Reminders

Yesterday was an interesting day of travel.  It is hard to pick the right adjective to describe the day that we experienced. By no means was it a bad day. In reality, it was an amazing and eye opening day, albeit heartbreaking.  Perhaps the best description could be "eye opening."

Less than fifty years ago Cambodia was the victim of one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia and immediately went to work in creating what they believed was a utopian classless society. Part of the Khmer Rouge's plan was to eliminate any and all aspects of society that may challenge their views. With that mandate, the Khmer Rouge regime systematically murdered three million Cambodians in about three years.

With this tragic history so relevant to modern day Cambodia, we took yesterday to visit some of the sights of remembrance. Words cannot describe the feelings that come across you as you stand in places where such terrible atrocities took place. Even though it is not the most uplifting experience, it is one that we will never forget and a day that will shape our lives for the better in the future.

Here we visited Choeung Ek, or more appropriately known as The Killing Fields.  This is the site where over 20,000 people were murdered and dumped in mass graves.  Today, it is a site of remembrance and education.  Heidi is setting up her audio tour at the start of the site.

This is one fence around a mass grave where over 100 women and babies remains were located.  It is called the "Killing Tree" for a large tree that was used to murder the babies and children. Today, Buddhist prayer bracelets have been placed along the fence by tourists and monks alike to show honor and respect to those whose lives were lost upon this "Killing Tree"

Today, this land looks calm and peaceful.  However, the land is still filled with the discarded remains of thousands of men, women, and children who spent their final hours being brutally murdered by their fellow countrymen.

Our next stop was to Tuol Sleng -- or S-21 -- an old school that was made into a detention and torture center during the Khmer Rouge regime.  Over 8,000 men, women and children came to this center between 1975 and 1979.

Once a place of education and respect, these classrooms were made into small cells and torture rooms.  The photos of all those who came and died here now line the walls.  Most people are just known by their numbers and have no names associated with them.

The feelings of death, loss, and brutality were palpable. 

Only 7 people survived S-21 and walked away from the regime.  There was no one spared -- from the elderly to the holy to little children and babies, the faces of those lost in this center were haunting.