We made it to Phnom Penh. Finally. The flight was long and we arrived at our hotel about midnight on Friday. Well most of us did....Sam and Corinne (our Canadians) had been in the city for about a day, and Beverly made it in the next morning.
(The Golden Gate Hotel)
We spent the first day in the city touring historical sites. By "historical" I mean the depressing recent history of the 70's and 80's that Cambodia experienced under the Khmer Rouge. During this time an estimated 3 million people were murdered in an effort to create an agrarian society, and one without western influence. Professionals
and intellectuals were targets. Pa Nous Pan, a missionary on this trip and our guide, Joseph were both survivors of the Pol Pot regime.(Our guide, Joseph on the left; fellow missionary and first Cambodian methodist minister, Pa Nous Pan on the right)
Saturday, we began the day at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum where Cambodians were brought to be tortured before either being killed or taken to the killing fields. Even members of the Khmer Rouge were killed here; some because they knew "too much." We walked through the cells of prisoners and witnessed some graphic photos of torture. Other photos we saw were the faces of those camped out at this prison. An estimated 20,000 people had come through Tuol Sleng and only 7 survived.
After the prison we rode about 15 minutes south of Phnom Penh to the actual killing fields of Choeung Ek. These were murder sites and mass graves excavated after the Vietnamese invasion. In the ground below our feet, clothing and bones could be seen in the sand, untouched.
In the evening we visited the Royal Palace, a lighter scene than the killing fields. The architecture was ornate and the gardens were neatly manicured.
We ended the day meeting at dinner with professional missionaries Romeo, Catherine, and Esther who gave us a run down of what to expect at the Methodist Mission site. Till then.....
-Cambodia Mission Team 09'
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