Slum Stories: Cambodia - Sihanoukville

Hello, my name is Prang Nan and this is my house. I will introduce you to my big house. This is my kitchen. I don't have a bathroom, the field is our toilet. In 2007, there was a confrontation here. They send many armed forces and a lot of cars. They had guns, fire trucks and ambulances. There were many policemen and soldiers in the forest. Then they set our houses on fire, they were completely burnt out. I could not even get my clothes out. Anyone who moved was beaten. Then those rich and powerful people grabbed our land... and they built a wall around it. They made a land title and now they are putting it up for sale. After the Khmer Rouge regime, I had no land. Before, whoever cleared the forest could keep the land. The land didn't belong to anyone. My house was over there. There was a group of about 107 families. If we could live like before, we wouldn't need anyone's help. We grew rice and vegetables. It yielded more than we could eat. If we grew rice one year, we could eat for two years. I think NGO's or institutions can't help us, we can't even help ourselves. The officials can't help us unless we bribe them... and we live from hand to mouth. We felt embarrassed when we lost our homes. This place is dirty. We were evicted because the land prices were rising. There is only one well, it's for all the people who live here. There was another well, built by the Koreans. But because they dug it too deep, it only brought up dirt and wood. In the rainy season, we collect rain water for drinking. We don't have clean drinking water. For electricity. Some houses have a TV, they can watch movies. We don't have anything. My house doesn't have any electricity, we don't have a TV or CD-player. I do whatever I can to earn a living. We struggle. My husband is a construction worker. He goes to work covering thatch roofs, sometimes I go to mix cement. Today is Sunday, so I have a day off. Sometimes I go fishing in the sea. Sometimes I go to pick up vegetables. We can earn 5000 riel per day, just enough for our meal and rice. The rest is kept so my children can go to school. If there is no work at the construction site, we come here. We pick vegetables to sell at the market. This is an organic vegetable, the rich always come to buy these. Once we get the money, we share it. We can earn 2000 riel each. I think we should go now. There are seven bundles left. I will charge you 3000 riel for all of them. We are not demanding a lot from them. We just want to have a home, like other human beings have. I want to live the same as other people. Life has no meaning when you are just surviving. NGO's offered us some water filters, a little rice and a mosquito net. Even you, you can not help us. I think that in the future, we will be evicted again. I am really worried. There are many buildings and guesthouses along that road. They may not let us live in a disorderly place like this. If we have to leave here, where else can we live? I don't know where we will go. I think we may end up in the sea. Inland there are many tigers. I don't know which way I should go.