What did Raami and Mama learn from their stay with Pok and Mae? Do you think their stay gave them hope?

What did Raami and Mama learn from their stay with Pok and Mae? Do you think their stay gave them hope?

Raami and Mama truly learned how to live off the land, how to feel some peace despite it being a hand-to-mouth existence. As a reader I felt some relief for this new "family" the 4 of them had. I am sure that Raami and Mama felt hope. They had experienced enough terror and sadness prior to this point that I think they would have been willing to have gone on forever with this gentle older couple.

I agree with rebeccar. I am sure that they felt that they could survive if they were able to stay there. At that point there was still hope.

Pok and Mae were also one of the examples in the book of good people swept along in the chaos created by the Khmer Rouge. They were so hospitable and genuinely welcoming to Raami and her mother, but even their allegedly revered status as peasants wasn't enough to keep Raami with them--it was only enough to demand a chance to say goodbye. That whole episode simultaneously showed the hollowness of the Khmer Rouge's ideology and the basic goodness of the people affected by it.

I feel like everyone else. Pok and Mae were good people who did everything to welcome Raami, Mama, and Radana into their home. They worked together, shared work, and took care of each other. They learned to become a family.

Good point, Erin. This part of the story did truly show that the Khmer Rouge's ideology was without true cause or Raami and Mama could have stayed with Pok and Mae. Everyone was at their mercy. I think this part of the story gave a face to the humanity of the rural peasant and did give Raami and here family some survival skills they were otherwise lacking.

They learned the obvious survival skills that Pok and Mae had been using all their lives. They also got treated so well by the pair that their morale received a considerable boost which they sorely needed. A lot of kindness and generosity was shown them and they came to understand that though the situation was horrible there were still good people in their country who were not totally selfish and concerned only about their own welfare. I am certain that it gave them considerable hope as well as comfort.

The Organization was so incompetent that moves were constant and made little sense. I was surprised that Raami and her mother were sent to live with Pok and Mae, who were so overjoyed to finally have children. Would that they all had been forgotten and allowed to live in peace. The shift from an extravagant privileged lifestyle to an penurious existence was welcome to them. They had very little but love and that proved to be more than enough.

I thought that they learned to see all people as worthy of giving and receiving love. Before they lived in a world with great class distinctions. After getting to know Pok and Mae they would have been better equipped to deal with all the people they met. This was particularly true for Raami, who lived such a privileged existence. They learned to care for themselves.

They all were forced to become a family. Raami and Mama learned how Pok and Mae could love and care for them in spite of what was happening around them.

Survival skills. Whereas Mama knew how to work, Raami at the age of 7 or 8 had not been exposed to such hard work. Their servants had worked, but it was not back breaking labor. Mama and Raami both learned how to farm which helped them survive in the labor camp. It also gave them an emotional break before they were forced into hard labor. Pok and Mae were loving and kind and I think the break with them helped keep hope alive for Mama and Raami.

They learned to adapt to their new lives, create a "new" family that they desperately needed to survive.