1st Day of Interviews!

Tuesday was the first day that we went into the field. I got up at 5am in order to have enough time in the morning to get everything done that I needed to do because we were leaving at 7 to head out to the provinces. The nine of us piled into a car - Alexis, our resident self-proclaimed fruitloop, had been sick all night and could not come with us. (Sometime remind me to tell you about Alexis, she is a hoot and the reason that we are all in high spirits on this trip... I have seriously never met a girl like her) 

I was a little apprehensive about what the day would hold, so I spent some time in the car journaling and looking over the questions that we had prepared to ask perpetrators. I was going to be the group member asking the questions, so I wanted to be very familiar with them. The first man that we interviewed had been a gate guard at Toul Sleng prison, the main political prison in Phnom Penh. He was forced to join the Khmer Rouge when he was 12, and during the regime almost his entire family died from starvation or other causes. Yet on the other hand, he had to have proved himself at some point to the KR, or else they would not have trusted him to guard the walls of S-21 (other name for the prison). Is this man a victim, or a perpetrator? Is he responsible on any level for what went on behind those walls? The interview went well, we played with the new-born puppies that were running around his hut/house, and we left him. 

While we were waiting to figure out what to do next, we attracted the attention of about 6 0r 7 children of the village. We tried to get them to play with us, and in the process a crown grew. There were about 30 or 40 people of all ages watching us play with their children... It was a little strange, but the sweet kids loved it. We taught them the hokey pokey, ring around the rosie, london bridge, and head shoulders knees and toes... They got a kick out of it! They were so precious, videos and pictures to come, and they were so lively, running around in hodge-podge clothing, laughing and making fun of themselves and us, playing our games and smiling for pictures... I loved every minute with those children, it was hard to walk away from them.

We left because we had another interview to get to, but on the way there we got caught in a down pour and our translator directed us to run into the nearest house. He asked the people for shelter, and they agreed. It turns out that they were a community of Cham Muslims (one of the ethnic minorities who were persecuted during the KR... no religious practices were allowed under the regime) and they were willing to be interviewed. There were four generations of this sweet family living in one place. The great grandmother was a middle aged woman during the KR, and she told us her story while her son and daughter in law chimed in, and while her grand daughter (a 27 year old woman) nursed her youngest baby. Her great grand children (a 6 year old boy that the family adopted, a four year old girl who might have been the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, and a baby boy) were so precious and we ended up spending about 2 hours with them after the interview, waiting for our other car to come and just getting to know this family. Through laughter, hand signals, smiles, hugs, and a little help from our translator, we got along just fine. I told the mother of the young children that I hoped to have kids half as beautiful as hers by the time I was 27... That would be a precious, amazing accomplishment. (What do you think, God? :) ) 

When we finally left that beautiful family, we headed to a high school to help DC Cam distribute text books about the Khmer Rouge to the students... It is amazing to think that we, as American College students, know more about the KR then the children of survivors do. It is not talked about, and the students are eager to learn. After their assembly they swarmed around us, giving us their phone numbers, wanting to practice English, and asking us to not forget them. I was talking to one girl who told me that although she wanted to go to university she could not because her family did not have enough money and her mother was sick. It broke my heart. She gave me her school picture and her phone number... Why are all these boys and girls so captivating? They have a beauty that I have not seen in the states... it is so different. To them school is a privilege, not an obligation. They live in villages and don't have cars or electricity or running water, yet they have a stronger sense of family and community than I have ever seen in the States. I am traveling with girls who suffer from anxiety, depression, and ADD... not to say that these things are not valid, but there is just not an option to worry about things like that in the villages. The things that we worry about as Americans makes me think that we have far too much time on our hands. (Which is ironic, because we are one of the most busy-body cultures around) What I mean is that there is just not room to worry about luxury in Cambodian villages. No one sees therapists, there is not an option of divorce, children live right next door from their parents when they grow up, entire villages raise children, the idea of world travel is non-existent. I am not thinking that this way of life is preferable, but it is interesting... I think that the western world, myself included, could learn so much from the simple love of life in the Cambodian village culture. 

That is pretty much it for wednesday... we were so hyper on the way back to Phnom Penh that we filmed crazy videos in the car and laughed till our sides hurt... it was a great day.