Meet Pouen

Pouen (poh-an) and I live together in the director, Yous Thy's (U-Tee)house high on stilts to protect it from floods. Pouen is twenty-five and has devoted herself to my care. She is the daughter of a women who Yous Thy survived with in the mountains during the Pol Pot regime. Every morning Pouen goes to the nearby market to shop for food for us and the restaurant that KWWA runs in front of the office along the road. She and other women get the fires going in the outdoor kitchen in back of the office and prepare the soups and sauces, rice and noodles, vegetables and fish. They then carry it out front under the steel roofed lean-to covering a counter, a table and about 10 bright red plastic chairs. Then they're open for business from about 8am to 7:30pm. The income helps to pay the staff. The women think it's pretty funny when I sit cross legged on the ground to help them prepare the food. This sitting on the ground business - also in the office and in the house - is a challenge especially when it''s impolite to point your feet outward like when you lean against a wall. Good thing Pouen gives me good back rubs before bed!