I – Cambodia – The little girl on the boat

This little girl on the lake is rowing to go visit her friends who live in Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia.

The Vietnamese community of house boats work hard as fishermen to earn their income.

(lesson – reading for understanding + coordinating conjunction – I level)

Sang Nguyễn (not her real name) is a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl. She is paddling through the lake to go visit one of her friends.  She has just left her boat house where the rest of her family lives located in the middle of Tonle Sap Lake, the biggest lake in Cambodia.  Wait a minute.  A boat house? In Cambodia? A Vietnamese family living in Cambodia? How can that be? A 12-year-old girl and her Vietnamese family living in the middle of a Cambodian lake?  We need to go back in time to find out why.

The Khmer Rouge regime spear headed by Pol Pot committed genocide by killing 2 million Cambodians and thousands of Vietnamese living in Cambodia.

The first Vietnamese came to settle in Cambodia as early as 1600s.  Then they trickled through the early 19th century during the era of the Nguyễn lords and continued to flow during the periods of the French colonization of Indochina, composing Laos, Vietnam, and the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (Cambodia).  In the 1970s Cambodia faced their worst nightmare as a nation affecting the entire population when Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime committed the mass genocides of 2 million Cambodians and thousands of Vietnamese.  But even before the Khmer Rouge regime the Vietnamese people living in Cambodia had always been and continue to be the main target of xenophobic attacks by the Cambodian authorities, political parties, and the current Cambodian government.  According to Human Rights activists, the disdain and hatred of Cambodians towards the Vietnamese seems to be rooted in paranoia and their ethnocentric behavior.   For many years, the Vietnamese living in Cambodia have been stateless residents of the country, so through the years of their migration to Cambodia they have faced difficulties in getting access to education, employment and housing.  For many years, Cambodian laws have denied Vietnamese to live on the land, but on the water the law does not apply.  Thus, thousands of Vietnamese have been living in Tonle Sap Lake in communities of boats, for the lake has given them the only safe haven from a country that has so much disdain and hatred towards them.

The Vietnamese are resilient people who have accepted their harsh life living in the middle of the lake.

This is where Sang Nguyễn and her family live – in the middle of Tonle Sap Lake – in the company of over 20,000 Vietnamese all living in boats converted to a house.
Fortunately, the Vietnamese people living in Tonle Sap Lake have been blessed by Buddha, the religion of Vietnamese as well as Cambodian people.  Through their good fortune, living in the lake has given the income they need to survive in a country that is so against them. Who is against them? The Cambodian people, authorities, and the government continue to discriminate them from getting jobs in the cities, yet the Vietnamese people are able to counter this ethnocentric bias through fishing and the harvesting of fish from their fish farms in Tonle Sap Lake to provide for their families.  The Vietnamese boat people are hard working people, and they have learned to adapt well to their water environment.

Life is peaceful at sunset.

Their hard work living in the lake has been a blessing,  for they live in the most fertile ecosystem on the planet.   For half the year, the Tonle Sap River flows southeast from the lake to Phnom Penh during the dry season, but during the rainy season, the Mekong river swells and the lake engorges to as much as six times.  The swell in the lake allows eels, frogs, shrimp and many varieties of fish to come up the Mekong river and populate the lake, so the Vietnamese fisherman are able to catch a lot of fish and other seafood to sell to the Cambodian markets along the shore. This has been their primary income for many years. Further, the expanse of the lake gives Cambodian rice farmers the ability to farm better due to the doubly silted, nutrient-rich shores.

But the abundance of fish and the rich fertile farm land on the shore come with a price that affects the Vietnamese children and their future living in Tonle Sap Lake. Remember Sang Nguyễn in this story? She is neither Cambodian nor Thai.  She is actually a Vietnamese girl who has been living in the middle of Tonle Sap Lake since birth like her brothers and her parents.  In fact, the 20,000 Vietnamese who live here were born in Cambodia but maintain and are proud of their Vietnamese ethnicity.  Being born in the lake Sang Nguyễn has mastered the art of rowing and is unafraid to use her boat to go anywhere she pleases in Tonle Sap Lake.  Her grandparents were forced to live here during the Pol Pot regime in the 1970’s.   She has had to learn to live the same lifestyle her grandparents have lived for many years living in a boat.

This Vietnamese community of boats is lucky to have a school maintained by donations foreign visitors like this author who have seen their desperate situation.

I am smiling but in my heart I am sad after seeing with my own eyes the hardship the Vietnamese people face every day of their life living in the middle of Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia.

