Ready to Ride......

Not to worry.... I may not have my mini van to pledge my love but I can still do it on my new ride!  My only saddness is that church is too far away to ride with all the kids.   It felt like a silent finger to the man (not THE Man) to park my liberal decked out van in the parking lot.

International Friendship Day

I have been in blog fetal position.  After coming back from Cambodia our lives kicked into high gear.  During my big blog pause we have traveled to America for a month and had good friends visit.   I will catch up this week I promise!  I have several really good posts floating around in my head.

Right before we left for America I got a call from the Parent Volunteer Coordinator at the school.  She asked if I was willing to participate in the schools Friendship day.  She said she wanted me to do a booth about America and that she would like the girls to participate in the "fashion show".   Umm... ok?!  "What would you like the girls to wear?"  Her reply, "I would like one to be a cowboy and the other to be a princess?!!  Argh.  Is that what they think of us?  Ok!  I got this.....

I collected supplies, borrowed flags, cowGIRL boots, and of course in true over American mom style I stayed up all night preparing my "booth" and the girls outfits.

I was the first to school to set up.  I surprised the maintenance uncle by asking him for a ladder to hang my flag....  I set up what I thought looked like an awesome, understated booth.  Then I waited... and waited.  I had gotten there one hour before it started.... like they asked.  30 minutes before it started... only me and my starting to seem crazy display.  15 min.... still only me and my crazy display.  5 minutes I started seeing some others rushing to set up.

I looked around and realized that my booth would have looked perfect in AMERICA.  BUT.... here... It was out of control.  The only other booth that even came close was the Korean booth but it was done by students , not a parent, and they had done it before.  Their booth included lucky draws (huge here), sweets, and KPop star stuff.   It was a huge hit with the kids.

My booth had a few visitors every now and then..... but I felt glaringly American.  I had tried so hard to keep it toned down but even that was way too much.

I LOVED the friendship day.  The kids really did learn about different cultures.  I realized that I don't need to do it the way we do it in America (big, break our backs trying to please).

Next year, I will show up with a small display, couple of facts on paper, and an art project for the kids to do.... and I won't wear patriotic colors :)

 

Here she blows.... you can't see the picture of MLK or the 1976 flag on either side....

Malaysian friend manning the booth next to me asked if she could put on the cowGIRL hat!  I am sure I made her post on FB :)  

Anu!  My good friend from the condo.  She was there representing India.

Stanley visiting from a cousin......

Beautiful Chinese painting at the next booth......

Korean Girls!

The Korean booth was a hit!

The Malay booth next to mine!

All of the countries we learned about... which one of these is not like the others?

This is one of the slides for America.  For whatever reason people here are endlessly interested in Halloween.  It never occurred to me until we moved here how unique/weird Halloween is.

And here you have your American Cowboy & Princess.... With her AMERICAN girl doll... yes, I am clever.

Cute Cute G.

Indian crew....

Korean crew.....

Indian Dance Troupe

Chinese Dance Troupe

These girls were so into it!  I LOVED it!

Still can't get over the sea of black heads!

The fashion show participants!

Cambodia: Choeung Ek (Killing Fields)

I have saved this post for last because it was the hardest to write. As soon as I learned that I would be travelling to Cambodia I started doing research. I was quickly reminded about their very bloody past. RECENT past. The Khmer Rouge killed 1/4 (roughly 1.7 to 2.5 MILLION) of the Cambodian population from 1975-1979. During my life time.

I went to the Killing Fields the first full day I was in Cambodia. My visit colored the rest of my trip. As I looked around at the people after my visit to this mass grave, I realized that there aren't a lot of elderly in Cambodia. It is a very young population. In my guide book, it said, "if an elderly person asks you for money.... just give it to them. They have been through  h.e.l.l." I balked at that initially. I am NOT one to just give money to a person.... but... after my visit to the Killing Fields... I did just give them money.

There are many many "killing fields" all over Cambodia that have a series of mass graves. Choeung Ek is the best (that's not saying much) cared for. Most mass graves in Cambodia are inaccessible because of land mines.

