At that time, I became thinking that in the future what can I do for my beloved country? You know what, when I was reading at the central library, Nagoya University, my tear came down from my eyes, maybe I am a little bit sentimental, when I tried to think and imagine about what has been written in that article.
Adams
International Herald Tribune News Review
Phnom Penh: The former gang member, Tuy Sobil, 30, known as K.K., has taken Cambodia street children (with the funny names, Frog, Homey,...etc.) under his wing as he teaches them the art he brought with him, breaking dance, as well as his hard lessons in life. K.K. is one of the 189 Cambodian refugees who have been banished from the U.S., from the past 6 years, under a law that mandates deportations for non-citizens who commit felonies.
Actually, he was an infant when he arrived; he was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, 1978, and then his family fled to America from Khmer Rouge "killing fields". He, who found a haven in America in 1980, is not an illegal alien, he is a non-citizen only by technicality of paperwork. It was due to K.K.`s parents, like so many other refugees, were unsophisticated farmers who failed to complete the citizenship process when they arrived.
Like some other children of poor immigrants, he drifted to the streets, where he joined a group of gangster, fortunately he could become a champion break dancer. It was not until being arrested for armed robbery, when he was 18, (you should ask yourself why?, I know the answer, I guess.), that he realized that he was not a citizen.
Like many deportees, he arrived in Cambodia without home, without family contacts, with nothing. With the support from international aid, for instance Bridges Across Border which based in Florida, he expanded the "Tiny Toones Cambodia", a break dancing club he founded , into a small school where street children can learn Khmer, English and computers in addition to back flips and head stands.
"Some were doing well initially but now over time have become unemployment or never get employed, and just get discouraged," said Dimple Rana, who works with Deported Diaspora (based in Massachusetts), that helps deportees to adjust.
"I think it was meant for me to be here, even though I lost my family. And my kid is there, Kayshawn. He`s 8. Right now, you know, these kids are my family....I adopted one, a street kid; his mom and dad are on drugs." K.K. said. Children leaping and spinning here on a hard linoleum floor are from poor and low education families, like thousands of Cambodian children who fill the slums and back streets of Phnom Penh, begging and digging through garbage to find food, he added.
K.K., whose childhood was not so different, says he teaches them to find pride in who they are. "I try to tell them not to judge people by the way they looked, I still have a struggle here in Cambodia. People see me with tattoos and think I`m a bad guy." he insisted.
His journey between identities reached a point of strangeness when he was invited to perform with his students at a last Christmas party at the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia, which he was warmly welcomed by the ambassador. "You are right that there is a certain wonderful irony to him being rejected or at least ejected from the U.S. and still standing on his feet - or shoulders and head - dancing,....K.K. is/was an American in everything except in law and he has shown this by his creativity, tenacity, and undying optimism." the ambassador at the time, Joseph Mussomeli said in an e-mail message.
Now another wonderful irony is in store for K.K. , his club have been invited so many times to perform in America. Thanks to K.K., Cambodian street-children, who do not speak English and have never been abroad, never been outside Cambodia, could have a chance to see the outside world, get to know how big the world is and begin to have a dream in their future.
"I can`t go, I can understand that they deported me here, I`d like to go visit - only visit, because I live here now, I have a brand new life." K.K. (Tuy Sobil) said, as his boys and girls jumped and bounced around him like tiny spins.
(Source: International Herald Tribune, November 30, 2008, Californian finds new life in Cambodia by Seth Mydans)
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