Humanitarian! Chantha Nguon, SLOW NOODLES: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes
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[0:29]Chanta nikuyan is the author of slow noodles a Cambodian memoir of love lost and family recipes
[0:37]Chanta was born in Cambodia and spent two decades as a refugee until she was finally able to return to her homeland
[0:43]She is the co-founder of the Stone Trang Women's Development Center a social enterprise that offers a living-wage education and social services to women and their families in rural
[0:54]Northeastern Cambodia a frequent public speaker
[0:57]She has appeared at universities and on radio and TV news programs including NPR's morning edition
[1:03]She cooks often for friends family and for private events and excerpt from slow noodles and hippocampus was named a long read's best personal essay in
[1:12]2021
[1:13]Welcome chanta. Thank you so much for coming on momstone have time to read books to discuss slow noodles
[1:20]My Cambodian memoir of love lost and family recipes congratulations
[1:26]Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure
[1:30]Where are you zooming in from today? I am at home in Cambodia and
[1:36]We are on Cambodian New Year the third day of the year New Year
[1:41]So tomorrow everybody might the work. Oh, well enjoy the enjoy the time
[1:49]Tell listeners about your book. When did you decide to write a book and what is your book about?
[1:55]It's a story of my life and the reason the book is written because it's a story of a refugee
[2:04]It's the story of the country that we have
[2:09]Maruse called portport who tried to
[2:16]Erase the history here everybody so I was asked to
[2:25]To tell the story is a living proof of our society our
[2:32]Our country our life and that it cannot be erased and that
[2:40]It is about
[2:42]Tell listeners what they would find
[2:46]Most difficult to believe what do you need people to know from your book that maybe they would not know and that you fear would be erased
[2:55]They try to erase culture
[2:58]religion
[3:00]schools
[3:01]hospital
[3:03]currency
[3:04]I mean everything they try to make it a year zero of a new country in their mind
[3:13]and they
[3:14]So they decode all people with the light of skin because for them who are wearing
[3:22]reading glass
[3:24]because
[3:26]for them
[3:27]those people
[3:29]educated
[3:31]So they need a new generation of non-educated people so that they can plan the new ideology
[3:42]In them so the survivors like us we try to tell the world
[3:49]That Cambodia is a beautiful country with our history
[3:55]alcohol
[3:58]especially food
[4:01]That's what I tried to revive
[4:05]from the memory of my mother's kitchen
[4:08]You have a lot of
[4:10]recipes and each chapter is has different things like
[4:16]Namya fish soup with chimer noodles and
[4:20]May's fish amok
[4:22]You have sour chicken lime soup village style
[4:27]poor grandmother's spicy green papaya pickles
[4:31]How did you?
[4:32]Where did you save all the recipes? Did you
[4:35]Make them again? Did you keep a journal? How did you remember?
[4:40]I lost everything everybody in my family
[4:45]and everything my country
[4:49]I was totally alone but
[4:52]all remains was the memory of the family I used to have
[4:59]I used to be a normal person
[5:03]like everyone who has family country and
[5:09]so from the memory I tried to survive
[5:14]so while hunger
[5:17]poverty I keep the memory with me and when I was able to revive them
[5:24]I made it until I faced the same
[5:28]in my memory when I was a child of nine years
[5:34]How that's beautiful that you could do that
[5:37]How do you move forward when you have lost so much?
[5:43]I would say it's survival
[5:47]so it keeps you day after day you had to find a way to leave a new day
[5:55]and then the next day and then the next day until
[5:59]you get out of the whole of the jungle or of the fire
[6:07]all I had was the memories and hope for the next day will be better and it did
[6:18]Did you ever think about just giving up? Did it ever feel like it would never get better?
