Background...


BACKGROUND...

We will be working with the Cambodian Hope Organisation (CHO), in a border town called Poipet. In Poipet the largest source of employment is day labour, 8-10 thousand people cross the border each day to transport goods back from Thailand; working conditions and pay is poor. Poipet lies in the shadows of ten super-casinos, they provide little economic benefit to the local area. The influx of tourists and gamblers attracted by the casinos has encouraged the sex industry to flourish. Child trafficking has taken a stronghold in Poipet, and its the poor families who are at risk of being lured into sending their children into Thailand where the risk of trafficking is high.

There is Hope! CHO works in the local community, and they envision 'a network of strong, hope-filled communities where adequate physical, psychological and spiritual needs are met.'


The work we will be doing with CHO is varied and includes; Helping to build a safe haven centre for children who have escaped the child trafficking industry, learning Khmer, the local language, taking an active role in children’s clubs and ‘school on a mat’, assisting CHO staff in their work in the community, working with individuals from different cultures and faiths, especially the Buddhist culture, praying for and visiting those suffering with HIV/AIDS, taking an active role in the life of the Church through worship, sharing testimonies, taking bible studies and preaching.


Wednesday 24 March 2010

March 13th-19th

Hello hello! We hope you are well - we are now living at a steady 38C every day and have been for the last 2 weeks; we can imagine the climate in Britain is getting warmer too?! As ever we’ve had a very busy week and have seen God do some incredible things, not least with many healings in the villages and at CHO.

Our week started with a fantastic day at Battambang – a city with the famous ‘Bamboo Train’. We travelled with Matt, Nori, Emily, Sarah and Daniel, an American who is working at CHO for a few months at the Safe Haven building sites. The Bamboo train is literally a few planks of Bamboo strapped together on top of two sets of wheels with a motor at the back. The contraption sits on a rather wobbly train track on which it races along whilst you sit on it. We had a drink at the other end of the track before returning the way we came. En route, we met another train coming the other way, and as there is only one rail, whoever has the most people stays on the track, whilst the other one has to de-rail and lets the other one pass - with ten people to their five, we won! On our return to CHO, some of the younger staff members at CHO invited us to play football with them in the Casino District, so we enjoyed a good 12 aside match. It was such a laugh and we all enjoyed playing in the coolness of the night; especially Calum who scored a hat-trick.

On Sunday we went to play games and be with the children at the Safe Haven with the white family children. This is something we should do far more often, despite the busy schedule, as although we play games with the kids everyday at the school, it is in a school environment as opposed to a more homely one. We think the day was summed up in the words of one of the older children, Konghua, when he said: “Today, I am happy” – we heartily agreed.
In the evening, Calum and Paul shaved Alex’s head. Don’t worry - everyone was surprised at how well it turned out, and he actually quite likes it (though for anyone at home wondering, it won’t be staying)!

The week started with making and moving bricks at the safe haven. CHO make all their own bricks by mixing concrete sand and water together and then compressing it in the brick mould; it all takes a matter of seconds and the bricks can be used after 2 days of being made, once they have dried out in the sun. We continue to teach English, a bible story and play games with the children, now in the afternoon, from Monday to Thursday. In the evening Sue and Astird arrived – Sue is the head of the Tearfund Transform and Astrid the head of Knowledge (lol) at Tearfund and so we were delighted to see them and talk about the work we have been doing. On Tuesday, together with Rothena and Reatrey (senior CHO managers), we took Sue and Astrid around the CHO projects so they could see the work that CHO does, as neither of them had been before. They were amazed at how diverse CHO are in their work; the HIV/AIDS hospital, motorbike training school, sewing classes, the safe houses, the agriculture projects, the school on a mats and of course the Safe Haven.

