A Morning with Poly

We were asked one morning, to look into the possibility to help a land mine amputee. His home had been damaged by heavy wind and could we help. Chris & I said we would look into it and we were introduced to Poly. It was necessary to hire a Tuk Tuk to take the three of us to Poly’s home that was “not too far” away. After an hour we asked how much further and were told not far. It took just under two hours to get there but that is not the story. During our trip Poly vary openly explained his accident. He was 8 years old and was walking through a heavily wooded area with a friend when he stepped on a landmine. He explained that as soon as it went off, he continued to stand supported by his good leg and looked down to see his leg was missing below his knee. His friend helped stop the bleeding and went off to get help.

Poly continued to tell us that he was laying down staying very still waiting for help to come when he heard some rustling coming his way. He pushed himself up to a sitting position only to see a tiger approaching. Being very frightened, he reached over and picked up his AK-47 and fired off 2 shots and the tiger ran off. It sounded like a Hollywood move as Chris and I could hardly believe our ears. I didn’t know there were Bengal Tigers in Cambodia but have since had it confirmed there are, in the north east part. I was so taken by the story I did some quick math. Poly is 23 and the accident took place in 1994 during the Vietnam occupation so Poly was 8 years old. I asked, what were you doing with an AK-47 and he told me it was for protection. Where did you get a gun like that, I continued and he said from his house. I found it belonged to his father who was also a landmine victim but I don’t know if his father was still living with him.

Poly was taken in by the landmine museum where he was taught to live with his disability and was taught English which he spoke fairly well. Aku Ra at the landmine museum later took Poly and trained him as a mine clearing team member which he did for a while but later left the team to go back to his family home.

This was just one of the many unbelievable hardship stories that we have been hearing during our trip and thought it was worth passing on.
Submitted by, Jim Stewart