Cambodia so far

Cambodia is going by very quickly. In fact, I only have 24 more hours before we leave for Thailand.

In Phnom Penh I visited the Royal Palace, Tuol Sleng (the genocide museum), and the Killing Fields. There is a contrast to these places that is impossible to overlook. The links between the three however, are unclear to someone unschooled in Cambodian history or politics.

The sad truth is that although the Cambodian royal family did not instigate Pol Pot's revolution, which history will remember as a sick social experiment, they did have a hand in the murder of millions of Cambodians. The grandness of the Royal Palace is overshadowed by the fact that in 1975 Cambodia had approximately 7 million inhabitants and that by 1979, under Pol Pot's regime, nearly 3 million had been murdered. Nearly half the country's population was killed by its own government.

Today the genocide museum appears as a token remembrance. Its existence is pretty tenuous. It is falling apart and is in desperate need of repairs and steady funding. The mere reality of the museum is a small miracle. Looking around, it is striking to realize that anyone older than me must have had some role to play in Pol Pot's regime. Pol Pot and his cadre forced children as young as 12 years of age to become Khmer Rouge soldiers. They were terrorized, tortured, and forced to kill in the hope that they might be spared. More than anything, Cambodians seem to struggle with the need to forget and the desire to remember.

I need to go.. so much more to say.

On a radically different note, my stomach is waging a war but Dukoral is winning. Thank God.

xoxox
E