First activity of the day was about an hour of seeing Phnom Penh. There were teenagers at many corners wearing vests with red crosses and carrying signs. We were told they were they were reminding drivers about safe driving such as wearing helmets when riding motorcycles. They would hold out flags to stop the motorcycles from going through the lights. Our guide, Panithl, had done this as volunteer work as well when he was younger. We drove on an island just off the city witch much new construction including a convention center at which an international SE Asian pharmaceutical conference was being held. We saw the bridge on which several hundred people were crushed to death at a major festival a few years ago. I remember when that made it into the U.S. news. There are new, very large hotels either already built or under construction.

We had to find a camera store because David needed more AA batteries, so that was a detour. But we arrived at the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. The palace is the residence of the king with related buildings such as the throne room. We toured with the first woman Cambodian guide I have met in her mid 50s. I tried to have some conversation with her and learned she had been sent to a work camp as a child by the Khmer Rouge, has remained single, but cares for her nieces and nephews who are teens and young adults as their parents have died. The tour did not include the actual residence, but the other buildings and grounds are beautiful. The Silver Pagoda is filled with gifts to the king with much silver, gold, and diamonds, incredible opulence in a country struggling to overcome so much poverty. There is a Buddha with a 25 carat diamond on its forehead and a 20 carat diamond on its chest. At the end of the is tour there is a small exhibit of uniforms, etc. that have been used for royal processionals.

The king is 90 years old, but as delegated, I believe, his responsibilities to his son in his 50s. The son has spent most of his life in Europe, is unmarried and childless, and is an acccomplished ballet dancer. The succession of the throne is unclear at this time. In terms of the government, the king is a figurehead only. He sign all legislation, but has no ability to dissent or refuse to sign or to influence legislators. In the late 1990's, but reportedly was ineffective and made many mistakes so lost power. Elections are held every five years with the next one scheduled in 2013. The ruling party is and has been since the late 1990s, the Cambodian People's Party. There are several minority parties, Fancipan, Sam Reansy, and Human Rights. Because the ruling party has all the power, there is really no opportunity for the minority parties to demonstrate that their could be effectlve, so the likelihood of one being elected to power is unlikely, In addition, the dissenters are divided among the three parties. The CPP is liked and supported by the poor people because the government gives the people small gifts; it is reported that they must sign up for that and vote for that party in exchange for the gift.

Much corruption is reported in the government; sometimes the police make up their own rules and take money from the people. Much fear remains in the people from the days of the Khmer Rouge. People do not have trust in officials and fear that secret killing may persist.

After leaving the Royal Palace, the group visited Tuol Sleng, the prison (S-21), that I had previously visited. I wandered around and visited some floors I had not previously visited. In one room, there were a few people with a tour guide and an older Cambodian man. I guessed and was correct that he was one of the seven persons alive in the prison when the Khmer Rouge left and one of two surviving today. With the use of the guide as interpreter. he gave some very graphic descriptions of some of the activities in the prison. He described burning people alive by sitting them down, stacking tires around their bodies, pouring gasoline over them, and lighting them on fire. I followed the group and ended in a room that stored the archives. The Khmer Rouge did keep records of all persons incarcerated there. Each was assigned a number, but the numbers would restart every day. Each of the three years, the format of the numbering changed. In the archive room, there was an old typewriter that was used to record the "biographies" of the prisoners. Each person was required to provide a biography of his/her life with a confession of what he/she had done wrong. These persons had no idea what they had done and often biographies were required over and over from the prisoners or others captured by the Khmer Rouge until they got it right. Since the "crimes" were virtually anything a person had done or was that did not fit with the Khmer Rouge's idea that one should be a peasant of the earth, these crimes could be having light skin, soft hands, wearing glasses, owning books, having any kind of education, etc. While I was in this room, a man came up to me and asked me to leave. I had been with this group for about 20 minutes so was not sure why, but I did leave. I was able to learn that this was a special tour of visitors from UNESCO and that the room I had been in was private and not open to the public.

There are several crafts shops across the street, one a silk shop with products made by disabled people, and the other providing support for disadvantaged persons. We then ate lunch at The Bodhi Tree across the street from the prison which was quite good but served so much more food than we could eat; then back to the hotel for the requisite siesta. I decided to walk around a bit and discovered Street 178, the street of our hotel is known as art gallery street. Just about the galleries had almost the same type of pictures of the temples. The hotel is only a block away from the National Museum and on the near side is the Fine Arts University. I did see a photography exhibit there, an eclectic collection of black and white photos from international artists. (Another comment for the evaluation, why didn't the itinerary arrange for us to visit the National Museum when we were staying a half a block away rather than on the last day when we were like 3-4 miles away? And (late entry) why didn't the itinerary have us eat dinner at the restaurant we are to eat at the last night which is a block away in the other direction?) I also walked through a very large pagoda a couple of blocks away which I then learned is the headquarters of the Cambodian Buddhists. On the way back, I passed several barber shops, one outdoors on the sidewalk where a young boy was getting a haircut and two with some young Khmer med with streaked and spiked hair sitting outside. (not a common site at all - I think these may have been the first young man with any kind of alternative look that I have seen.)

In the afternoon, the program was to meet with 20 of the 34 university students sponsored by Friendship with Cambodia ($1500/year). These are all students from extremely poor rural communities who have been identified as being very high achievers. We went to the SEDP center (Southeast Asian Development Center) for the meeting. Most students were first or second year, and they attended various universities in Phnom Penh. Majors included sociology, accounting, finance, management, rural development, civil engineering, and English. After introductions, we broke into groups. As there were only five of us in the tour at that time, we each had our own. It was such a warm, enthusiastic, and rewarding experience. I posed some questions and assured that all 5-6 in my group could answer. One question - what one thing would you like to see changed in Cambodia today? Answers - freedom to speak out against the government, remove corruption in the government, ensure education for all children, increase employment opportunities. All spoke about job futures with the focus on improving the country (not personal gain). We spoke a bit about socializing (these young people in the traditional Cambodian culture do not date and come from a culture of arranged marriages), movies, American politics. At the end everyone was hugging and taking many photos from our group and theirs and exchanging e-mail addresses.

I left feeling so good about these young people and their commitments, but so grounded in the reality of the huge challenges they face in this country. Everyone talks about step by step and no one expects miracles, but it is going to take time.

Dinner was at Friends Restaurant, one of the most highly rated restaurants in Phnom Penh. It is a training restaurant as part of Friends-International which has been assisting marginalized urban children and youth across the world since 1994. The organization now runs and supports projects for these children and their families in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Honduras, Mexico, Egypt and Myanmar. There is an adjoining gift shop that we visited with some nice handicrafts. The organization's projects are based on best practices. Other areas of activity include developing a worldwide network of organizations with the same mission, developing social business initiatives to ensure financial sustainability, and the ChildSafe Network to protect urban children from all forms of abuse.