((PKG))  REASEY’S JOURNEY   
((VOA Khmer))   
((Banner:  Journeys through Forests)) 
((Reporter/Camera:  Reasey Poch)) 
((Producer/Video Editor:  Lisa Vohra)) 
((Additional Camera:  Socheata Hean, Lisa Vohra)) 
((Map:  Dale City, Virginia)) 
((Main Characters:  1 male)) 
((NATS)) 
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
My children take me to the forest.  They know it's difficult for me.   
But they also know it’s healing.  Being in the forest, in nature, is 
good for us, especially during these pandemic times. 
((NATS)) 
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
I like the Japanese name for it, ‘Forest Bathing’, something that 
helps soothe body and soul.  It wasn't always this way for me.  I'm 
Cambodian from Phnom Penh and up until I was 12, I'd lived a 
comfortable life in the city known as the ‘Pearl of Asia’.  
((Courtesy:  The Times Standard))   
((Courtesy:  The Philadelphia Inquirer))   
((Courtesy:  The Lost Angeles Times))   
((NATS)) 
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
But then the Khmer Rouge took over, forcing millions of us into 
the countryside to clear the land and plant crops.  The terror was 
everywhere.  So was starvation.  
((NATS)) 
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
I would sneak into the woods to forage.  I learned to set traps for 
fish, birds and rabbits.  
((Courtesy:  Reasey Poch)) 
((NATS)) 
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
We lived with fear, always, and the forest gave no reprieve.  I 
knew I'd be killed if I was caught.  
((NATS)) 
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
Four years of this, and then 
((Courtesy:  The Albuquerque Journal))  
((NATS)) 
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
Vietnam invaded in 1978 and I escaped.  I trekked through the 
forests, over mountains, dodging Khmer Rouge fighters, 
((Courtesy:  Reasey Poch)) 
trying to reach safety in Vietnam.  We had no food, no water.  
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
We just had to keep moving, not get caught, not get killed.  I 
made it and I left the forest behind. 
((Courtesy:  Reasey Poch))  
((NATS)) 
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
I arrived in the United States when I was 21 and up until this year, 
I'd never set foot in an American forest.  I just couldn't.  Friends 
and family would ask me to go camping or go on a hike.  No, I 
couldn't. 
((NATS)) 
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
But as the pandemic restricted us, my children thought it was 
time.  They're now in their twenties and they know what I've been 
through.  My daughter had moved back home because of COVID-
19 and like most people, we were feeling penned in.  She 
convinced me to try walking in the woods.   ((NATS)) 
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
During that first hike, I had flashbacks. The trees look different 
here.  They're not tropical, but the fear came rushing back.  But 
we took another hike.  And another.  Each time got a little easier.  
One day, we hiked a trail that ran alongside a stream.  It wasn't 
like the muddy puddles I drank from fleeing Cambodia.  The water 
was so clear.  And in that moment, I could see it was just a 
stream.  It didn't represent survival.  
((NATS)) 
((Reasey Poch, Journalist, Voice of America)) 
The trees were just trees.  They didn't conceal an enemy.  I was 
in the forest and I was calm.  One day, the pandemic will be over.  
But my hiking days won’t be.  I will keep on hiking.  
((NATS))