I talked to a couple of older people during my travels and they said things like.... "before the war, people were much nicer".... "before the war things didn't look like this". It shocked me that war was so close to the people and so recent.   I was also struck by the fact that most people I looked at in Cambodia had a loved one that was affected by this mass genocide.

Martin and I went to church on Sunday and as we were walking into the chapel I happened to look in the gym. On the floor the of the gym was a body draped with a white cloth. It shocked me at first. There were people gathered around the young dead girl and weeping. She had died of cancer. It made me contemplate all of the experiences I have had in Cambodia regarding death. The Cambodian people are very close to death. They care for their dead from the time the die until they are buried or cremated. If the family is rich, they have them embalmed and keep them in the home for a few weeks while people come and pay their respects.

I also had my dear friend Karl Savage on my mind... It was coming up on two years since his untimely death. All of these tragic deaths were swirling around in my head and I realized that the God that I believe in is much much bigger than death. God must have such a different view of death than I do. Death can't be the worst thing to happen to a person. I know my mind is not able to comprehend what happened in Cambodia. But as I age, I do hope to grow closer to my God so that when I do have to walk through death with a loved one or myself I will do so with grace and presence.

The stupa. It was built to house skulls and bones of the victims. They are on several different levels and you can walk up and view them. You are able to tell how the person died by their skull...... very gruesome deaths. Usually not by a bullet as they, "didn't want to waste precious bullets on them".

Many different places around the grounds where you could stop and listen to a first hand account from a man who had survived the Khmer Rouge.

Grove of trees that delineated the mass graves from the stupa area.

It was very odd but daily living still went on around the mass graves. There were local people walking over the grave sites to get things, roosters roaming, and people fishing in a "lake" that I would never dream of eating from.

I didn't feel very much until I saw bits of clothing. For me, the bits of fabric that were unearthed from the rain did me in. They made the grave sites so much more real. These grounds are not cared for like they would be in America... all traces have not been removed of the victims. There are still bones, clothing, and artifacts that still float up when there is a hard rain. If you looked carefully at the ground you would see bits of bone etc.

I found it ironic that they have to put such a fence to keep people out.

Local getting ready to fish on the grounds....

The tree where they killed all of the babies and young children.

They had boxes of clothing and bones. The workers gather the bits of clothing after each rain and put them in this box.

They dug up all of the bodies and just left the land hallow. It was very eerie to look out over the land and see so many depressions in the ground.

The audio that I listened to had the music (don't ask me how) that they played while they executed the prisoners. I had one of the most visceral responses that I have ever had to anything listening to that music. I sat by this tree and wept.

There are no words. "Items" that were picked up after the last rain. They just sat them on top of the glass box that they needed to be thrown into. The cord was used to bind wrists.

Cambodia: Villages and Children

The best thing we did while in Phnom Penh was rent 4 wheelers ( ATV? I don't know the difference).  We rode through villages and the children came out to wave at us.  We stopped for sugar cane juice and ate fresh mango's under the mango trees.  It was well off the beaten path.  I read that 80% of Cambodia is without electricity.  That fact was hard to believe when we were in the city but realized how it could be so when we went out to the villages.  Almost all of the roads in Cambodia are dirt.  The city is fine but once you leave you are kicking up dirt most of the time!

 

 

The higher your house the more wealthy you are in Cambodia... this is a really nice house!

Guide explaining to me about the temples that dot the country side.....

 

 

 

Caring for the rice paddy....

 

 

 

 

I have never understood what people meant when they talked about how they loved the children of Cambodia... I totally get it.  I would have taken any of these kids home with me.  They loved looking at the pictures I was taking of them...  it was really sad to see the children who were a little bit older.  They had lost the sparkle in their eyes and were not as happy and carefree....

 

They liked looking at their reflection in Martin's helmet!

 

 

All over the country side they have plaques telling people who donated what amount of money to improve bridges, roads, irrigation ways etc....

Our mango lady... She is so beautiful.

James... our guide!

We could hear music coming from the temple... It sounded like a CD... As we got closer we realized that it was these boys making the lovely sounds....

Road block at the end of the trip!