Cambodia: a dark past and a hopeful present

Our time in Cambodia was very enjoyable. It's unthinkable how just a
few decades ago this country was in complete disorder. In most ways
the country has just moved on, I guess what else can you do. There is
a high percentage of disabled people compared to what we are used to
seeing and have seen other places on our travels. In our time in Phnom
Penh we visited the Tuol Slung museum. This is an old school in the
center of Phnom Penh that the Khmer Rouge turned into a torture
grounds and prison. One of the members from the Harmony farm commented
how a location as ordinary as a school could so quickly be turned into
a place of terror, I agreed with his comment. During the height of the
Khmer Rouge takeover there were one hundred people a day being killed
a day at this location. Ironically, during the reign of the Khmer
Rouge one quarter of the population died in the name of creating an
equal society. Upon first entering the museum I had an uneasy feeling,
barbed wire is coiled around the courtyard, you walk through the
school rooms and there is a bed in each room and a method of keeping
the prisoners shackled to the bed. There is old Khmer Rouge black and
white photographs used for documentation in some of the rooms showing
a prisoner looking extremely malnourished and sometimes covered in
blood. As the day moves on it becomes difficult to believe the
atrocities that occurred here, the sun is fully out and children can
be heard playing from all parts of the museum and Phnom Penh moves
about like all the other Asian cities we have visited. Although it was
a difficult morning I found this to be important to learn about the
what the people of the county we visited have been through.

There are still signs of inequality in Cambodia. I don't think I have seen so
many SUV's in all of Asia including a few Hummers (seems very
impractical for narrow Asian city streets) as well a some larger
living accommodations protected by big fences and barbed wire. On the
other end a larger amount of beggars than we have seen in other places
as well. We also noticed a higher level of corruption in Cambodia.
Every trip into Siem Reap the truck driving us into town would be
pulled over and be required to pay a "fee" before being allowed to
proceed. I'm not sure what the consequences would be if you didn't pay
but when Harmony Farm was getting charged "fees" to move their house
the director was adamant that they be payed. Another example of
Cambodian people hurting themselves, is the lady's booth who is setup
close to Harmony Farm selling school book packages to tourists and
that she says go to the school, but when the tourists leave she puts
them back out on her shelf to be sold again taking from the children
of her own village. Given what the country has been through I think
it's doing very well. Aside from the few incidences of corruption the
people were all very good people who have suffered what is
unthinkable. For a good historical biography on what has happened here
in Cambodia Marina and I both read and recommend "First they killed my
father". This is the story of Khmer Rouge told through the eyes of a
five year old girl.