I woke up and ate Pop Tarts in bed as my roommates prepared for school. I waved goodbye to them and told Brooke I would meet her at noon. This afternoon I would we teaching the children at the community school.
Sython arrived and was back to his chirpy self. He talked a million miles per hour on the way to the first tour and that he asked his girlfriends mother last night on the phone if he could marry her daughter. It was nice to see him back to his old self. I had come to really like Sython on this trip. It was funny to think of my first meeting with him, this serious Cambodian stranger and now he was filling me in on his life plans. Him and I were the same age and while very different, we were still very similar. I would miss him next week when I left for Vietnam.
We arrived to the first stop, the S-21 prison. "We're touring a prison?" I asked surprised."This is a huge part of our history Julie."I am embarrassed to admit I had no idea what Cambodians went through. It blew my mind as Sython walked me through the prison and explained the horrific events that took place here in 1975.
He walked me through each room of the old high school that was later turned into The Tuol Sleng, or what they called Security Prison 21. He explained that in April 1975, the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. They wanted to turn Cambodia into a Communist country so forced the two million people living in Phnom Penh out of the city and back into the country to work on the farms. They shot and killed anyone who didn't immediately leave. Out of the two million, only five thousand were allowed to remain in the city and were all part of the Khmer Rouge.
The Rouge was very strict, forcing them them to work in rice fields, harvest vegetables, fish and provide all the food for the entire country. The Rouge would immediately rip away all the food and crops from the workers and sold them to China for more ammunition and weapons. No family, not one person was allowed to eat anything they grew. Every piece of food was collected and if you were caught eating something you made, you were killed instantly. All food was controlled by the Rouge, they set up dining halls and served the farmers just spoonfuls of food a meal. Families starving and forced to work even though grossly thin and weak to benefit the Rouge.
They eliminated all currency, all jobs and all schools. Any one who resisted or tried to rebel were arrested and taken back to the city to the S-21 prison to be tortured and eventually killed.
It was so mind blowing to me that this was going on only a few years before I was born. Hearing the barbaric behavior of the Khmer Rouge, you would think that this was done over a hundred years ago. Sython showed me where people were tortured, hung, beaten and thrown into tiny prison cells. "Were any of the prisoners actually bad?" I asked. Sython shook his head, "The leader of the Khmer Rouge was Pol Pot. He was very paranoid that people were spies or traitors so would capture teachers, students, doctors, farmers and have them brought to the prison for interrogation. Almost all prisoners brought were innocent but beaten, electrocuted, until they were forced to admit to being spies or to crimes they did not commit."
I couldn't wrap my head around how this could be going on in the seventies and that they killed over fifteen thousand ordinary city people in a short four years. I couldn't imagine an army coming onto San Diego and forcing everyone to leave instantly. To picture a highly populated city deserted, and forced to work in fields not allowed to eat one thing grown, made my stomach hurt think about.
We walked through the tiny brick jail cells and viewed the tortured inmates pictures on the wall. The Rouge took a picture of each prisoner that arrived and measured their weight. I read a few life stories on the wall from the seven victims who escaped. The same theme in all of their biographies. Artists, professors, engineers once living in the city and then in one day their life was turned upside down. The Rouge forcing everyone to leave in a matter of minutes, sending them to farm and collected every single piece of food they produced. Each of the victims were picked up by the Rouge explaining they needed their specialty back at their headquarters in Phnom Penh. The men asked if they could bring their family and they said they would send for them later. Instead of being called to paint or teach, they were thrown in the prison and tortured, starved until forced to say they were part of the CIA or a traitor. Some resisted and refused to admit to something they were not a part of. They pleaded they must have them confused with someone else. They would yell back at them, "The Khmer Rouge is never incorrect with our knowledge of traitors. Are you saying we are lying?" They would force their heads into dirty, polluted water buckets nearly drowning them and electrocuting them until they could stand it no more. Once they admitted, they would do what's called "Pulling out the weed at the root." This is when a prisoner finally admitted to a crime, they would go back to the villages and retrieve their wife and children to kill anyone rooted or tied to the person. This was to eliminate the evil passed down to the children as well as prevent any chance of later revenge.
