S21 and the Killing Fields

I'm really not a morning person, so it was a relief to hear that we didn't have to be up at the usual time of somewhere between 6 and 7 am this morning. I figured that I might as well spend some of that free time blogging, but it's hard to know where to start.

We spent yesterday afternoon at S21 and the Killing Fields, and there are really no words to adequately describe the horror of what happened in Cambodia during the late 70's. I was just a glint in my parents' eye when Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime were in power and doing all these horrible things to the Cambodian people, and though I remember learning about Vietnam and the World Wars in school, I don't really remember anyone ever mentioning Cambodia.

Seeing S21 (which was a secondary school before it was a prison for Cambodian people) and the paintings and photographs of and by people who had been kept there left us all speechless on the bus to the Killing Fields, possibly for the first time since the trip began (we're generally a talkative bunch... some more than others). The ever-awesome Rithy had so many stories to share about the reality of an atrocity that went mostly unnoticed while it was happening. Eyes Wide Open indeed.

After visiting the Killing Fields and seeing the mass graves, hearing Rithy describe how the young children were tied up like frogs and hit against the trunk of the Killing Tree, I think those of us who heard his explanations felt sick, but we are all grateful to Rithy for sharing his knowledge with us time and time again. These are all important stories that need to be told, and need to be heard.

I didn't mean for this to be so depressing. I'm currently sitting in the lobby of the hotel watching children in the street playing some kind of hybrid between marbles and jacks and adding to the Mosquito Kill Tally every few minutes, which I think is scaring the hotel staff as they keep looking over in my direction as if I'm doing some insane Westerner clapping dance.

Might be time to break out our newly-learned Cambodian communal dance moves...

Jane. xx