The Killing Fields

We've had an emotional two days learning about Cambodian history. We had both read a little about the history before we left Hong Kong and have been reading "First They Killed My Father", an amazing story about a young girl, who's family was affected by the Pol Pot regime in the '70's. Yesterday, we visited the S21 museum. S21 used to be a high school that was converted to a prison in 1975 when Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia. 21,ooo people were brought here to be tortured and killed, it didn't matter whether they were rich, poor, man, woman, child, Cambodian, European or Asian.

From the outside it just looks like a normal school building with a small garden and trees outside. However, inside there are mug shots of all the victims of S21, which were horrible to look at. You can see the pure terror in their eyes and it was very difficult to hold the tears back. The classrooms were used as torture cells and now still contain the beds and torture weapons used on the victims. In each cell there is a photograph above the bed to show visitors the brutal torture the victims had to endure, it was horrific to look at. We watched a film whilst there about family members of those who were sent to S21 and one survivor told his story through paintings which are displayed at the museum. Of the 21,ooo people who were sent to S21 to be tortured, only 7 survived. It was very disturbing and we were speechless and feeling emotional when we left, but it was good to go to gain more of an understanding of what happened and why Cambodia is the way it is today.

As if that wasn't enough, we decided to go to the Killing Fields today. The Killing Fields was a place that Khmer Rouge took people to execute them and bury them in mass graves. It was so sad to see and very disturbing. Although 9000 corpes were found in the graves, there are still bones buried there, when we were walking around there were bones, jaws and teeth sticking up from the ground. There is a small building which contains thousands of human skulls from children and adults, which was just awful to look at and we could here children laughing and playing from the school next to the fields which was quite sinister. Whilst there a young boy shouted us over from behind a wire fence. He introduced himself as 11-year-old Tom and asked us lots of questions about ourselves. He explained that he was an orphan and lived with his younger sister. He pointed out his home which was barely a hut made from small pieces of wood. His english was fantastic and he was so polite. Of course, we all gave him money and told him he had to buy a book and pen for school and some food for him and his sister.

After a rather depressing morning we decided to lighten the mood by hiring bikes and wondering around the city. It was quite an experience (a near death experience!) as we dodged the tuk tuks, landrovers, street kids and food stalls around the city. They don't have any roundaboouts or traffic lights here so if you get to a crossroad its just a case of cycling fast anmd hoping for the best! It was fun though. We went to the national musuem (we are very cultural now!) and wanted to go to the Royal Palace but it was closed when we got there. Whilst cycling about we noticed a resturant called 'Friends', which is run by an NGO and all profits go to helping street children. All the staff in the resturant are former street children who are training to be chefs. The resturant was very modern with children's paintings on the wall and the food was fantastic! Next door there was a shop run by the same charity selling clothes, jewelry and lots of cute bits and bobs that the children have made. Some of the stuff in there was amazing and all very original, we are going back tomorrow morning ready to spend our money!

'Friends' works with over 1,800 street children to send them to school, find them housing, support further education, training and employment and educate them on sexual health. It is an amazing charity which gives street children a chance for a much better life! If you haven't donated any money to the wonderful Sunrise children's orphanage or even if you have but want to spend some more money on a good cause (can't you do with one less bottle of wine this week) then please have a look at www.streetfriends.org

xxx