I was a ten-year-old girl living in Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge came and robbed me.
First, they took my home, driving us out of the city and into their labor camps.
Then one by one, they took my family members. They tried to take me too.
They tried to starve me, to wear me down with disease,
to catch me stealing so that they could execute me.
They tried to work me to death.
But every time, I beat them. Every time, I survived.
And not only that. I saw what they thought they could hide from me.
I saw glimpses of beauty in a hideous world.
I saw light that penetrates even the fiercest darkness.
I saw that there was hope.