The Rouge was killing so many prisoners they were running out of space to dump the bodies. They took the prisons to a new site they created, Choeung Ek also known as the Killing Field. Sython took me on the Tuk Tuk fifteen kilometers out of the city and to the Killing Field. I wasn't sure I wanted to go but Sython said it was very important to their culture to learn and never forget. This dirt road was much more dusty so he stopped at at a stand and bought us surgical masks to put over over face.
We arrived to a huge memorial of the collection of skulls stacked stories high. I walked around the field and read the signs explaining the process when prisoners arrived. For four years, innocent prisoners were taken here after they were in interrogated at the prison. They were killed by being battered with iron bars, axes and machetes. Acid was poured over the bodies to disguise the smell from escaping into the city. Half the people taken from the villages did not know they were going to prison and once leaving prison, they did not know they were being taken to a Killing Field to die. Terrible does not even begin to describe the state at which Cambodia was in only thirty some years ago.
At the end of 1979, Vietnam came to the rescue and ended the Khmer Rouge leadership in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge leaders were arrested and two remain alive today in prison, apologizing for their inhuman mistakes.
I walked out of the Killing Field and felt a mix of emotions. I couldn't believe I had not know about all the horrific things that went on in the seventies. After Vietnam interjected in 1979, people were able to migrate back into the city and attempt to resume life. The Khmer Rouge killed a total of 1.7 Million in their four years of destroying Cambodia. This represented twenty percent of their population.
I was silent on the Tuk Tuk ride home. I didn't know what to say. I think we never fully appreciate the freedom we have until in moments like this. I asked Sython if his parents experienced the Khmer Rouge. "Of course, everyone was affected. My parents are farmers so already were in the country but my brother had just been born and my parents were not allowed to keep any of their own rice. The food was collected daily and traded to China for weapons. It was a horrible time for my parents but I was not born until 1984. Thankfully, it was already over. My parents do not like to speak about the time Khmer Rouge ruled. It was a very sad time."
We arrived back to the house and the lunch served today was chicken and tomatoes with rice. Knowing I would be teaching little children this afternoon, I forced down a quick meal before climbing in another Tuk Tuk with Brooke to the school.
We arrived to a beat up building, with a playground on broken cement. It looked like it had been torn a part by a bulldozer. We walked into a dark classroom lined with old wooden tables filled with over thirty children. Bars on every window and English words below animals and symbols painted in bright colors on the wall. Brooke introduced me, "This is Julie and she is going to be teaching with me today. Can you say hi to Julie?" The kids grew very excited and said in unison, "Hello Julie!" Brooke removed a map off the wall, "Julie, can you show the children where you are from?" I held the map up and pointed to The United States as I explained I was American.
We started the lesson plan for the day and I handed out word search worksheets with all English vocabulary hidden within the block of words. I walked around and helped the kids circle the words on their sheet. "Cha,Cha!" They called to me. Confused by the word, I corrected them and said, "Julie." They smiled and gleamed as I helped them find the hidden words. "Cha! How old are you?" "How old would you guess?" I quizzed. They all shouted out numbers,"19?!" I shook my head. "21?!" I shook my head. "25??" Kids guessing from all the over the room and Brooke motioning a thumbs up for higher. They continued to guess until reaching thirty one.
I told them to resume their wordsearch and heard another kid call "Cha, Cha!" As she pointed to her sheet for help. I asked the Khmer teacher why they were calling me "Cha" and she laughed and explained, "That means teacher but they are being lazy and say the last part "cher." All this time, they had been calling me teacher and I had no idea.
"Cha, You married?" One of the little girls asked. I shook my head and the girl asked, "You have boyfriend??" I nodded and told them my boyfriend's name was Chris. I walked around to stamp any of the kids who had a completed worksheet with a green "Good Job" stamp. They grew impatient as they darted their hands in the air and asked for me to check their work, then proudly held their sheet for me to stamp for a reward. One of the girls raised her hand, holding up two fingers asking for two stamps. As I stamped another green "Good Job," I realized I made a terrible mistake. The excited facing across the classroom quickly turned to frowns as the others realized they were robbed of a second stamp. They held their papers high requesting an additional stamp, "Cha! Cha! Two stamps!" I walked around and stamped their sheets once more. A girl walked up holding her finger over the edge revealing she did not receive a stamp and requested hers. I looked at the blank paper and moved her fingers to expose the already two stamped sheet. "I stamped you already!" She held three fingers and asked for one more stamp. Oh no, I was not making that mistake again. I shook my head no and told her to take a seat.