Harley and Shelia White, together with others at CHO have been praying for healing for the sick in Poipet and in the surrounding villages. Whilst we were showing Sue and Astrid around the CHO projects, they visited the Khvai Thom village, a remote settlement riddled with landmines which was once a Khmer Rouge stronghold, and now is inhabited by their descendents— the marginalised of society. They saw God move in ways unknown to so many present. We have seen God work wonders in the villages and at CHO. God has such a heart for the lost, and we really saw that this week. In the rainy season some areas in the village will have up to ten feet of water and yet at this time of year they have none. At present, two people will share just 5 litres of water to wash their body and clothes, to drink and cook; and it isn't even clean. Satan has such a hold of this country, and that is why the work that CHO do is so important.
We have seen the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, those who have been hindered by physical problems all their lives, healed in an instant. Throughout the time spent in these villages God has truly changed the lives of people and we have seen the beauty of people coming to the Lord and recognising Jesus as their saviour. Amongst so many miracles, a young women who had been unable to walk for years and who had completely crippled hands can now walk a kilometre a day, can clasp items with her hands and her continuous headaches are gone. This happened within two visits, one week apart. She is now not going to the local pagoda, but the local CHO church—her life has been changed forever. Praise the Lord! Please pray with us that this will kick start a Jesus generation.

A highlight in the week for us is the weekly home church, to which we look forward to greatly; we were led in worship by Paul this week and we listened to an interesting talk on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount – An Eye for an Eye. The day became truly complete when Paul and Calum followed in Alex’s footsteps, having their hair cut too; Paul a similar all over trim and Calum with what has become a rather controversial Mohican!

This week, the white family introduced the game– ‘Ninja’! The game has slightly taken over Poipet and we predict Cambodia also! We have found that some people are playing the game before we have even taught it to them and we’re yet to find a group of people who don’t enjoy it – and don’t worry all at home who are interested will surely be taught on our return!
We continue to visit the mat projects on Wednesday and Thursday and play games with them, now in the morning. This week at the Safe Haven school we taught the children, with the White family, “Happy Day”! With the guitar accompaniment, it was an incredible moment when they had learnt it and were singing Tim Hughes’ song around the Safe Haven site, dancing round the classroom and singing at the top of their lungs.
This song, among others, continued to resound around the streets of Poipet on Thursday evening at the Street church outreach where we saw a few more people attending. This project has such potential so please pray with us as we want to actively take Christ’s message on to the street so that it would be fruitful. We are excited to see how God will use this project to bring his kingdom into the heart of Cambodia.

Both Calum and Alex led morning devotions this week and we led the afternoon prayer meeting on Friday. We had our first noticeable mega mistranslation where, in short, it was said that the bible means diarrhoea! We were trying to explain that the Greek word for ‘babbling’, which sounds like diarrhoea, is the origin of the phrase “diarrhoea of the mouth”, but was misunderstood along the line. It was quickly cleared up, much to the amusement of all who were there and it will teach us not to be too clever with our talks! Despite the misunderstanding, the prayer meeting was followed by healings once again. A woman who was totally deaf in one ear was completely healed, Paul’s hearing in his left ear hadn’t been great, but about an hour after prayer, his hearing was restored! Allan who has suffered also from deafness for 30 years had improvement in his hearing. He had torn his tendon a year ago and has suffered from a knot in his ankle ever since, but today we was healed and can now walk normally again – how great is our God! Healing is such a new experience for us, but we know that this is God’s will for his children. We see it in the bible and we see it now – it is so easy to do and anyone is ‘qualified’ because it is about God, not us.

Thank you for all your support from home and thank you to those of you who have posted letters as it really is so lovely to receive post from home! Keep the emails, post and comments coming!
With our love, thoughts and prayers...
Alex, Paul and Calum

Saturday 13 March 2010

06th - 12th March

The strangest thing happened this week: we wore jumpers! Not because we were ill and were suffering from a cold (or ‘man flu’) but because the temperature dipped below 30 to what we estimated to be 27C – ‘droh-chea’ (cold)! Jumpers for the morning, long sleeved T-shirts later in the day – felt like a British summer with a cool wind adding to what was a temperate climate for a few days!

