, is a Palestinian from the town of Tulkarm on the west bank of the Jordan River, territory occupied by the Israelis since the Six-Day War in 1967.
Alomar, 45, said he played with marbles in the dirt and toys as a child. "There were no organized clubs," he said.
He endured the first Intifada in 1987. He said the standard of living was very low. An uncle, Anwar Alomar, who lived in Kuwait, persuaded him to go to the United States to study.
At age 19, Alomar enrolled at North Texas State University where he earned a bachelor's degree. He returned to the Middle East, where he met and married, Rola, a native of Alexandria, Egypt, in Jordan in 1997. The family immigrated to the United States that same year. They moved to Corona from Houston in 2001.
Omar and Rola Alomar became U.S. citizens last year. They are giving their son, Amjad, 7, the opportunity to play to his heart's content. He plays soccer. Basketball is his winter sport.
"He is blessed," his father said of Amjad, adding, "It (sports) teaches him to get along with kids."
At the Hes' home in northeast Corona, two paintings of the famed Cambodian Angkor Wat temple hang from the walls.
Sothea He has taught Mealia to brush her teeth twice a day. Her mother used burned wood and cloth to clean her teeth in Cambodia because there was no toothpaste during the Khmer Rouge's reign. When Sothea reached a refugee camp in Thailand, a dentist filled her numerous cavities.
At the Thailand camp, a man in a white coat gave her an immunization shot and a lollipop. He said she told herself, "I want to be just like that person."
And she did. She culminated her education in America by graduating from Cal State Dominguez Hills with a bachelor's degree in nursing in 1992. She is a nurse at Long Beach Memorial Hospital. She insists that Mealia do well in school and she does.
Her mother enrolled Mealia in Girl Scouts 2½ years ago. The shared experiences have enabled Sothea He to savor some of the joys of childhood that she never had in Cambodia or even in the United States.
"I think I'm having more fun than my daughter," He said. "Just to be able to do this without having to dodge bullets ... I think I'm still dreaming even though it's been (nearly) 20 years."
He watched Mealia and her fellow Scouts do a science experiment, mixing baking soda with vinegar to inflate a balloon. "It fizzed and caused air to go up into the balloon," Sothea He said. "I was laughing the whole time with the other moms."
"I love Girl Scouts," said Mealia, "because I get to meet my friends. I get to do a lot of fun stuff."
After the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia in 1979, Sothea and her family lived on the run. If they ran into the Khmer Rouge, they told them they were fleeing the Vietnamese. If they encountered the Vietnamese, they said they were escaping the Khmer Rouge. One day, Sothea's mother was debilitated by thirst. She told the family to go on. The father stayed. Water was found and Sothea's mother recovered.
Life as a teenager was difficult for Sothea in her new country. "I wasn't welcomed here by the schoolchildren," Sothea said. "I never got picked to play anything (sports) on the team. I would be the last one standing there all the time. I felt I wasn't good enough to be on any of the teams."
Mealia said she would like to visit Cambodia one day but is glad she was not here during the terror of the Khmer Rouge. "I wouldn't like to be in the war country," Mealia said. "I wouldn't like to move and run to a lot of places when I was little."
Reach Jerry Soifer at 951-893-2112 or jsoifer@PE.com
When she was a child in Cambodia, He's father saved her from being swept away by a torrent of water by tossing her to people standing on the river bank.
The flash flood was one of many dangers He faced as a child in a war-torn land. He's older brother disappeared and is presumed to be one of 2 million casualties of the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror.
He wants 8-year-old Mealia to know how to swim in case of a flash flood and how to do martial arts because the Khmer Rouge attacked women.
The Hes are among several families from war-torn areas who have immigrated to the United States and found Corona a tranquil place to raise their children.
Kim Dang, a native of North Vietnam who survived the American bombing, is a Corona resident who is thrilled to see her son, Nick, play in the Corona recreational basketball program. Omar Alomar, a native of the Israeli-occupied territory on the West Bank, works and lives in Corona. His son plays soccer and basketball.
The Hes and the others from war-torn areas take special pleasure in their children's happiness, something they did not know when they were young.
He escaped Cambodia in 1981 and immigrated to the United States in 1985. Her family settled in Long Beach. She met her future husband, Sambo, 37, also a Cambodian refugee, in 1994. They were married in 1997.
