The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

Although we went to see the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum fairly early in our time in Cambodia, somehow that seemed enough horror for us. We only finally made a visit to the killing fields of Choeung Ek in 2008. This is where the 17,000 prisoners of Security Prison 21 (S-21) were taken to be buried. Some died under interrogation and torture, some died at Choeung Ek immediately before burial, some were buried alive. A little over half the thousands of bodies have been exhumed from the mass graves, and the skulls placed in a glass windowed stupa, with the remaining bones housed in the roof. Part of the site is now under water, and so the graves in that section have never been opened.

For some visitors, as they walk around the many, many mass graves (now not so deep due to the earth being washed back in over the years), with the soil surface still littered with scraps of clothing from the victims, the horror seems greater than that of the prison. For me, somehow, the deaths at Choeung Ek seem almost merciful following the terrible torture of Tuol Sleng, as the prisoners desperately tried to satisfy their interogators and so bring an end to their suffering in death. Either way, both sites are an horrific reminder of just how near unspeakable cruelty and genocide can be.

The final three pictures show some juvenile skulls in the stupa; a tree near the mass graves with the caption 'Killing tree against which executioners beat children'; and a plaque describing some of the terrible details of burial.

Koh Kong

Last week was the Khmer Water Festival (Bon Om Duuk), and Shirley, Martin and I took the opportunity for a week's holiday in Koh Kong. The town is a provincial capital, but it is very close to the Thai border, and is becoming popular as an entry point to/from Cambodia, as well as for 'visa runs', where expatriots in either Thailand or Cambodia cross the border and back just to get their visa renewed.

We stayed at the Apex Hotel, which proved to be good value for money ($15 per night, extra for breakfast), but the hotel had some of the usual eccentricities! The hotel is only about a year old, but the plumbing is already in trouble. In one of our rooms, whenever you used the pedestal basin in the bathroom, about half the water contents simply flowed out onto the floor (and your feet and trouser legs)! The hotel was very full, and this caused two problems of note. Most (all?) rooms had DVD players - we had spotted this on the website, and so taken some with us to watch - but only some had the essential remote controls. The hotel staff said that when the hotel was not so busy, they took them from empty rooms, for guests who wanted them. As the hotel was busy this week though, we would have only one control between our two rooms! Somehow, it didn't seem to strike them as a situation that required any more action than this. A more irritating problem though was the electricity - for three evenings, the hotel was so full that the electricity kept overloading, throwing the circuit breaker in reception. The whole hotel would be plunged into darkness, but the desk clerk would calmly walk over, throw the circuit breaker back in, and go back to his desk. For a few hours each evening, the power went off for 30 secs every five minutes! This, of course, made it impossible to watch a DVD - you could not wind back to the point you were at before the power went off again. We discovered, however, that reading a book with a torch to hand was still possible. Anyway, the restaurant was good value, there is a swimming pool, it is conveniently located, and the hotel's eccentricities are by no means unusual in Cambodia!

On an entirely positive note, we found a lovely restaurant, Fat Sam's, on the main street. This is owned and run by a Welsh man (Sam of the title) and his Cambodian wife. They have tracked down and serve high-quality and affordable British cooking, such as we hardly ever find in Cambodia. Delights included battered fish and chips, steak pie and chips, cumberland sausage and chips, baked potatoes, apple & blueberry pie and custard, and apple & rasberry crumble and custard. The owners and staff made everyone very welcome, and we met quite a few Brits over meals there, entertaining one another with travelling tales, and receiving tourist information from Sam as well.

Although most of our week was sleeping, watching DVDs, reading, using the internet cafe and visiting the restaurants of Koh Kong, we did manage one trip out to a nearby mangrove swamp, which has had access walkways installed to allow visitors to go right into the forest with ease. At the end of the walkway is a pedestrian suspension bridge, and from there it is possible, as we did, to take a boat trip out to nearby sandy island. Although some people showed us photos of snakes they had taken under the branches, the Sinclair party proved far too focused on not falling off the walkway to spot all the available wildlfe. However, the trees proved slow moving enough to get on film.

Altogether, it was a very enjoyable week, and we look forward to doing more of the potential Koh Kong day trips on future visits.

