SOMETIMES when it rains in America, 26-year-old Darwin Pan remembers the deaths he saw and the horrors he survived as a child in Cambodia.
''But I'm not a child anymore and I have to let go and move on and live my life as an adult even though the past was horrifying, torturous to a certain extent,'' he said.
Pan is one of many American Cambodians who recently returned to their roots through CANDO, a non-governmental organisation, to use their skills to rebuild the battered country.
CANDO stands for Cambodian American National Development Organisation.
According to CANDO's director Thida Khus, the programme acted as a healing process for its members as well as rebuilding the country.
''Every Cambodian left the country with a big scar, feeling guilty for surviving and responsible for what had happened.
''We suffer from emotional problems.