As a little girl what is Sang Nguyễn’s lifestyle living in the middle of the lake?  Like all young kids she has to help her parents fish in the lake.  Her job is to sell the fish at the Cambodian markets on the shore.  How about school?  Does  she have a place to go to school?  Not really. Many of the Vietnamese children have little to no opportunity to go to school in the mainland because the Cambodian government won’t allow them. They have been denied this right living due to the prodigious authorities in Cambodia.  Fortunately, there is one houseboat converted to a school where some of the kids can learn.  This school boat has been maintained from donations from foreigners who have visited here and have seen their appalling conditions.  This author has also contributed to their cause.

Living in the middle of the lake Sang Nguyễn, has no park or playground to play.  Instead, the lake becomes her playground.  She can can row her boat around the lake, or she can playing with her friends with some type of water activity.  Sang, like the children, do not have bikes or scooters to play with.  The children  do not have parks to play in, nor do they have theaters to go and watch movies.  They are surrounded by water, and that is their environment.  They do not have any convenience stores like “7 Eleven or Circle K” to buy gum or candy, nor do they have malls where they can go shopping with their parents to buy clothes. To go shopping they have to go by boat to the shore and shop at the Cambodian stores and markets.  Two or three times a day they must do this to get fresh vegetables, haul away trash, mail a letter or go to the bank.  It is such an inconvenience, but they have become used to it for hundreds of years.   Sang Nguyễn’s life is dependent on her parents, her relatives, and her friends who all live in the water community of Tonle Sap Lake.

This picture paints a thousand words of how hard this girl’s life must me living in the middle of the lake of Cambodia.

Sang Nguyễn and all the children who live Tonle Sap Lake have no choice in life.  The lake is their life.  That is what you see in this little 12-year old girl as she rows her boat aimlessly.  There are no tourists who come here.  On my request we were brought here by a local guide because I had heard about it through stories and through my readings.  Life takes on many shapes when you travel.  When I saw this little girl rowing by herself without anyone around her, I asked myself, “Why is that so?”  No doubt, this little girl has endured a difficult life and will continue to live her life as such for the rest of her life.  I don’t see her happy in this picture.  She has a daunting and difficult life where she has no opportunity for school, no place to play like ordinary children, very little contact with the outside world, no TV or telephone, and has only the children around her houseboat to play with.  If you look at her picture closely, you will understand the story of her life.  This is her lifestyle.  When you see a little girl like this one, you will be thankful for what your own kids have here in the United States.

A.  Answer the following questions based on the reading.

B.  Grammar – Connecting two sentences or two independent clauses.

You can connect two sentences using the “coordinating conjunctions.”  They are often called “BOYSFAN or FANBOYS.”

  1.  B – But  – It is used to show contrast in meaning.

Example:  Matimba loves school, but he hates to do homework.

Here you have two sentences: 1) Matma loves school and 2) He hates to do homework.  Because they have contrasting ideas they can be connected with “but.”


2.  O – or   This conjunction requires a selection between two choices.

Example:  Monica can play in her backyard, or she can stay home and do her homework.

Here you have two sentences: 1) Monica can play in her backyard  and 2) She can stay home and do her homework.  These two sentences indicate the two choices of Monica.


3.  Y – yet – “Yet” means “nevertheless or however”

Example:  Marco works a lot, yet he hasn’t been able to save money.

Here you have two sentences: 1) Marco works a lot and 2) He hasn’t been able to save money. These two sentences indicate a contrast in meaning.


4.  S – so –  “So” means “as a result, therefore, for that reason.”

Example:  Mariko has earned a lot of money from work, so she is going to buy a new car.

Here you have two sentences: 1) Mariko has earned a lot of money from work and 2) she is going to buy a new car.  The second sentence is the result of the first.


5.  F – for – “For” is the same meaning as “because.”

Example:  Manuel earned the highest grade in class, for he spent every night preparing for his test and studying his lessons from class.

Here you have two sentences: 1) Manuel earned the highest grade in class and 2) He spent every night preparing for his test and studying his lessons from class. The second sentence gives reason to the first.  Manuel got a good grade because he studied and prepared his lessons.


6.  A – and – “And ” provides extra information to the first sentence.

Example:  Mike knows how to play the violin, and he can conduct an orchestra as well.

Here you have two sentences: 1) Mike knows how to play the violin and 2) He can conduct an orchestra as well. The second sentence “he can conduct an orchestra” provides extra information about Mike.


7.  AN – nor – “Nor” is the negative of “or” – it means “not one and not the other.”

Example  Mulder cannot go out tonight with his friends, nor is he allowed to use his car to leave the house. (Notice that in the second part, it is necessary to reverse the word order by stating the verb first.  In this case “is allowed.”)

Here you have two sentences: 1) Mulder n cannot go out tonight with his friends and 2) He is not allowed to use his car to leave the house.  In essence, Mulder cannot go out tonight and he is not allowed to use his car. So, in other words, “not one and not the other” or “neither one nor the other.”

Exercise using the coordinating conjunctions

More exercise on the coordinating conjunctions

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