Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday March 10, 2008
Flew into the city on Dragon Air. Checked in at customs to get our visas and then met the folks from Four Square Church. We rode a small bus to the training center. The things we saw were amazing. The country is beautiful but so destitute. There were people all along the roads selling things like diesel fuel, some of them with animals such as cows tied out. People here ride mostly on mopeds and they don't wear helmets. The women mostly ride side saddle (I later learned that this meant they were not married to the driver) and they even carry their little babies on them too. It's nothing to see a man driving a moped with one hand on the handle bar and the other around a baby.
Many many people here beg for money. I have seen several malformed people including one girl with a gigantic tumor on her face like the people I've seen on the Discovery Channel.
It's so poor here and everything is cheap. I made three phone calls to the US and used the internet for about 5 minutes and it was only $2. I got to talk to dad and left a message for Larteek.
At the training center I bought a tshirt and some prayer bracelets that were made by the orphans. We got to see many of them playing on the new playground--they seemed so happy.
We went to a restaurant and had a family style meal. It was ok--I had fried rice and fried noodles (little did I know at this point that would be about the only thing I ate for the next 7 days). We left there and went to Tueol Sleng, the grounds where Pol Pot created the Cambodian genocide. What a heart wrenching story--so many poeple dead for nothing leaving their country in a state of ill-repair (I have since been enthralled by the history of the Khmer Rouge and have learned that almost 2 million people were killed, the equivalent of killing 70 million Americans).
Many many people here beg for money. I have seen several malformed people including one girl with a gigantic tumor on her face like the people I've seen on the Discovery Channel.
It's so poor here and everything is cheap. I made three phone calls to the US and used the internet for about 5 minutes and it was only $2. I got to talk to dad and left a message for Larteek.
At the training center I bought a tshirt and some prayer bracelets that were made by the orphans. We got to see many of them playing on the new playground--they seemed so happy.
We went to a restaurant and had a family style meal. It was ok--I had fried rice and fried noodles (little did I know at this point that would be about the only thing I ate for the next 7 days). We left there and went to Tueol Sleng, the grounds where Pol Pot created the Cambodian genocide. What a heart wrenching story--so many poeple dead for nothing leaving their country in a state of ill-repair (I have since been enthralled by the history of the Khmer Rouge and have learned that almost 2 million people were killed, the equivalent of killing 70 million Americans).