The longer we are here the more and more we feel part of the family. We have our ‘western’ family with Matt, Nori, Emily and Sarah and our wonderful adopted parents – Alan and Andrene. We have our Khmer family of Chomno and Kim, their adopted daughter Mana (8 years old), Kim’s sister Eng, here husband and two children, all the restaurant girls and the staff who live at CHO. “Yung jia g’cru sat’dai muy” (We are one family)

It’s got to be said that by the time we have come to writing this blog, everything has become a bit of a blur and we’re not sure what happened on which days but we’ll do our best! We took the opportunity of a Saturday morning lie in and did not fall out of our beds until we smelt fresh pizza. Alan and Andrene taught the restaurant girls, Kim and Mana how to make pizza from scratch they tasted so good and was a great brunch! This was followed by watching ‘Ice Age 3’ with Mana, Alan and Andrene, Thea and Jeff. Jeff is a Pastor from the Calvary chapel church in California and is here for a few days to start to set up the bible school with Mao, which starts at the end of this year. He is returning in June to live here for several years whilst the bible school develops. In the evening we were hit by what was the biggest thunderstorm we have seen – a small token of what’s to come in the rainy season! A few drops of rain turned into a rain storm, leading to a torrent of water falling from the sky – standing on the balcony was exhilarating under cover, but when the wind changed direction we got drenched!

After church on Sunday morning, Chomno took us to the Casino Tropicana where we had their buffet lunch- ‘chingah(n)’ as you say in Khmer (delicious/tasty)! This gave us an opportunity to discus some of our ideas with Chomno. We returned to the Don Bosco sports centre where we played football and basketball with the under 14’s CHO girl’s football team – they are very cheeky with grins from ear to ear and they laugh constantly at us and our attempts to speak their language! We had a lovely evening at Eng’s (Kim’s sister) house with our Khmer family, Jeff, Alan and Andrene where we had an incredible BBQ, complete with roasted bananas and chocolate and endless games. They are all so wonderful and we love every minute we spend with them.

Monday was International Women’s Day, so some staff took the opportunity to take a holiday. There was no school at the Safe Haven, so we stayed at home and had a planning session with Chomno and amongst ourselves also. With no school at the Safe Haven today, the opportunity was taken to buy new shoes for the children. Many of them either have no shoes, are broken or are ill fitting, so Alan and Andrene (with a few CHO staff) took the children to the local market to buy everyone shoes. This was the first time many of them had stepped outside the 4 walls since April when the centre began. They went in small groups and came back with bright, colourful new shoes. They were so proud of their new attire and showed them off to us when we saw them later in the afternoon with smiles across their cheeky faces. None of the children have experience of a market (or very little), even a small one like the local one they went to and so meant that none of them were quite sure what to do. The beauty of the centre is that the children are safe, but, we do think it is important they have life experience so that they have an understanding of the real world because they can’t stay there forever; CHO obviously realise this but is difficult to implement appropriately. We would love your prayer support on this for CHO creating a suitable environment for the children to grow up in.
There are three houses, two ‘CHO’ houses with 24 children and a 3rd house with children that have been placed there by the government. These 9 children are all Khmer children who have crossed the border into Thailand illegally due to their parents and have subsequently been put into prison in Thailand. The Thai authorities send the children back to Cambodia but often their families just to send them straight back to Thailand where the same thing will happen to them again; to some children this happens countless times. Since the Safe Haven has opened, the Thai authorities have started to put these children here (and are more in ‘transit’ than at a home for them to stay) so this means they are not allowed to leave the centre. Their eyes are so deep and you can visibly see that there is something beneath their smiley exterior. We can’t begin to imagine what these incredible children have been through; all of whom we are so fond of and are a delight to be with.
In the afternoon we went to the safe haven and moved manure to the agriculture site, and in the evening we went out to a street cafe with Emily and Sarah to eat noodle soup.
We have been blessed with such a great family out here, so when we found out that it was Kim’s birthday on Tuesday, we had to do something. The restaurant staff had bought a cake and put up balloons, and we made a card to give to her, so we had a little party after home church at CHO, with all the guys who live here and everyone else at home church. There was music, dancing, with fun and laughter; the Khmer love a good shindig!

On Wednesday our schedule changed, so we now teach English at the safe haven in the afternoons, and do what we did in the afternoons in the morning. The mornings are when children learn better, so it makes sense for them to focus on Khmer and Maths then. Also it’s cooler for us to do physical work at the safe haven in the morning, so it works well for us!

