Cambodia Slideshow

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To see the people of Cambodia today is to look into the past and witness the immeasurable poverty and hardship that shows in the desperation of their eyes. Cambodia has had a hard past…a very hard past. It became a very common sight to see an outstretched limb with no hand at its end, extended, begging for spare change or food. It was an everyday experience to see a little boy, no older than 7, holding his little sister in his arms, sitting on a curb begging for food. When we would sit down for dinner we were literally swarmed upon by local children begging for what was left on our plates. This was heartbreaking alone, not to mention when some of these kids were also missing limbs due to a landmine explosion. On one occasion we had so many kids surrounding us motioning to their mouths and bellies that they were hungry that we decided to ask the restaurant owner to ask the children what they wanted to eat so we could buy dinner for them and their friends to eat. It was a small gesture on our part but it brought a big smile to their faces. Although, sadly, no matter how big their smile in that moment, it would only last until their bellies became hungry again. This was the scene around Siem Reap. If it wasn’t begging for food at the stalls it was begging for us to buy a postcard or a bottle of water…and not only from the adults. Hordes of little kids would swarm us begging for us to buy just one thing from them to try and make a little money for themselves. I don’t know what any of you were doing at age 7 but I think I was playing with toy cars or something, not trying to survive by hustling for a bit of pocket change. A different way of life….very different.
Leaving Siem Reap to head south to the capitol of Phnom Phen wasn’t leaving the darkness behind but rather walking into another world of darkness even more difficult to swallow than poverty of Siem Reap. Without getting too much into the history and politics of Cambodia I’ll just caption a period of time between 1975-1979 (just 30 years ago) when a man by the name of Pol Pot lead a Mao Communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge, wherein he conducted a mass genocide, killing over 2 million people of the countries 8 million population. The focus of this movement was to wipe out educated people and their families…men, women, children and even their babies. The even more disturbing fact of this matter was in the inhumane and tortuous nature of the killing. There’s no need to go into details but suffice it to say that these people were absolutely brutally…fuckin’ tortured and then murdered; and for no other reason than to fulfill the agenda of one man’s sick mind. The reason we’re sharing this is because from this experience we both gained a new perspective of just how fortunate and privileged we are as people. To see the depths of suffering that this country has gone through has only helped us to gain a more profound appreciation for what we often so casually take for granted. If anyone out there thinks their job sucks, their parents suck, their life is hard…come to Cambodia for a week…..and rejoice in the fact that you can leave and go back to your life, which will no longer seem to be so bad.