Their daughter, Mealia, and son, Munind, 5, go to Promenade Elementary School in Corona. When news of the war in Iraq is shown on the television, Sothea He tells her children that was what her life was like in Cambodia.
Dang grew up in the town of Haiphong near the North Vietnamese harbor that was bombed repeatedly by the Americans during the Vietnam War. She was 11 when she escaped with her family by boat to Hong Kong and then America.
Now, she watches with joy as Nick, 9, plays basketball in Corona. "That's my son, he just made a basket," said Dang during a recent game. "I'm a proud mom."
Nick played for the Huskies, who beat the Sharks, 36-8.
"I would not want them to experience anything I went through when I was little," said Dang.
Alomar, an information technology manager for Watson Pharmaceutical in Corona, is a Palestinian from the town of Tulkarm on the west bank of the Jordan River, territory occupied by the Israelis since the Six-Day War in 1967.
Alomar, 45, said he played with marbles in the dirt and toys as a child. "There were no organized clubs," he said.
He endured the first Intifada in 1987. He said the standard of living was very low. An uncle, Anwar Alomar, who lived in Kuwait, persuaded him to go to the United States to study.
At age 19, Alomar enrolled at North Texas State University where he earned a bachelor's degree. He returned to the Middle East, where he met and married, Rola, a native of Alexandria, Egypt, in Jordan in 1997. The family immigrated to the United States that same year. They moved to Corona from Houston in 2001.
Omar and Rola Alomar became U.S. citizens last year. They are giving their son, Amjad, 7, the opportunity to play to his heart's content. He plays soccer. Basketball is his winter sport.
"He is blessed," his father said of Amjad, adding, "It (sports) teaches him to get along with kids."
At the Hes' home in northeast Corona, two paintings of the famed Cambodian Angkor Wat temple hang from the walls.
Sothea He has taught Mealia to brush her teeth twice a day. Her mother used burned wood and cloth to clean her teeth in Cambodia because there was no toothpaste during the Khmer Rouge's reign. When Sothea reached a refugee camp in Thailand, a dentist filled her numerous cavities.
At the Thailand camp, a man in a white coat gave her an immunization shot and a lollipop. He said she told herself, "I want to be just like that person."
And she did. She culminated her education in America by graduating from Cal State Dominguez Hills with a bachelor's degree in nursing in 1992. She is a nurse at Long Beach Memorial Hospital. She insists that Mealia do well in school and she does.
Her mother enrolled Mealia in Girl Scouts 2½ years ago. The shared experiences have enabled Sothea He to savor some of the joys of childhood that she never had in Cambodia or even in the United States.
"I think I'm having more fun than my daughter," He said. "Just to be able to do this without having to dodge bullets ... I think I'm still dreaming even though it's been (nearly) 20 years."
He watched Mealia and her fellow Scouts do a science experiment, mixing baking soda with vinegar to inflate a balloon. "It fizzed and caused air to go up into the balloon," Sothea He said. "I was laughing the whole time with the other moms."
"I love Girl Scouts," said Mealia, "because I get to meet my friends. I get to do a lot of fun stuff."
After the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia in 1979, Sothea and her family lived on the run. If they ran into the Khmer Rouge, they told them they were fleeing the Vietnamese. If they encountered the Vietnamese, they said they were escaping the Khmer Rouge. One day, Sothea's mother was debilitated by thirst. She told the family to go on. The father stayed. Water was found and Sothea's mother recovered.
Life as a teenager was difficult for Sothea in her new country. "I wasn't welcomed here by the schoolchildren," Sothea said. "I never got picked to play anything (sports) on the team. I would be the last one standing there all the time. I felt I wasn't good enough to be on any of the teams."
Mealia said she would like to visit Cambodia one day but is glad she was not here during the terror of the Khmer Rouge. "I wouldn't like to be in the war country," Mealia said. "I wouldn't like to move and run to a lot of places when I was little."
Reach Jerry Soifer at 951-893-2112 or jsoifer@PE.com
1 comment:
These folks have not experienced the natives of America life yet.It may be heaven for these folks but hell for the Seminole, Sioux, Lakota, Crow, Appache,the rest in all 400 nations.
Don't toot your horn in someone graveyard.Be decent!
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