Chomno is a visionary man, and he has a real heart for spreading the good news, so this week we started an outreach project outside CHO, involving music and testimonies on the street. It is from 7-8pm every Thursday, and we have a major responsibility in the event. It started small, like everything does, with mainly CHO staff, but the music captured the attention of neighbours and passer-bys, and we saw some people standing on the edges curious about what was happening, praise the Lord! We have loads of ideas about how to develop the event, and would love your prayers that this event would draw people in, and be a beacon, shining light in Poipet.

This week the White and Brown family’s children have been doing the bible studies at the safe haven for the children, and they have been teaching on the Easter story, continuing our story of Jesus’ life. It was nice to have a break and to see some other ideas on how to teach the children, they did really well despite being thrown in the deep end!
Unfortunately the Brown family had to leave on Saturday morning, so this Friday they took us and some CHO staff out for an amazing buffet meal at the casino. It was a good way to say goodbye, and they are so generous to take everyone out.

We hope that you are all well, and we really love your comments, keep them coming! We are looking forward to getting stuck into another week in Cambodia, till next blogging, Team Cambodia.

Wednesday 10 March 2010

27th Feb – 05th March

Hello, greetings from the land of eternal sunshine, hope you are enjoying the March weather back home! Last we heard it was snowing!

After arriving home on Friday, we spent Saturday relaxing and sorting ourselves out for the week to come. The highlight of the day was receiving the key for the balcony from our room on the top 2nd floor of CHO as we were then able to string up a hammock on the balcony – a new asset to our home! On Sunday we had church in the morning; it was good to catch up with some of the CHO staff and to be back home. In the afternoon we went to play basketball (much to Calum’s delight) at Don Bosco, with the local youth. Don Bosco is an educational facility/sports centre set up by a Catholic church just outside the city centre and the facilities there are excellent. The rest of the day we relaxed and planned some lessons and bible classes for the week to come. We do have to confess that we started on our stash of chocolate - the first pieces in 40 days, oh it tasted good!

On Monday we got back into the swing of our routine, and met two families from Canada, the Brown and White families (the Beiges as they have become more commonly known). The White family has four children, Janelle, Morgan, Josiah and Courtney and the Brown family has one child with them, Holly; they are here with us for 2-3 weeks. The children will be working with us at the safe haven and the adults will mainly be praying for healing for people in the surrounding villages and at CHO.

We went to the safe haven as usual on Monday morning; the Brown and White children didn’t join us today as they did project visits, but we taught English and played some games; it was lovely to be back and see all the adorable and wonderful kids again with their cheeky grins, who we were told had missed us. After the bible study on Jesus healing a man blind from birth, we asked if one of the children would like to pray instead of one of us: a forest of hands went up! Although we didn’t understand entirely what they were saying, we were told later that they had prayed for us when we go home, what a humbling experience! We had lunch back at CHO and it was good to see the restaurant girls; Leak (lee-ak), Heak (hee-ak) and Kong (we call her ‘King Kong’, to her delight). In the afternoon we went back to the safe haven, and worked moving eight large concrete columns before playing volleyball with the kids. Chomno returned from his 20 day trip to the Philippines and it was great to see him. He has such presence, spreading optimism, peace, and joy wherever he goes, filling the room with his warmth and you can’t help but like him. He is extremely wise, but at the same time manages to be so humble; it’s easy to see how CHO has grown so rapidly with him at the helm.

For the rest of the week we continued to work at the safe haven in the mornings, the Brown and White children came along to help; they are a great asset and enjoy teaching, playing and being with the kids. On Tuesday afternoon we moved animal manure (what Thea initially referred to as ‘cow sit’ much to our amusement!) at the safe haven for the plant nursery. In the evening we went to home church at Matt and Nori’s where Sarah led us in worship and we listened to a talk on different ways to connect with Jesus. On Wednesday and Thursday afternoons we went to school on a mat, where we played games and sang some songs. We met a young lady, at the school we visited on Thursday, who had come to Christ and had been disowned by her aunt and uncle who she lived with because of this. We were asked to pray for her by the pastor of one of the village churches. This felt so raw, and such a difficult situation, but must be common across Cambodia in the Christian church. We would love your prayers for her and others like her.

