Today was a day full of education. The history of Cambodia can be depressing at times. We woke up today, got ready, ate breakfast and then went to the bus. Next thing I knew we were at Tuol Sleng (S21). Tuol Sleng used to be a high school before 1975. From 1975-1979 is was used as a concentration camp. Pol Pot was the leader of the camp. He took the people of the country and used them to help him. These "soldiers" would go into the city and take people away from their families to these camps. Here they would be beaten in the classrooms... at times they would hang them by a rope and beat them until they became unconscious. When they became unconscious, they would dip them in dirty water to wake them out of it. They would sometimes leave the people in a single room by themselves. Other times they would have multiple people in a small room together. The times that the people stayed here varied. Some would be taken from the camp on a 30 minutes bus trip to the Killing Fields. We also visited the Killing Fields today. It was a huge eye opener on the way there because our translator said that the people would have been blindfolded and silent the whole trip there. These people were unable to smile, laugh, joke, etc. In the Killing Fields the soldiers would beat the children and women on the trees because they did not want to waste bullets on them. They used bullets on the men only. I cannot imagine this happening in our country fields...
At Tuol Sleng (a Museum now) there are rooms and rooms of photos of the persons who were killed. There are photos and paintings of how people were killed. There are beds, waste buckets, and the lashing weapons there as well. Some people would be put into large boxes of water to drowned. There were also several poems, documents, etc. One poem stuck out to me. I call it the "No Poem". It lists all of the "no things" at the Tuol Sleng. The poem is at the beginning.
After the rough morning, we ate lunch at "Jars of Clay". It was a good lunch complete with a chocolate milkshake! Then we went to the Russian Market. Wonderful market... it was not very crowded today for some reason. It was a good experience minus the sweat and stray cats that creeped me out. It was fun to see the culture. There was a lady trying to sell me place mats and i told her i'd come back next week and she said "I don't believe you!" When we really will be back there in a week. The market was an experience... good one. I bought 7 movies for $10.50.. 3 of which did not work when I took them back to the hotel... but our translator said we'd take them back and trade or figure something out!
Once we were complete at the market, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and have a meeting. After our meeting we went to get massages... feet, head, legs and shoulders. WONDERFUL! We only paid $6.50 plus tip for them too! In many places in Cambodia, human trafficking happens upstairs, this was one of the few massage places where that cannot happen. It was good to know that our money went to a good place.
Once we were relaxed and ready for bed, we went to a restaurant called Kiwi for dinner. There Jen and I split pizza. We saw many lizards on the walls and even saw a large rat run across the floor... good times! Once we got back onto the bus (at 8:15pm... so it was dark and people were out in the city) we watched for trafficking. It is so sad that white men come here to traffic such young girls. We saw quite a few men in the process of buying the girls. I cannot even imagine this happening to me or any of my friends, especially at such a young age.
Random things from the day:
1. In Cambodia when people honk their cars it is a polite warning that they are coming your way and not to move.
2. Stray cats are scary.
3. Chocolate milkshakes can make a foreigner's day.
4. Showers are the best thing after a long day in the Cambodia sun and heat.
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