This in itself had a great "we dipped heavily into our gold reserves buy rice or corn whenever we could"(page 80) the actions by which the Butt family displayed were all motivated by survival.
Having an education or expensive belongings was punished by death by the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge was ridding Cambodia of "tainted" or "new" people. Anyone who was suspected of having and education or accused of thinking they were superior than others where sent to re-education camps. However, many of the "tainted people where not re-educated, instead they where destroyed. Since Teeda was one of these "tainted" educated people the only way she knew how to survive was to present herself as an uneducated "old" villager. She noticed that many of the "new villagers" had not returned from the camps and heard rumours of what had become of them. She did this by not speaking very much, lying about her past, changing her appearance and adapting to live as it was dealt. She had cut her hair to a short length and made no efforts to make herself appealing. She would listen to the broadcasts of propaganda "though I knew that the only way to survive was to give in to a system too powerful to defeat, I could not force my mind to bend." (100) She presented her self to the Khmer Rough as a loyal supporter so she would not run the risk of being accused of any western ideas. Deep in her heart she only felt hatred for them. "Learning from my work experience only taught me to hate the system more" (page 100). While she was not used to the hard labours, she "was determined to appear familiar with the task"(page 63) of transplanting young rice shoots to the main leech and snake infested rice paddies. Never once complaining, as she knew her life was in danger if the Khmer Rough suspected her. There was no instruction given, if you did not know how to do the task you were dubbed a "new villager" and no one wanted that kind of attention.