Toul Sleng

These photos were taken on a harrowing visit in 2002 to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which is housed in what was Security Prison 21 (S-21), a former high school that was converted into an interrogation and torture centre by the Khmer Rouge. During 1975-79, more than 17,000 people held at S-21 were subsequently executed there or at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. One of the most striking aspects of the museum is that it shows genocide 'on the cheap'. The high school looks as if little more than a week's effort was made to convert it into a torture centre, with the torture implements themselves simple household items or gym equipment from the school. Intentionally, we have not been to the museum many times, even though everyone who visits Cambodia should see it, because it is so distressing. We finally took Martin in 2008, as it seemed time for him to see with his own eyes what we had only talked about before, and he was willing to see it; Lisa has yet to go.

The pictures show the prisoners' security regulations; a torture room (with a photograph of the last vistim on the wall); the faces of the dead; the function of Building 'C'; some of the cells; and a view through the barbed wire into the courtyard.

Transitions

Today's post is a guest one by Lisa, illustrated by a Skype screenshot!

"After spending almost half of my life as a missionary kid in Cambodia, making the transition back to life in England and the Western world has certainly been something of an adventure for me. Despite only having been back for a month, I have already been through what has felt like a rollercoaster of emotion. Saying goodbye to my family for the year was a low point, but since then I have had so many high points – laughing until I cried with the [host family's] girls, having endless bubble baths and glasses of fresh, English milk, chatting away happily with my family over Skype and seeing old friends again, to name a few. My first trip to Tesco filled me with amazement – I had almost forgotten the abundance of lovely food here in England, and couldn’t wait to help myself to sausage rolls, nectarines and all the other silly little things I missed so much living in Cambodia. The truth is that at first, even the thought of doing something as ordinary as getting the bus filled me with anxiety – what was I supposed to say? What if I couldn’t find the right change, or ended up in Greenstead, or even violated some unspoken code of conduct that all ordinary English people knew?

Since then, however, I feel like I have really settled into life here in England with [my host] family. I can now be seen each morning catching the bus in to town like any other English college student, but I know that I’ll never forget the time I spent in Cambodia – it will always be a part of me. You might even say that a little piece of my heart is still there, across all the oceans that lie between us."

So What About Martin?

While his sister, Lisa, has gone back to the UK to study, Martin (14) continues here in Cambodia, having just started his fourth year at Hope International School. He is in Year 9, the last year before the start of two year's formal preparation for IGCSEs (an English school exam, usually taken at age 16). Hope is an exam centre for Cambridge International Examaminations (CIE), offering IGCSEs and subsequently AS levels, although not A2s, as yet. Martin enjoys reading, and often reads when others might socialise! The photo above shows him waiting in a tuk tuk outside Hope school, deep in a book. He is also keen on computer games, and whilst he has now stopped playing EvE Online (mainly due to the monthly subscription charge), he has returned to Guild Wars, another massive multiplayer online game, as well as playing a variety of single-player games. Martin is a difficult chap to photograph, always trying to avoid the camera, but I've included three below. The first shows him looking rather hot, drinking a cup of tea (or coffee) from his favourite mug; one in an orchid garden in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia late 2007; and the final one with his sister in Prajuap, Thailand in July.

NISC - The Children's Old School

When we arrived in Cambodia in 2001, there was quite a limited choice of international schools. The Northbridge International School (NISC) was a little bit cheaper than the International School of Phnom Penh (ISPP), and OMF had started to form a good relationship with the school. As a result, we were able to get first a group discount, and subsequently, as we seconded first one, then two teachers to the school, a reduction of fees in lieu of their salary. Consequently, like many OMF parents at the time, we sent Lisa and Martin to NISC for four years (2001-2005). The school was international, with students and teachers from many different countries, but followed an American syllabus, and while it was a secular school, there were many Christian teachers amongst the faculty, and it had a warm and friendly atmosphere. Coming from the UK, it was tricky at times to get a real feel as to how our children were doing - the American style was always to give encouragement - but the children learned well there, and there weren't any major gaps in their knowledge when they switched back to English education during our Home Assignment in 2005/6. In the end, with no more OMF teachers 'in the pipeline' to second, and with the children having made the transition to English style education, the obvious choice on our return was Hope International School, which is not only a Christian school, but also much more affordable; more on that in a later post! The picture above, and those below, were all taken at NISC early on Australia Day, 26 January, 2002, before the crowds built up.

