Down and Dirty...Part 5 – Kingdom of Wonder! - Phnom Penh

Currently waiting on the plane for an hour and half delay out of Guangzhou airport back to Shanghai. China Eastern Airline is known for it's terrible delays...but they usually figure it out before they board everybody!

Coming back from a week and a half in Cambodia. It was really an amazing experience. The very first thing you notice upon arrival is the contradictory immigration laws. I bought my visa for $25 when I landed, and it took all of one minute for them to process it. You don't even fill out any form...just pass them your passport and the cash. Immediately you go through immigration, this being the first time I've ever had my fingerprints taken. It seems a little strange to let everybody in without question and then think that taking their fingerprint will make them behave themselves.

The director of the CWEF office in Phnom Penh picked me up at the airport when it landed at 1.30am, and I was very thankful for that. You're immediately bombarded by people yelling “Hello, lady! You want taxi!?” and young men trying to take your bag away from you. Even though it was clear that I had someone to pick me up two guys put my bag in the back of the car thinking I would give them money for it. Suckers.

I learned a lot from the director about Cambodian life. First off, women are the ones that inherit the family fortune, mainly because they are the ones that are expected to take care of the parents in their old age. It's the exact opposite in China. I also found it interesting that Cambodian men aren't the type to sit around to smoke and drink, like you find in a lot of poor and developing countries. The men are out working, as they are still expected to support their family even though they won't inherit anything. I also asked about the prevalence of violence against women, and it seems that's not such a big issue either in Cambodia. The biggest issue it seems facing the country is problem foreigners. Child and women trafficking is the one social ill that seems to be worse than other places.

My first full day in the country I went to Choeung Ek, or the Killing Fields. This was one of the sites of the Cambodian holocaust under Pol Pot during the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. I didn't take any photos of the place out of respect for the dead, but I can tell you that the place is haunting. It was so strange to me to be on such a beautiful piece of land and to know what had happened there. Cambodians that were 'Western' were murdered and buried in mass graves. Basically anyone that knew a foreigner, had an education, or wasn't Khmer enough was put on the list -- this included children, because the Khmer Rouge wanted to avoid the children growing up and avenging their parents' deaths. There are so many graves that the workers just gave up on uncovering all of them. On our walk through, I actually saw some clothing and bones coming out of the ground from graves yet unearthed. Apparently that happens a lot during the rainy season...Just take a second to think about how you would react to that. If you want to know more, do a Google Image search.

Despite the somberness of the place, I actually really enjoyed seeing it. If I can use that word...Either way it helped me to understand the Khmer culture as the week progressed.

Under the reign of Pol Pot, almost ¼ of the population of Cambodia was killed (around 2 million out of 8 million). Because of that, there are very few elders in the country. Some of the village elders that CWEF work with are only 35 years old. So it was especially sad when a 90 year old man two doors down from the office passed away while I was there. The funeral was very much an experience, with the monks in orange robes and everyone else strictly in black and white. The songs and chanting over the megaphone lasted for three full days, and I'll tell you it made teaching a database class rather difficult. Here's a short video to give you an idea of how loudly I had to talk.

Thankfully my experience teaching in China in the past, with construction happening above and below you at all times, prepared me well for projecting my voice.

Seeing so very many foreigners around, I asked what was bringing them all there. Apparently, they ALL work for NGOs. While it's great that there are so many people working to help Cambodia pull itself back together after the Khmer Rouge, you can imagine what a mess it is. A lot of NGO projects create dependency, few of the organizations work together, and some people couple aid work with mission work, which can get messy if not done right.

The staff and volunteers of CWEF were amazingly hospitable. The retired volunteers from the States took me out to dinner and we got to see traditional Khmer dancing.

After four days of interviews and training, I took a long weekend to go up to Siem Reap and meet a fellow traveler friend. More on visiting the ancient temples of Angkor in the next post!