After our first lesson, we moved on to telling time as Brooke drew two huge clocks on the board. She drafted point column for Boys and Girls written on the top. "Julie will pick one boy and one girl to come to the board. Once I announce a time, you must draw the hands of the clock. The first to draw correctly, wins. Then a new boy or girl will be selected to draw."
The kids screamed as if on a game show to their team mate as Brooke announced, "A quarter passed three!" The kids quickly scribbled on the board, erasing the incorrect hands as their teams shouted where to draw the line.
This was such a fun day and I loved the teaching part of the project. The kids were so lovable, coming up to me and wrapping their arms around me for a tight squeeze. A little boy walked up to me and placed a pink string braided bracelet around my wrist. They were all so sweet and well behaved.
The bell rang and they ran out the door for play time. They brought out a big jump rope and all jumped together in and out of the rope. This was the highlight of their day and was most definitely the highlight of mine. The little girls would come up and hug me over and over, asking if I would take their picture as they modeled for the camera. After, they begged to see what they looked like in their picture.
We played jump rope for a long time and I showed them how to line up in a single file line, taking turns, each jumping three times before allowing the next to enter. The way they were jumping earlier made it difficult with ten kids at once and someone always dragging down the rope. They loved this game and quickly hurried back around into the line for another jump. They jump roped until the bell rang again and rushed back to their seats inside.
The second lesson Brooke and I made up a word for each letter of the alphabet and wrote them out of order on the board. She asked them to make a list and put the words in alphabetical order. I called on one kid per letter to come up and write their answer on the board. They were all so smart and loved this lesson too, raising their hand as high as possible to be picked to go next.
After the final bell rang, the kids rushed for the door to go home and a few of them hugged me as they exited.
Brooke and I took a Tuk Tuk back to the house and I gave her a lot of credit. That was not an easy job to teach everyday. Brooke does accounting back at home so this was her first time teaching but I thought she was a pro. The kids listened and clearly adored her. She brought them candy and had fun lesson plans. I'm positive her teaching was making a difference and now seeing the rusty playground equipment, I see why she asked her company to raise money. The kids really didn't have much and will die with excitement when they see what she has bought them.
We arrived back to the house and it was packing time. The girls and I had our beach getaway this weekend and I could not be more thrilled to enjoy a relaxing weekend in a different part of Cambodia. The Southern part of Cambodia is supposed to be way less populated and more tropical. I couldn't even imagine after all the other parts of the country I had been to in the last week.
I ran to the laundry, picked up my bag of freshly ironed clothes and raced back to the house with only twenty minutes to gather my things. I hit play on my iPhone and Brooke and I prepared for the weekend, stuffing all of our clothes in a pack while listening to music.
We took a Tuk Tuk to the bus station and a mini bus holding fifteen riders waited for us. Lily and Silvia met us at the station and the four of us climbed in the cool air conditioned bus. As we rode along the five hour drive to Sihanoukville, Silvia remained turned around in her seat talking to me about her dentistry school and showed me pictures of her boyfriend. She lived in Venice and he lived in Milan. It was really great getting to know her better along the ride and she had a contagious smile as she spoke in her beautiful Italian accent. We discussed her favorite recipes and I couldn't wait to try her homemade gnocchi.
The road to the beach was much different then to Siem Reap. It was fully paved and a very smooth ride which actually turned out to be a negative. Silvia turned to me and motioned for me to put on my seat belt. "This is one of the most dangerous roads in Cambodia because it's smooth so drivers fly over the speed limit and it's a winding road in the dark!" I clipped my seat belt and looked out into the dark. I swear this trip just keeps getting better and better. I looked around at my new friends and was so thankful to have come across a new group of girls that I genuinely found fascinating. They each brought a unique trait to the table and were all so sweet. So another day down in Cambodia and I'm off to a weekend beach trip.