We led the CHO prayer meeting on Friday afternoon, and talked a little about why we should pray, looking at Matthew 6:8, why should we pray if God knows our every need before we ask him. This was followed by Harley and Sheila White, speaking on the ministry of healing. They asked if anyone had anything they needed healing for. Taking the opportunity, one of the staff stood up. He had a foot problem which he’d had for over 30 years – unable to straighten his foot and before our eyes he was healed, and could walk fairly normally. Over the next few days his foot has continued to be healed and every time we see him appears to be walking more normally. How Good is God! In the evening we went for a Friday film night at Matt and Nori’s, watching Ninja Assassin (awesome!!), and spent the rest of the evening with them.

This coming Thursday (11th March) and subsequent Thursday’s, Chomno, two of the CHO pastors (both of whom are called Pastor Seran!) and ourselves, are planning to do an outreach project in the evenings for an hour from 7pm – 8pm (12pm – 1pm GMT). We are going to play worship songs with some of the Khmer band, share Testimonies, pray and have a short talk outside the front of the CHO offices on the street and we’d love your prayer support. Just a few prayer thoughts: that it would go well, that people would come and be interested by what is happening and hear God’s message, but above all that it is a successful project leading people to the Lord.

Over the next few weeks, Alan and Andrene (a couple from Scotland who have been with us for nearly 2 months now and unfortunately leave in just over 2 weeks), besides their other work of training the teachers in the school on a mat projects and the safe haven school, are working to create a library at the safe haven. Primarily for the children but Chomno has future plans and visions for the library to expand, as there are very few libraries in Cambodia, and certainly in the locality. Please pray that the Library would develop, for money for the Library and that it becomes a useful resource for the children and the wider community in due course.
We would also like to say that Alan and Andrene have been so incredible to the three of us and have been like our adopted parents here at CHO! We love being with them, talking with them and we will miss them greatly when they have gone back to Scotland.

Thank you for all who are reading the blog and apologies that the blogs have become longer and less regular than we’re sure you’d like – we have been very busy since our return from our holiday and the blog has been bottom of the to do list as we’ve been putting our work as our priority, but you are not forgotten and please keep the comments coming!
With our thoughts and prayers…until next time,
Alex, Paul and Calum

Saturday 6 March 2010

20th – 26th February

Sua s’dei! (hello)
We apologise for what is a rather delayed blog post. We have had an incredibly busy week and so have only just found time (now it is the weekend) to update you all! We hope this finds you well, we are thinking of you all, and all your support is much appreciated. We also apologise in advanced for the long blog but please do take time to read it and we hope you find some of the countries history as interesting as we do!

This week we had our first holiday to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. We left CHO early on Saturday morning, where we caught a taxi to Siem Reap. The taxi driver was a little crazy, and spoke no English, so put our Khmer to the test! We paid $20 dollars for the back seat of the taxi, which meant the taxi driver can use the front seat for other passengers, as we found out. After a few minutes he picked up a lady, who sat in the passenger seat. Then later on in the trip, we pulled over and the lady got out, whilst two women and a baby with luggage got in her place. To which the first lady tried to sit with us in the back, but seeing as we had paid for the seat she walked round to the driver’s seat, and sat next to him. There was a total of five on two seats with the driver practically sitting on the hand brake. This was the case for the majority of the 2 hour journey!

On our arrival in Siem Reap we asked to be dropped off at the ‘Night Market’(Reatri p’sar in Khmer) though either he wanted to take us to the other side of town or our Khmer was wrong when we tried to tell him where to go; probably the latter of the two! However we did not realise we were in the wrong place until we walked for half an hour in what we thought was the right direction but turned out to be about 8km off track when we asked a tuk-tuk driver to take us to our guest house! On our arrival at the Mitri Guest House we were shown our room and went in search of lunch. For the rest of the day we got our bearings and had a look round the central market, where we made some purchases. In the evening we chose to go to one of the many western restaurants, and went to an Italian one. The waitress was impressed with our few words of Khmer and this has really inspired us to make more of an effort learning the language.

