Cambodia: Day 1, & Day 2

Day 1

Imagine having everyone in your family killed and tortured for no apparent reason.

This is what most Cambodians have to deal with every single day, and yet they still persevere and continue their lives happily and in great joy. Nearly half of the entire country of Cambodia (4 million people) were killed off by the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot.

Today we went to the S-21 prison, one of the many torture chambers and jails for many innocent Cambodians. Formerly a high school, Pol Pot created this compound and killed nearly 20,000 Cambodians, with only 7 survivors. We got to have a tour and saw the jail cells people were kept in, and the actual rooms and beds people were killed and tortured in. 

It was so challenging to see the pictures of the hundreds of innocent Cambodians killed off, just because they were intelligent, looked different, or anything other than being completely dumb. It was so overwhelming to think that one man could change the history of the entire country. 

After going to the S-21 prison, we went and visited the Killing Fields, where they would take more people and prisoners and slaughter them off. We saw areas where the Khmer Rouge would beat children, babies, men and women until they died, and then left them in a little hole. It was so incredibly hard to imagine someone being able to murder millions of people, just because they might have thought of revolting against the Khmer Rouge. In one of the areas we went to, we were told that Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, had a motto: "It's better to kill an innocent, then miss a criminal" This sentence was so powerful to me; the fact that Cambodians were slaughtered and murdered just because he didn't want to miss a criminal. He would kill babies in case they sought revenge later in their life, children too.

It is so immensely hard to react when you hear stories about this. 

After learning the history of Cambodia, we went and visited the orphanage we would be working at for the next couple of weeks. We met the children, drew pictures, played volleyball, laughed and had so much fun in the short time we were there. When we first arrived, the children greeted us so happily and hugged us and kissed us, without even knowing our names. I love them already even though I met them so briefly. I am so excited to be on this journey. 

Day 2

Today we went to the orphanage all day. After a very warm welcome from everyone, we started to clean and disinfect the entire place. My group started with cleaning the "stage" and living room area where the children eat, sleep, play, and dance. We swept and scrubbed the floors until they were clean as they could be. It felt so rewarding when the children would come and help us clean, and we were able to teach them that being sanitary and clean was a priority. After most of the orphanage was cleaned, our group started delousing the children. We had an assembly line of children getting deloused, combed, manicured, and cleaned up. I worked on delousing the children first, and it was so rewarding when they would understand what we were doing and then thank us so gratefully afterwards. The look on their face when we would help clean their hair, nails, and hands were surprised; they had never had anyone help them stay clean and be completely nice to them before in their lives. 

After we cleaned up the children and the orphanage we played with the kids. I bonded with a girl named Srey Noun and Srey Neath right away, and was asked to be their "sister". Some of the boys would help me pronounce words I didn't know, and then laugh and make fun of me when I completely got the words wrong. I have instantly fell in love with these kids and everyday I look forward to see them again.