These are the times when Kelly will try to sound a warning, even though that's not part of her job description. "You live in a free country, with so many opportunities," she tells these wayward young people, who often look at her with sullen faces when she tells them not to squander their lives. "Take advantage of this free country," she tells them. "Be somebody your parents will be proud of."

"I'm from the killing fields," Kelly might tell you if you meet her now, aware that even if you don't know the details of her country's history you may at least have seen the movie version. By the end of the Khmer Rouge's hold on Cambodia, it is estimated that between 1.5 million and 2.5 million people died of starvation, execution, torture and forced marches.

Kelly's 13-year-old brother died of starvation early on. Not long after that, Kelly was separated from her father and sent to a second labor camp. "I ate grasshoppers to keep myself alive," she remembers. "I ate crabs, the shell and all. I ate lizards. I ate leaves."

Some time during her 15th year, after she had been moved to yet another camp, a messenger arrived with news of her father's death. It was only much later that Kelly found out that her mother had died in prison, tortured and then killed after several escape attempts in an effort to find her children. Urban, educated Cambodians were particular targets of the Khmer Rouge.