On Sunday we visited the famous ‘Angkor Temples’, what an incredible experience. We went with Sarah and rose early to meet our tuk-tuk driver; Mr Long Mounipich, he would take us round the temples for the day.
After getting our day passes, we walked through the narrow south gate of Angkor Thom, it felt like we were entering an ancient world, despite the hectic circus of tourists, traffic and the occasional elephant. We walked to Bayon, a large temple with 54 faces ( lokesvara) in the tall towers. Instantly when you enter it, it feels chaotic, full of tourists and the deterioration of the temple just adds to it. As you move through the temple walking up flights of stairs and along narrow passages you get a feel for what it would have been like to be in the Angkor period. Everywhere you look there are so many Buddhas, at first they seem harmless but then we were struck at their presence in the temples, and the reaction people have to them; placing offerings and lighting incense sticks without much of a second thought, just following the tourist band wagon. When you get to the top of Bayon, it is an impressive and powerful building, we were baffled at the intricate detail and the fact that it was constructed over hundreds of years ago.
We then walked to the Baphuon, along a causeway bridge, connected to the terrace of the elephants. The Baphuon is a depiction of mount Miri, like many of the temples at Angkor. The temple is undergoing the continued reconstruction after the Khmer Rouge destroyed it and the original designs, which means that no one is entirely sure how it should be pieced together, which is such a shame, as it is such a unique temple.

After walking around the Baphuon we walked/climbed to the top of the Phimeanakas, a square based pyramid with steep stairs up to the top, the climb is worth it when you get to the top, there are some great views. On our descent we walked through several wall ruins to the Terrace of the Elephants, a 300m long wall decorated in Elephants, waddling geese and Angkor soldiers in relief on the wall. This led to the Terrace of the Leper King, inscribed with Khmer dancers and carvings. After this we crossed the road to briefly visit the North Kleang, which was more peaceful than the others visited, due to fewer tourists and a more tranquil and ‘leafy’ setting.

We rejoined our tuk-tuk driver and travelled down the road to two temples; Thomannom and Chau Say Tevoda – similar temples either side of the road with elaborate carvings were fun to look around. These temples were better preserved with less deterioration than some of the previous at Angkor Thom with more intricate designs not only on the walls as decoration but in the architectural design too. They were two temples very similar to each other and two that we all liked. On leaving we met our tuk-tuk driver and went to Ta Keo, an incredibly steep and tall temple which we enjoyed clambering up. This temple was much simpler than some of the rest as during construction it was hit by lightening so was believed to be unlucky and so construction was stopped unfortunately.

After a quick and rather expensive lunch, we visited Ta Prhom, the jungle temple, or more popularly referred to as the ‘Tomb Raider’ temple, as scenes from the first film were shot here. This temple is one of the few that is allowed to be overrun by nature, kapok trees literally put their roots in the cracks of the walls, its an epic battle between man and nature, and feels like there is a lot of built up energy within the walls. Parts of the temple are full of people and have been made very touristy, but we went on a bit of a mission to get away from the crowds. The temple is large, so as you get deeper in it reveals itself, less is roped off and it was fun to climb all over the ruins. This was one of our favourite temple as there is just so much to see and explore, the jungle is literally taking over the temple which makes is so different.

Banteay Kdei the next temple was much quieter and grew on us, as we spent some time just sitting and chatting in the building and taking in the surroundings.
After this we went to the main attraction: Angkor Wat. You approach Angkor Wat on a bridge over a moat, and can see the temple in the distance past the entrance gate way. When exiting the gateway, the temple is still 600m away yet didn’t seem as big as the temple is claimed to be! On walking up to the temple it strikes you at how imposing the great symbol of Cambodia is. The temple is arranged around a main structure of five towers dominating the surrounding area and when you arrive at the top floor, through galleries of incredible intricate carvings of the great battles of the past, it suddenly strikes you at how big and awesome this temple is. It has a real presence and awe. Unfortunately there was quite a lot of scaffolding on the temple, and the top gallery was closed but it didn’t stop the true colours of the building shining through and when the sun began to set whilst we were there it made it quite magical.

The temples are constructed from huge stone blocks, creating a maze of tunnels and galleries, the structures are huge in scale but at the same time the intricate detail is incredible. When inside the buildings you can see how they have made them with the pyramid like towers culminating into a point. Buddhist monks are highly visible visiting the various areas, swathed in brilliant orange and golden tan. People crowd around them as if they are tourist attractions almost; though saying that we were no exception, taking some cheeky pictures in the temple walls. When at the temples, we were amazed at how many young children were there either selling postcards and bracelet/bangles or begging. Your heart almost cries out for them as they are just so desperate to sell what they have to earn money; starting with one dollar for a bangle and within thirty seconds ten for one dollar; and although we did buy one or two things you can’t say yes to everyone and it is so hard. This is something we encounter all over Cambodia and is something we would love your continued prayer support on.

