Moments to Memories: August 2018

Cambodia

One of the cooler parts of living in Thailand for a summer was getting to travel to neighboring countries. I only traveled to Cambodia, but some of the other teachers in my group went to Bali, Vietnam, and Singapore. My trip to Cambodia was the first time Ive been exposed to real poverty. I saw some very difficult things to see. It was hard to know what to think about it honestly. I hate looking down at another lifestyle, thats seems pompous, but it was hard to see unclothed and skinny children digging through garbage, among other things. Im grateful that I have an awareness of life across the world from Provo Utah, and Im grateful for the life that God gave me. Even more than the poverty we visited a few sites that commemorate the realitivey recent mass genocide Cambodia had in the 1970s. We visited the killing fields. I can't really comprehend what happened there to be honest. It was hard to hear the stories. I had had enough but most of the group also went to a high school (S21) that got turned into a interrogation and torture camp. We also took a boat tour of the floating villages. I didnt love that experience either, it felt like we were paying to look in at others poverty. But I asked and they said the villagers get money from the tourism, still an uncomfortable, but another eye opening experience. The next day we went to Ankor Wat, which is the worlds biggest temple, and I think the oldest. It reminded me a lot of the monkey temple in the Jungle Book actually. Its so big you have to take a tuk tuk to get around...and we didnt even see all or most of the temples!