Kampong Thom

Yesterday I traveled with a group from CLA to Kampong Thom province to visit a UNESCO/CLA collaboration dance class. We stopped at a temple called Sambor Prei Kuk, which predates Angkor Wat by 500 years. It dates back to the 7th century and was the site of the ancient Chenla Kingdom.



These little girls were selling krama--I couldn't resist them and bought two.

The school where the class was held was amazing. It was built by the princess of Thailand and has an incredibly beautiful campus.







On the way back we stopped for food in the middle of nowhere and Arn ordered me some soup. I looked down at it and discovered a chicken foot in the bowl and I couldn't stand to eat it. I didn't want to be rude but I went to the nearest fruit stand and bought a banana instead.

Arn Chorn-Pond's Home

Last night Arn Chorn-Pond, founder of CLA, invited me and my friend and CLA co-worker Michelle to his home outside of Phnom Penh on the banks of the Mekong.
His property is pretty amazing--one of the members of the Johnson & Johnson family purchased it for him and since then he has turned it into a recording studio and a small farm.
Arn's story is also amazing. He was 12 years old when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, but survived in a work camp because he could play the flute to entertain the KR soldiers. In 1979 he was forced to fight against the Vietnamese. In 1980 he escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand, where he was eventually adopted by an American family and brought to the US. He returned to Cambodia in the 1990s and founded Cambodian Living Arts in 1996.


Michelle and I slept out here

Michelle in one the hammocks

Me and Arn

A very traditional Cambodian dinner-vegetable soup, rice and smoked fish.

We had to put up the mosquito net to sleep outside

It wasn't the best sleep I've ever had, but the sunrise over the Mekong was spectacular. I wish I had gotten a better picture.

Out and around Phnom Penh

Since my last posts have been sort of depressing, here are some miscellaneous pictures from the past few days:


Early evening in Hun Sen park


As I was walking by the river the other night these three women stopped me and asked to get a picture with me. This is one of them. I am actually a giant here.


The truck ride from the Hash run last night--25 people in the open back.


Late afternoon at the backpacker area at Boeung Kak lake. Picturesque, but the water is really toxic looking.

35 Years

Today in Phnom Penh the UN war crimes tribunal for the Khmer Rouge trials sentenced the commander of Tuol Sleng prison, Kaing Guek Eav a.k.a Duch, to 35 years in prison. Duch is the first of the Khmer Rouge officials to be tried and sentenced.
After visiting Tuol Sleng a few weeks ago, it is so surreal to think that today, in the same city, the UN finally sentenced the prison commander after thirty years. From what I've gathered these trials have been a long time in the making and are just now beginning in earnest.
I read on NPR this morning that Duch's trial would conclude today, but I didn't learn the outcome until this afternoon when an Australian journalist I met told me that he had been reporting the trial.
I wonder what this is like for Cambodians. Nothing seemed different today, but I can imagine there must be some relief--though there are still a lot more Khmer Rouge trials to come.

Enemies of the People

Tonight I went to see the screening of a new documentary called Enemies of the People. It was made by a Cambodian and an American film maker and it profiles two Khmer Rouge soldiers and Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot's second in command. The filmmaker's family members were all killed between 1975-1979. He spoke directly to Nuon Chea over the course of 10 years, but did not inform him of his family until right before Nuon Chea's arrest in 2007 for the Cambodian war crimes tribunal.

http://enemiesofthepeoplemovie.com/

Really devastating, but really fascinating. For all of the great times I am having in Cambodia, I am constantly drawn back to destruction that happened so recently. The film was a grim reminder.

But definitely worth seeing.

The Ray Charles of Cambodia

This morning I attended Master Kong Nay's chapei dong veng class as part of my CLA assignment to document classes and masters.The chapei dong veng is like a large lute with two strings and a long neck.
Smallpox blinded Kong Nay when he was four years old. Despite his disability, he learned to play the chapei dong veng when he was thirteen, and played professionally by age fifteen. By the time the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, Kong Nay was recognized all over Cambodia for his music. The Khmer Rouge obliterated most of the musicians in Cambodia, but Kong Nay was spared and allowed to keep his instrument, but only if he played music praising Pol Pot and the KR.
Now in his early 60s, Kong Nay has achieved international recognition and has played all over the world. I actually heard an NPR piece about him several months ago. It was incredible to see him in person. I even got a chapei dong veng lesson from one of his students.





You can also find Kong Nay's music on iTunes--one of his albums is aptly titled "Mekong Delta Blues."

For 3 years we suffered unforgettable hardship; everything was destroyed.
Blood was spilled and children orphaned.
Cambodia became a place of killing.
They forced the people to dig and plow the fields.
Exhausted they fell down to the ground; bodies swollen, tired, hopeless.
Husbands and Wives, brothers and sisters, were separated.
We were forced to forget each other.
Until January 7th, when the Cambodian people were freed of the sorrow.