After a long day at the Angkor temples we went out for a meal and visited the night market where we bought a few paintings. Some of the Angkor art work, although nearly identical wherever you go in Siem Reap, are really quite amazing and we enjoy looking through them (well, we say ‘we’, but really mean Alex and Paul, much to Calum’s annoyance!)
On Monday, we took the opportunity to rest and had a very casual day looking around the city. Sarah introduced us to the ‘Plumeria’ tree and we saw over 200 of the biggest bats we have ever seen, more than 1.5m in wing span hanging in the trees above us! We had a nice meal in the evening and re-packed for Phnom Penh.

Tuesday was spent travelling to Phnom Penh on what was a rather long and boring 6 hour bus journey in a coach which at the beginning was air conditioned but by the end was circulating warm air and that ‘people travel smell’ more than anything else! On arrival mid afternoon, we were harassed by lots of tuk-tuk drivers offering to take us to our guest house – The Top Banana. We travelled through the city and on arrival at the guest house were shown to our room. Phnom Penh is a city quite different to how we imagined it, more westernised and less touristy but although we have mixed views on the city, it has character. It is full of people in poverty, beggars everywhere, street children and lots of mothers holding their young babies begging for food – this breaks our hearts to see and continues to be difficult, as after all, they are the people we are in Cambodia to help and yet, you almost just have to ignore them, as we have to help them through the right channels. We walked through the streets in search of a snack and in the evening had a Mexican meal at Cantina, a restaurant down at the river front, and then walked back to our room through a moonlit city. We did find it funny that, as we were walking along the river front, an older couple were eating at a restaurant called ‘Happy Pizza’ which is probably very different to what they think a ‘happy’ pizza is – for that matter, happy pizzas seem to be everywhere!

Once again we took the opportunity to lie in on Wednesday, but eventually rolled out of bed and walked to Toul Sleng (or S-21 as it’s more commonly known) via what was a rather round about route due to Alex’s misinterpretation of the map and although funny, Calum and Paul were less enthusiastic in the mid day heat! S-21 was the main detention prison that the Khmer Rouge used in the centre of the city. The Khmer Rouge was a regime run by Pol Pot who was trying to implement a new way of life in Cambodia to create a country that was entirely self sufficient. In order to do this they believed that the country needed to start again and that everyone should become a farmer/labourer in the fields. They abolished currency, schools/education, human rights, religion, communications, weddings, social gatherings, romance, no clothing other than the pyjama type uniform (black trousers/skirts/shirts/shoes) and scarves permitted by the regime. No friends, no families, no soap, no coffee/tea, no snacks, no toys, no radio, no TV, no music/drawing/painting, no creativity, no hospitals or heath care of any kind, no electricity, no clocks, no pictures, no hope, no life. If you were educated in any way you would be killed; a teacher, pastor, politician, if you wore glasses and anyone who was a family member of one of these people would also be killed. The regime started in 1975 and the ‘reign of terror’ lasted for 3 years, 8 months and 20 days ending in April 1979 when the Vietnamese army drove the Khmer Rouge out – the whole country became refugees and was left in havoc and continues to be re-built today. Although the Khmer Rouge still continued to run guerrilla attacks for many years (way into the 1990’s), the reign of the government ended in 1979.

Toul Sleng is in the centre of the city and has 4 buildings which were previously a school but were converted into torture rooms (water boarding, pulling out finger nails, hanging, beating, drowning, starvation of food and water), small 0.8m x 2m cells (which look like pig sties or stables – places for animals to be kept, not people), detention and interrogation rooms. The walls are covered in barbed wire and at the entrance there were several ‘land-mine victims’, as in so many places all over Cambodia; here there was a man with no face as it was completely blown off and was covered in major burns – it really is so very shocking. We spent nearly 4 hours at S-21 and went round barely speaking a word to each other almost in utter silence, and for the 3 boys that we are, talking non-stop, it says something as to how shocked and appalled we were. Two building s are full of pictures of people killed by the Khmer Rouge regime, all of whom look so familiar to the people we know and love back at CHO: men, women and young children. Each person has a different story and you can visibly see the fear and how traumatised they are by the ordeal when looking into their eyes – a loss of hope. One building is covered in barbed wire to stop prisoners jumping off the top floors to a premature suicidal death. When Toul Sleng was stopped only 14 bodies were found still chained up in their cells. It is all so painfully recent (the regime stopped in 1979, but the country continued to be effected by guerrilla battles for years to come) and some of the main ring leaders of the regime are still undergoing trial.

