The Cambodian experience

After that hastily written blog in Saigon I jumped on a bus to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Phen. (seriously, I ran from the Internet cafe with about half an hour to pack and eat before the ride.) The crossing went by pretty smoothly. The border guards had a bag scanner like they do for airport security but it was more like "Use it if you want. Or don't. Just don't wake the sleeping guard." This pretty much describes the attitude of Cambodians and their police force.

I took the first 3 days to sit around. I did nothing and just let my body recoup after 3 straight weeks of traveling. I estimate (hastily) that I did 2,500 to 3,000 Km in that time and maybe more. The guest house I stayed at was on a lake and the living area was on stilts in the middle. We watched movies, listened to Ipod's connected to house speakers and generally hung out. I felt my brain start to come back together in that time and wrote copiously in my personal and creative journal, which was a relief after how much I had to think about and digest from the month prior.

For those who do not know, Cambodia is still recovering from a horrendous genocide that took place in 1975-1978. During this time a group known as the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, killed about a 1/3 of the population through torture, starvation and mass killing fields. He taught children to hate their parents and to be the agents of their demise. It is one of the most horrific things I have heard of and I was greatly affected when i went to view the memorial. The first stop was S-21, toul sleng prison. This is the high school turned prison that the Khmer Rouge used to torture, interrogate and execute an person that might disagree with what was going on. The whole complex is set up to show the surviving pictures of 16,000 prisoners and the conditions they stayed in. The peoples expressions in the photos ranged from scared and petrified to defiant and even humorous. To walk through three buildings covering one city block took me three hours.

We traveled to the killing fields next to see where the people were taken for mass death. We arrived at a tiny stretch of land sandwiched between a pasture for cows and field of rice. Nothing seemed odd or special about the place and it would be easy to miss if you didn't know what to look for. Once inside you see a monument standing 15 meters high. Within this hollow obelisk are the skulls of thousands found in the nearby graves. Many of the graves were no larger than two cars side by side and no deeper than the height of a post office box. In these tiny holes up to 1,000 men, women and children would be brutally killed and dumped.

Many of the Cambodians I spent time with would mention the experience they had with the Khmer Rouge in passing, as a detail of their life. Ra, the guest house owner, mentioned to me over a game of cards that his grandfather and father had been killed during those three awful years, while he ran to the countryside to hide as a Khmer farmer. A teacher, Mr. Chem, told us how his family was brutally murdered when he was 11 and how he grew up in the rice field. His story is truly amazing and very inspiring.

He was given an English-Khmer dictionary by another worker and told "read this if you want a better life." He had no idea why this was the case but chose to follow the instructions he was given. I should note that to be seen with this dictionary by a Khmer Rouge guard meant instant death, right there in the field. Well, he would climb a tree and read the words quietly and then practice saying them when no one was around. Over time he learned to speak a little English and became a Tuk-tuk driver in phnom phen. After 6 years of living in his tuk-tuk and working every day he had dilegently saved $350. He returned to his home in Takeo province and opened a Non-government organization known as E.T.O. He know teaches peasant children english and math for free. He estimates that over 3,000 children are currently enrolled. He has almost no money to pay teachers, so most are volunteers. He still travels to his rice paddies 20 km's away at 1 am to gather crops to sell for chalk and paper for students. He laughs often about his pronunciation of words, saying "I don't know, I just read in book, I don't know how you say."

The Cambodian people are an amazing and resilient people. After all they've gone through they are still the most playful people I have run into in SE Asia. They are eager to laugh, play fight, tickle and run around even during business and other "important" activities. They seem to recognize the need to have a young heart in order to get the best out of life. I am currently in Seam Reap visiting Angkor Wat. Today I went around looking at these 800 year old monuments and it is truly breathtaking. Even though enormous trees grow through some structures, others are still preserved as they were 8 centuries ago. I will let everyone know more about these when I blog again. I should be in Thailand by then, getting ready to travel to Chang mai to do Muay thai. To all of my students, I just want to let you know how proud I am of all of you. Audrey and Danny have kept me very up to date and it sound like everything is going well at the school. I knew I could count on you guys to show Audrey the same respect you give me. Here's a challenge for you though: I want you to show her more respect than you show me. While I go and learn respect for my Thai instructors I want all of you to show Audrey and Danny what you can do. To my family, I want to say thank you for the birthday wishes, the ones I received and the ones merely thought of. I love you all and hope everyone is well.

Namaste,
Adam