Cambodia Continued

After visiting Cambodia, I found myself wondering what was I doing in 1975-1979? I know that I was a typical teenager consumed with my own little world but how could I be so disconnected with the outside world to really have no idea of the atrocities going on in Cambodia at the time? What were we learning in our history class? I do remember when the movie, The Killing Fields was released and perhaps nominated for an Academy Award but knew it was too violent for me to watch. It was very sobering to visit the actual killing fields in person while in Cambodia, to listen to our van driver retell the events that occurred in our lifetime and talk of his uncle and cousins that were never heard from again after the Khmer Rouge's evil acts. It all started when loud speakers throughout Phnom Penh announced that an American bombing was imminent and all residents must flee to the countryside immediately to escape danger, frantically, millions of people fled their homes, running for their lives and families being split apart. The evil leader desired Cambodia to become a total agrarian society and all educated people to be exterminated and Communist rule to go into affect. Over 2 million people were killed, many of their bodies dumped in mass graves outside the city of Phnom Penh. Any educated person, political leader or individual that even looked smart was brutally killed. One could be executed for just wearing glasses because you looked smart. Someone might be asked to read from a book to decide his fate. A person's hands would be examined and if no callouses were found that could sign their death warrant. Was I just clueless? What an amazing history lesson for the boys and I to walk among the actual killing fields, along paths that are littered with bone fragments and discarded clothes from years ago buried in the dirt. It felt like hallowed ground. Ethan found a human tooth beside a path. The field is dotted with many, many huge holes, caverns where people's remains where excavated. There is a monument on the property that is filled from bottom to top with human skulls that have been recovered from the site to remind people of the terrible past. There was a 'magic' tree that still had the loud speaker used to play music loud enough to drown out all the screams of the dying, tortured people.

We also toured the old High school that was converted into a prison, the holding areas for torture and death. Many, many cells were made in the previous classrooms. The large rooms held prisoners shackled together by their feet where they were forced to remain lying down, soiling themselves with barely enough room to turn their positions. The torture rooms had some most gruesome photos, so much so that I didn't allow Ethan to tour this building and Dustin, Nathan and I only went into a couple of the rooms, it was really, really sad and so sobering. It seemed strange to me that upon entering the prison, a sign was placed to prohibit laughing (I've never seen a sign like that before.) there was no chance of laughing amongst our group. They claim that more deaths occurred during this time than all the Holocaust. The evil regime was finally put down by the Vietnamese in 1979. Did you know that?

I'll post some pictures of some of the things we saw. I'll also put a picture of a group of boys that were begging outside the fence of the killing fields with a picture of their house. They were industrious, putting their hands through the fence, shaking the boys hands, introducing themselves, asking about their uniforms, speaking in very clear English.

We will never forget our trip to Cambodia and the history lessons learned there. I hope to go again while we live in this part of Asia. Cambodia isn't as Westernized as Thailand, there are no McDonalds. It feels older, less touched by the outside world. There are a lot of new building projects and more luxury vehicles than in Pattaya, a lot of Lexus and Mercedes Benz cars mixed among the thousands of motoes-I don't really know what that is about? English is more widely spoken, much more of a Christian presence (Julie wonders if the Buddhist influence is less because so many of the Cambodia ancestors were killed and those traditions weren't carried on?). I saw very few spirit houses, in Thailand you see spirit houses on every block. The Cambodian women are very modest. Their money is the Riel but they prefer the US dollar. They have no coins in their money circulation and are very picky about their bills, they wouldn't accept a US $10 from me because it had some very, very small tears they had to point out to me. I have to tell you that it was strange to have Baht exchanged into US money. I didn't have a US coin or bill in the entire house, it struck me as funny that I couldn't root up a US coin or bill anywhere, we haven't been gone that long! Ironically, we found Dr.Pepper there! The boys were so excited! They don't have the huge dog problem that Thailand has, Noik, my housekeeper said, "Because they eat dogs there?" It makes me wonder? There is no affection between Thailand and Cambodia and a long standing dispute between some religious ruins at their border. I've noticed that most people here are very prejudiced against Cambodians. Neither Noik or Songkran have ever visited there and seem mystified why I would want to go there. Oh, I'm glad we went to Cambodia