After our disturbing morning, it felt odd to be visiting other ‘tourist attractions’. We went to Wat Phnom, a small temple at the north of the city and walked back to our guest house along the river front. In the evening we went to a restaurant called ‘Friends’ for a fantastic dinner. All food is prepared, cooked and served by rescued street children. It is run by an Australian charity and really is an incredible project – and was probably the best meal we have had since in Cambodia.

On Thursday morning we went to Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre (The Killing Fields) which are south of the city. The central memorial contains exhumed skulls, clothes and bones, housed on a 17 tiered monument. There are 129 mass grave pits, 86 of which have been exhumed, and nearly 20,000 mass graves across Cambodia. It is estimated that 2,000,000 people were murdered as a result of the Khmer Rouge and Choeung Ek is where the main killing fields for Phnom Penh and all of Cambodia was situated. It is estimated that over 20,000 people were killed here including 9 Europeans; the Khmer Rouge planned for 300 people to be killed daily but the amount of people that were brought into the camp exceeded the rate at which they could kill them. Bones still stick up from the ground and pieces of clothing too. People would be brought in from all over the country, many taken from Toul Sleng after being tortured and interrogated, they were brought to the fields to be killed. They would have their hands tied behind their backs, be blindfolded and instead of ‘wasting’ bullets were beaten around the head with bamboo branches, farming tools and anything they could find to kill them. Often they would not be killed by this and would either bleed to death or were poisoned by the DDT that was used to cover the smell; killing those who were either buried alive by dirt or bodies. Any soldiers unfaithful to the regime would be beheaded when killed here and there is a tree which was used to smash babies against, after they were stripped from their mothers’ grasp. It is truly horrific and we can not imagine what on earth was going through a person’s mind as they did these awful things. The tour guide we had was one of the first people to relieve the situation here at Choeung Ek in 1980 and he himself lost his entire family here – his brothers, father, mother and uncle. This made it even more real and made us stop and think as to how many people this regime affected. Words cannot describe the atrocities that happened here.

On leaving the Killing fields, we went to the National Museum where we looked through the excavated remains of Cambodian Artefacts, many of which are from the Angkor period. You can imagine and picture them in the temples we visited just a few days previous at Siem Reap. We visited the Royal Palace after walking through the beautiful gardens and buildings as well as the famous Silver Pagoda – a building housing hundreds of Buddhas and the famous Emerald Buddah in the centre. We don’t fully understand the whole Buddhist religion, and want to learn more about it and the way it affects the Cambodian way of life. The day was overshadowed though, by our experience of previous ‘tourist attractions’.

We walked back to the guest house through the city (full of green open spaces with such charm) and later in the evening had a Thai meal together across the street – a really lovely way to end the ‘holiday’. We decided to come home to Poipet a day earlier than planned, travelling west on the Friday, back onto a smelly coach for a journey which ended up taking nearly 9 hours! We arrived in Poipet at half past five with a sore bottom but it was so lovely to be back home on familiar dirt covered, dust strewn ground.

We realise that this blog post is some what detailed and perhaps a little too graphic at times for which we apologise but even when we read this back ourselves, before posting the blog you read now, we didn’t feel we even managed to capture half of what the true effects of the Khmer Rouge had on this country and is something no one could ever explain until you have experienced it yourself. We had a fantastic holiday and was great to spend time together (aside from the work we do), see more of the country and learn more of the culture and the countries past. Sorry this has rather a delayed post – it’s just taken a little while to find time to write it all!

We all continue to be well and healthy and are enjoying our time in Cambodia. With love and God bless. Until next time, ciao for now!