To a Third Country

It's the late 1960s. In Canada, a girl thinks of war only as a boys' game; the aftermath can be handled by some new and improved detergent. Six small Khmer girls scattered about Cambodia are oblivious to the catastrophe looming over their homeland. In the human tsunami that casts survivors of the Khmer Rouge on Thailand's eastern border, each of these young women finds refuge during the early '80s. A second country isn't a second home. Our stateless six taste more than rationed rice in the refugee camps. Flirtation. Fear. Matchmaking. Motherhood. Religion. Rejection. Chhorn Nhem, Nareth Mom Mueller, Siem Seng, Kimsonn Tuon, Chantha Kong, and Sareen So Bou offer views from inside the barbed wire that you haven't seen before. They were strangers, longing for a better country, a country of their own. These pages chart their journeys to a third country. Author Bio Barbara Penner began listening to stories of Cambodian refugees while working in Thailand. She continues to meet story-tellers of resilience and wit from all over the world while teaching English as a Second Language in Edmonton.