Jet-lag. Due to the
12 hours difference between here and Cambodia, my body is confused…leaving me
jet lagged. This means I’m wide awake during our night hours and tired and a
bit out of it during our day hours. For each hour time difference, “they” say
it takes a day to adjust. I’m determined to prove “them” wrong.
Real early. I wake up each night
with images in my head from trips. Most recently from Cambodia. I see faces, I
see brokenness. Some times, I wake up with a heavy heart. BUT – then I am reminded quickly…
God is there, His people are there, and I too can make a difference. So I open my
laptop, hoping writing another blog will help. (Don woke up thinking the tapping on the keyboard was rain).
of the trafficking taking place…beginning with the Khmer Rouge Regime.
co-worker, our dog’s chew toy, and most recently, travel buddy … Kristen, is a writer. She is gifted with the ability to paint
pictures with her words. She has graciously allowed me to use her words to
share stories with you. Below, are her
words and my photographs telling of our morning spent at the Killing Fields.
When
the Khmer Rouge Regime came to power in the mid-1970’s, they killed everyone in
the country who knew how to read or write. All white collar professionals,
officials, officers, teachers, businessmen, doctors, students, etc. They killed
their children too- because they believed that if they didn’t, eventually those
children would grow up and take revenge. So every night for years, they killed
fathers, mothers, children, sisters, and brothers one by one in an old Chinese
graveyard. Blindfolded, bound, left near the “Magic Tree” waiting…
only able to hear loud music… they were taken, killed, and tossed into mass
graves. In all, over 2 million people were murdered.
There
are over 380 “Killing Fields” in Cambodia. The one we visited was in
an old Chinese graveyard. Some of the gravestones are still there… alongside
the deep depressions in the ground.
we walked in, the first thing we saw was a monument pictured above. I thought
maybe it was a tribute to those lost. Then we walked inside. And saw
this:
skulls, arm bones, leg bones, rags, teeth…. All that remains of those buried
in that particular field. Some of the glass windows were rolled away and the
bones were mere millimeters from our faces.
the palm tree with razor sharp frond teeth, where adults were beheaded. The
mass grave with 450 people in it, the largest one. The mass grave where 170
headless bodies lay. The stations along the way where the bones, teeth, and
clothes that were still appearing were placed. The “killing” tree.
silence on the grounds, the deep, deep holes in the field… and the objects in
our way. As we walked along the paths, bones, clothing, and teeth lay right
next to our feet. What’s been buried deep continues to surface. It’s been
almost 40 years, and the secrets under the earth are still being revealed.
the Khmer Rouge Regime was overthrown, the country was left in chaos. With all
educated citizens gone, it literally had to start over. And it will take
generations to rebuild.
This
is the ancestry of sex trafficking. Part of it due to a government so focused
on lining its own pockets that it ignores the pain of its people. Part of it
due to lack of education/reasoning skills-or the ability as a country to resist
this practice. Part of it due to lack of anywhere else to turn. All of it
due to pure evil.
Just
another form of genocide… damaging the future of the country. Destroying
lives right now.
How sad that the people of Cambodia had to go thru all that. My heart breaks reading about it. Kind of like the Holocaust museum. You are right Connie. God is there, His people are there and one by one, they will make a difference.
Can’t get my mind around the scope of that horror. I will never be able to understand how people can do such things to human beings. Father, preserve us from another holocaust. Lord Jesus, please come back soon.
joe
I have goosebumps and a pit in my stomach.