So Where's Lisa Now?

Although looking very young (8) in my last post, Lisa is now 16 years old. From 2006 to 2009, she studied at Hope International School, here in Phnom Penh, and took eight IGCSEs earlier this year. Unfortunately, while Hope offers AS levels in Years 12 and 13, it does not offer A2s, which Lisa needs to get into university. As a result, she has now gone back to England, and is living with a host family in Colchester for one year. Next year, when we go back on Home Assignment, we are planning for her to move back in with us, unless she's grown to like her new host family more! She has just started attending The Sixth Form College, Colchester, doing five AS levels, and hopefully going on to her A2s there next year. We manage to Skype and email quite a lot, and we are looking forward to her visit back to Cambodia over the Christmas break, but it is still hard having her so far away from us. The picture, by the way, was taken on the beach at Prajuap, Thailand, during our last family holiday together before she left.

Didn't They Look Young

When we first came to Cambodia in 2001, Lisa and Martin were both a lot younger than today! Lisa was 8 years old, and Martin just 6. You can see the pair of them riding an electric car at "the world's most dangerous funfair," a place they were keen to go, but where we always worried about their health and safety! The electric car ride seemed to be entirely untimed, unlike in the UK - you could just go round and round forever. The cars were powered by a full-size electric car battery, and if it ran out, one of the helpers would just rush for a spanner and change it out for a charged one! The children would only stop riding around the small dirt track when they ran out of energy or the will to continue (the tropical heat and the need for a drink probably being key factors there) . The remaining four photos show Lisa with her cat, Cream, and Martin with his cat, Coffee. At that time the cats too were very small. Sadly, they both lived only two or three years (the cats, not the children), dying of hepatitis, but they were great companions for the whole family. The next photo shows the children looking out across the Sap River with their mother, Shirley. The final one is of Lisa and Martin with two friends, both of whom are also a lot bigger now, on the beach at Kompong Som.

The Sinclair Family

So, how about a little background on my family, and how we ended up in Cambodia? In January 2001, my wife, Shirley, and I were accepted to serve with OMF International, a Christian agency working in East Asia. We left the UK with our two children Lisa (then 8) and Martin (then 6), going initially to Singapore, at the end of October 2001, and we have been in Cambodia since early December 2001. After one year's Khmer language study in Phnom Penh, I was seconded by OMF as Professor of Computer Science, developing and teaching on a new Master of Information Technology course, at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, and Shirley to be the OMF Team Centre Librarian. In August 2005, we went back to the UK for a year where, as well as deputation for OMF, Shirley studied counselling part-time, and I was Visiting Fellow in Electronic Systems Engineering at the University of Essex. I also managed to take ten weeks out to study at All Nations Christian College. We have been back in Cambodia since July 2006, with Shirley continuing as Team Librarian, acting as Listening Ear to the OMF Team, and also seconded part-time to the Prison Fellowship Cambodia supervising a team of Cambodian social workers. For my part, I was seconded to NPIC (National Polytechnic Institute of Cambodia) as Professor of Information Technology for two years, as well as a number of other roles for OMF. In the last year I have been increasingly involved with our Development Centre for OMF's IPS - Connecting People project, most recently acting as the Development Centre Manager for the team of six Cambodian programmers.

A New Beginning

Way back in 2001, I created a website on GeoCities called 'Images of Cambodia' (http://uk.geocities.com/shirleysinclair/), but now Yahoo! has announced that they will no longer support GeoCities after 26 October, 2009. So, that has provided the necessary impetus to start this blog, both to capture the older material from the previous site, but also ... to be honest ... I have not added much to that site for some three years, and it's about time for some more! My plan would be to post the older material initially, and then also add new material in preparation for our return to the UK on Home Assignment from August 2010. I will need some new photos by then so we can show people what we've been up to. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the blog as it develops, and that as well as learning about my family and I, you will learn about Cambodia, both through words and images.