[6:24]Of course I did but I don't want to share that feeling with people who
[6:29]who went through the same situation or who are in the situation
[6:35]because if I ended it I didn't have today
[6:43]so then I realized just you are going through hell keep going and one day you will get out of it
[6:55]oh my goodness so inspiring your whole story is so inspiring and your memories are so clear
[7:03]you have a scene where you remember waking up your dad is giving you a massage and the morning seems
[7:11]wonderful talk about these specific memories and and what you can really bring back from your family
[7:18]maybe because I had been leaving in hell and I used to have nine years of heaven and that's
[7:32]the benchmark for me to look at like it's a happy memory and I lean on it I cling on it to leave
[7:44]the life in hell and that's why the memory I just sharpen it every day every day and it didn't
[7:51]go away but it's it's clearer and clearer for me to to leave on it's like food for my soul remembering
[8:03]those and at least thinking about it make me feel a bit better like yeah my applied my father woke me
[8:17]up and and he just squeezed my knees and massage and and so the feeling is is like for life
[8:26]and I remember the smell of his pipe sweet tobacco and I still remember it until now
[8:38]well so maybe the willing to survive that that has to you know linked to all the memories in your
[8:51]life and helps I am so sorry this is so not fair for you and so many others in your situation
[9:02]to have lost so so much you don't seem bitter though you don't write about it in an angry way
[9:11]how do you how do you take all that loss and an evil and stay positive yeah I was very angry
[9:21]when I was alone because I lost everything but went through everything and I saw people who
[9:31]are now in my situation I was before it just made me wanted to help them because I know how
[9:43]yeah I'm angry with my situation but to the people I know just a bit of support they will get
[9:53]through it so I use it as a happiness a new light
[10:00]of life and so helping people becomes my life.
[10:07]Yeah.
[10:08]And tell me more about your life today.
[10:11]I still like to, to help people in any situation and I mean,
[10:16]I went through everything and I saw around me.
[10:19]Everything I've been through.
[10:21]I know how to get out and I still reach out to support
[10:26]and it's healing and I still continue to work.
[10:30]All my work today are related to women, vulnerable women,
[10:35]young, old, and I feel healing.
[10:41]Yes.
[10:42]And it's my happiness to see their life change.
[10:47]Well, that's amazing.
[10:49]Was it difficult to write the book?
[10:52]So dream didn't come through that.
[10:54]I wish I never had to tell the story in my life.
[10:58]But because I choose to tell the story when something trickles
[11:06]my memory and it's about the meal, the food.
[11:10]And I told my children when we sit down to be every dish,
[11:15]remind me of something.
[11:18]It made me laugh or make me cry.
[11:22]So my children are very confused.
[11:25]They don't know what comes next.
[11:27]I cry or I laugh.
[11:29]And then with the NGO, we set up instant
[11:34]strength and strength women's development center.
[11:37]One of the buyers is unwilling.
[11:40]And she's the one who encouraged me to tell the story.
[11:46]And she's the one who always support the NGO.
[11:51]And she called it, give me some air to breathe.
[11:55]So this is how important everybody needs some air to breathe.
[12:00]And she saved my life.
[12:03]The women are working with again and again.
[12:07]So she built in me a deep respect and love.
[12:14]And I owe her for what she has done.
[12:18]But I don't have anything valuable to pay back.
[12:21]She doesn't need anything.
[12:23]But she wanted me to tell the story.
[12:26]And for me, that's very personal.
[12:28]We don't tell people our story in our culture, especially a woman.
[12:34]But so I agree.
[12:36]But it took six years for me to tell Kim Green.
[12:43]The whole story.
[12:45]It's extremely difficult for me.
[12:48]Yeah.
[12:49]My gosh.
[12:50]Are you glad that it's done?
[12:52]Are you happy?
[12:53]Do you feel peace that you have told it?
[12:55]Yeah, it's kind of therapy turned out.
[12:58]It helps me to at least do slowly let the pain close.
[13:05]After I set it out, it's a therapy.
[13:11]And I didn't keep it inside like a lemme to it might explode one day.
[13:19]So I release it.
[13:21]And yes, the heavy inside is now open up.
[13:27]Wow.
[13:29]Well, thank you so much, Chanta.
[13:31]This is wonderful.
[13:33]I am so impressed, inspired, moved.
[13:38]It's I'm so glad you did this.
[13:40]I know how many people you are helping in your day-to-day life, but also through the story.
[13:45]So thank you very much.
[13:47]Thank you.
[13:48]Thank you for your time.
[13:50]Of course.
[13:51]Okay.
[13:52]Bye-bye.
[13:53]Thanks for listening.
[13:55]Two moms don't have time to read books.
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