Fruit feast

I just took a trip to the Lucky Supermarket where I purchased so many strawberries, raspberries, cherries and Pink Lady apples. I am literally beaming right now. Tropical fruit is great and I've really been enjoying it (except for durian, which I have yet to try) but nothing compares to northern fruit.
I am really too excited about this.

Master Ieng Sithul's Dance Class

Yesterday I visited Master Ieng Sithul's dance class.



These students are older-most of them are in the late teens and early twenties.


Most of them have been with Ieng Sithul since 2003.


In the afternoon I heeded Lonely Planet's advice and ran with the Phnom Penh Hash House Harriers. It was about a six mile run in the rice paddies, which was beautiful but unbelievably hot. I stepped in muddy water and soaked my white New Balances. I spent 20 minutes blow drying them when I got in since nothing seems to dry on its own in this humidity. It was worth it though.

80 km in a tuk-tuk

Today I visited Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh's main pagoda.




People leave all sorts of offerings at the altars, such as this kettle and lantern.


Afterwards, a tuk-tuk driver offered to take me to see a wat on top of a mountain in Oudong, in the Kandal Province outside of Phnom Penh. I couldn't really understand him but I said sure. It took nearly an hour to get there, which is a really long time in the back of a tuk-tuk. Admittedly, I was a little bit uneasy because I had no idea where we were going and the busy Phnom Penh streets turned into rural rice paddies pretty quickly. But once we arrived, it was well worth the visit.

Oudong was the royal capitol of Cambodia until 1866. Today it is best known for its three stupas, built in the 1860s, 1920s and in the 1990s.


On the way to the mountain. The stupas are visible in the background.


One of the three stupas on the mountain. This one was built in 1996 by King Norodom Sihanouk.


These three boys walked up the 500 steps with me and gave me the official history of Oudong in near perfect English.

Feeding the fish in the pond honoring former Queen Sisowath.

Despite dousing myself in high concentrations of DEET, I've still run into some locals, and they've left their clear marks on my arm:

A visit from the king

This morning I met with everyone at the Cambodian Living Arts. I spent a lot more time walking there than I did at the actual office, since everyone was pretty busy today with meetings about the upcoming festival. I will probably start my actual work tomorrow or later this week.

I enjoyed lunch at a Khmer restaurant I read about in my guidebook--I had the amok, which I've read is the closest thing to a national dish. It consists of curried fish and vegetables topped with a coconut milk sauce, all wrapped in a banana leaf. Despite what I've heard about Khmer cuisine, it wasn't bad at all, but I don't think I can subsist on amok alone for another four weeks.


After lunch I walked down to the riverside area, Sisowath Boulevard. I got an awesome hour long foot massage for only $8. As I was enjoying my foot rub, the girls working there exploded into squealing fits and ran to the window. Apparently, it was the king Norodom Sihamoni and his royal caravan riding down Sisowath Boulevard. I caught a quick glimpse of him waving from the rolled-down window of his Mercedes. I waved back, but I'm certain he didn't see me.





I obviously didn't take this, but he sure looks friendly!

Phnom Penh--Day 1

This morning I made my way to Phnom Penh's Central Market in search of a Cambodian cell phone. I tried to walk from my hotel, but after pulling out a cumbersome map and trying to orient myself, I couldn't avoid moto and tuk-tuk drivers for very long. I travelled to the market on the back of a moto in Phnom Penh traffic, which I realized works with no road rules.

Later, the tuk-tuk driver who brought me in from the airport last night, Yorn, took me to the Choeung Ek killing fields outside of Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge used Choeung Ek as the final deposition sight for many of the Cambodian prisoners' bodies. In the early 80s, excavators discovered around 8000 bodies in mass graves throughout the fields. Now the skulls and clothing fragments are preserved in a Buddhist stupa.







After visiting Choeung Ek, Yorn took me to the Tuol Sleng museum, also known as S-21. The Khmer Rouge converted the former school into a prison upon their rise to power in 1975. Most of the bodies discovered at Choeung Ek belonged to prisoners who at sometime lived in S-21. I found the disturbing part of S-21 to be the hundreds of prisoner mugshots. There were photos of children, elderly people, men and women, all of them with the same terrified expression. I didn't photograph anything inside the museum because the images in my mind's eye are haunting enough.


Outside of S-21. The gallows from which the Khmer Rouge hanged prisoners for torture are still standing.

Interrogation rules

Barbed wire to keep desperate prisoners from jumping

Needless to say, my afternoon of touring made me pretty depressed, especially after recently reading Loung Ung's memoir, First They Killed My Father. It is so hard to believe that something as tragic as the Cambodian genocide goes mostly unobserved in western classrooms.

Tonight I met up for dinner with my friend from Colby, Natalie, who is also interning in Cambodia. As she told me on of her friends said, only at a school like Colby wold you find two kids interning in Cambodia at the same time.

Tomorrow I wil begin my work with Cambodian Living Arts. I still don't know what to expect, but with the festival quickly approaching I'm sure I will have lots of work to do.

A refreshing Blue Lime