Day 8

Funny things keep coming back to me. My travelling companions from 1991 (Hi Marcy & Deb!) will know what I'm talking about. Sundays in Phnom Penh are boring. I had forgotten that. I do remember that on Sundays they would bring an elephant to Wat Phnom (the central park in the city) and you could take elephant rides, but besides that Sundays went slowly because all of the offices were closed and our agency liaisons never came round. I hadn't thought about that in years, but today reminded me that Sunday's in Phnom Penh can be slow. Although the markets are busy and shops are open, it is not appropriate to visit orphanages or mission agencies on Sundays and all government offices are closed. So we were left to entertain ourselves today.

Today was Brennan's 15th birthday. We got up and went downstairs for breakfast. Same sort of buffet as in the last hotel. Kaley got her soup, I got my French bread.... and Brennan ate it all. Dr. Atkins would have been proud of Brennan's main breakfast item today. He discovered that he liked the grilled fish that was on the buffet rolled up in swiss cheese... and he ate a ton of it. It smelled awful but he seemed quite happy.

After breakfast Yoen picked us up to finally make it to Toel Sleng. I had thought about trying to go to a church service this morning as I'm sure that would have been an interesting experience, but Yoen didn't seem very familiar with the times or locations. I remember in 1991 that the city really seemed void of Christianity.... and at least to the casual visitor that still seems to be the case There are many more monks than there were back then, and Buddhism seems to be very widely practiced, but the only other signs of religion that we have stumbled across were Jehovah's Witnesses in the market (boy did they stick out!) and a Mormon Church building. I know that there are missionaries here (the Seminary has had students visit on several occasions) but a visible Christian presence still seems lacking here.

As for Toel Sleng.... what a very sad place and a very bizarre experience. This was a school that the Khmer Rouge took over and used as a torture and processing center from 1975 - 1979. Particularly educated persons, along with their children, were brought here for interrogation and torture before being transported to the killing fields for execution. Pol Pot's regime carefully documented each person who passed through with a number and photograph. Several of the buildings contain a few of these thousands of photos of men, women, and children. Unlike the concentration camps in Germany, very little has been done to "preserve" or "commercialize" Toel Sleng. The buildings are in pretty much the same shape they were in when the Vietnamese liberation of Cambodia took place in 1979. Ankle shackles are still strewn about, and patches of what appears to be old dried blood are on the floor, the walls, and the ceilings through some of the buildings. Unlike most historical sites visitors are free to roam and some of the walls are now marked by graffiti, some of which is offensive and some of which beautifully reflects upon the genocide. A movie is shown at 10 am and 3 pm but it was poorly projected and almost impossible to hear. One can't help but feel the sadness in this place. Yoen our driver said that no matter how often he goes it is hard. He lost his father and sister during the Khmer Rouge regime and clearly still harbors deep feelings.

Toel Sleng left me with the same sort of "confusion" that I have experienced in what we have seen and experienced here. A place of remembrance that should be holy ground is covered with litter and is being not so slowly destroyed by its visitors. A nice little coffee shop serving western style sandwiches and frequented by relief workers, ambassadors, and tourists looks out over an alley way where men, women, and children will drop their drawers and pee right there in the street. That new shopping mall that I wrote about yesterday is literally around the corner from an unpaved street totally buried in garbage where children and old women dig for food scraps. Bizarre is an understatement.

After Toel Sleng we stopped by that coffee shop called Java and had a nice lunch. I decided I want to either be an ambassador or work with an NGO (non government organization that provides aid programs.) These folks get to work in really interesting places and seem to have a lot of time to spend sitting in coffee shops. After lunch we "ran errands" with Yoen. We stopped at a sports shop so that Brennan could look at soccer shoes but he wasn't sure if they were real. He hasn't caught his sister's appreciation for knock-off items. Adidas and Nike soccer shoes (or football shoes as they're called here) for around $7.50. We stopped by an electric shop to buy some adapters for our various plugs before we move on to a more remote location. Next stop was back to one of the big markets to buy some baby formula to drop off at the Nutrition Center. The markets are so overwhelming with sights, sounds and smells. And so many beggars. I vowed not to give to any more beggars after my last experience, but this tiny little skinny very old looking woman followed me around and I reached into my purse and pulled out a package of peanut butter crackers which she gladly accepted. Not sure that was what she had in mind but it's what she got. There were several booths of knock-off designer purses that caught Kaley's eye. They put the prices in NYC for knockoffs to shame. Forget Canal Street, ladies. Go to Cambodia. Chris- if you're reading this - we thought of you and thought maybe we could pick up a Louis dog bag for Abbie really cheap. Motioning to one of the larger bags I asked the people at one of the booths if they had any dog bags. When they gave me a confused look, I used one of my few words of Khmer and said, "chi-guy bag?" (That's phonetic spelling for dog, folks.) They all about rolled on the ground laughing and finally one guy said, "Chi-guy poop in bag. No chi-guy in bag!" Probably a very good point. Sorry - no chi-guy bag for Abbie.

We stopped in an optical shop to look at sunglasses (again designer knock offs) and they had a wide selection of prescription frames that look like frames we would get at home. I asked how much and learned that for a pair similar to Kaley's prescription glasses it would run about $50. Funny how some things are so much cheaper and others so much more expensive. We walked around the market a bit more so that Jim could get some photos of the weird food. Stir fried cockroaches, anyone?

By then it was raining so we headed back to the hotel. I went to the bakery to get a cake for Brennan. How much did the cake cost in 1991, Deb? I paid $24 today for a chocolate cake and I think that's about what you paid back then! Rather than leave the hotel in the rain we ate in the Italian restaurant, which is really a few tables set up by the pool. Pizzas and calzones were OK. Getting drinks was a challenge as it has been since we moved to this hotel. I'm still very surprised at how bad the service is here. Very aloof and nonchalant attitude that was not present at all at the last hotel. If you'll be visiting Cambodia soon, cross the Cambodiana off your list.

Tomorrow we move on again and go the Golden Gate Hotel to hook up with the rest of the housebuilding team. The kids, Jim, and Derek have a theory that I am slowly weaning them away from their comfort zone -- starting out in a really nice hotel, moving to one that was just so-so, and tomorrow we move on to the $20 a night tourist hotel. Should be very interesting. We're also going to visit another orphanage, this one run by an American pediatrician and said to be a "model" facility, and making one more visit to the Nutrition Center to deliver baby formula. Then in the evening we'll meet the housebuilding people.

I think we're ready to move on to the housebuilding activities. There's really only so much to see and do here in Phnom Penh and with the rain today we're all a little stir crazy. Hope all is well with all of you.
Hugs -
Lisa & Crew