They like their fish here in Cambodia, we saw stall after stall of stinky fish and raw meat just left out in the open, flies a-buzzing. Haven't seen the fried tarantulas yet, though it is supposedly a delicacy here ("crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside"said the guidebook). We have seen many people selling all kinds of bugs, snakes whole, fried small birds and other supposedly delicious things we won't try. It was fun to bargain on some beautiful gifts n things, that had "fallen off the backs of trucks" such as Ray Bans and CDs, and we ended up usually paying about half of the first asking price.
Though we decided our sensitive hearts couldn't handle the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, we did visit S-21, a children's school that was transformed into a prison for interrogation by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime. It was intense. The empty cells still had the bed frames, mats, and such that the prisoners occupied. In many of the rooms there were black and white pictures of the bodies after they had been tortured and killed. There were exhibitions displaying the tools of torture and head shots of all the known prisoners who died there. Generally, the Khmer Rouge gathered all the intellectuals, artists, musicians, doctors, etc. and set to imprisoning them and interrogating and torturing them for 2-3 months before brutally killing them. There was a photo gallery also providing stories from some of the survivors about how their families had disappeared or died and what kind of people they were. It was heavy to say the least. It is just insane to think that the Khmer Rouge could do this to their own, innocent countrymen, the fear must have been beyond anything I can actually imagine. We found ourselves considering the role of our own country in sparking the Khmer Rouge movement and contemplating the complexity of the situation. It made for a very depressing day. But we are both glad we went. It was astounding to think that this all happened so recently-it started around 1975 when Pol Pot had Phnom Phen evacuated and everyone fled out to the countryside and attempted to become subsistence farmers. Even people who joined his movement were often tortured and killed. It was gruesome and disturbing, but it is the reality of what happened here and it is amazing to see the bright smiles on so many faces in this country as they still piece their country back together. What a strong resilient people the Cambodians are!
One night we were eating at Happy Herb Pizza on the riverside and we were approached by many different types of beggars including a child that seemed to yell swears at us after said no. At one point after we had eaten and I had some significant leftovers, a young boy of about 10 came up to the table and simply pointed at my steamed rice. I let him have the rice and my fish, we pulled out the chair for him and watched him wolf it down. The average income in Cambodia is just 50 cents a day and the poverty is astounding. It got our minds racing about how systemic thinking tools could help their situation, and made us feel very grateful for the abundance we have in our lives. The child left the head and brought it to a whole group of children down the street that had been begging too. I wanted to get more food and feed them all, but that is not how to solve the complex, vast, systemic, economic problems.
We were both relieved to leave the hustle and bustle for Siem Reap and spend days wandering the ruins of Angkor Wat...
Love,
Devon and Breen
No comments:
Post a Comment