Day Two

Today was a day of mixed emotions, intense experiences and invaluable time spent together. We began our day with breakfast at 6:30am and by 7:30 we were on the road.

Tabitha Foundation was our first stop, arriving by about 8:30am. While we were here, we listened to a man share his personal experience under the Khmer Rouge Regime. Hearing his story of personal heartbreak under Pol Pot’s government was eye opening and helped us understand the motivations and goals of Tabitha with greater compassion.

We were briefed on house building and Tabitha’s goal to empower the people of Cambodia to rebuild their lives and find their self-worth after enduring such a destructive regime. We listened to the foundation's initiatives and were then invited to tour the building where many people were working to create the most beautiful ornaments, clothing and jewellery.

The products that were made by the employees were sold downstairs in their own shop. Before we left, we were all given time to explore the incredible products that had been made and make any purchases. Everybody bought different things including Christmas tree ornaments, pendants and bracelets. It was an eye opening and enjoyable start to a big day.

From Tabitha, we moved on to Tuol Sleng (also known as S21): a museum of archives and stories from the Cambodian genocide. This museum was incredibly graphic and confronting, but a life changing experience. We were able to explore torture rooms, prisoner cells and images of those who both worked and were detained there across the 3 years. The destruction and devastation that this camp brought about was incomparable and many of us were overwhelmed with disbelief and sadness. We sat together at the end of the tour to debrief and one of our guides from Samaritan’s Purse shared his personal experience of the influence that S21 had on his family.

Once we had debriefed and eaten some lunch, we moved on to the killing fields just outside the main city. This was another confronting experience, but incredibly insightful. As a group, we went on a walking tour of the fields, narrated through an audio guide. The extent of the Khmer Rouge’s destructed quickly became evident in many ways; we could see the devastation in both the formal stations of information as well as seeing, scattered around the ground, remnants of body and clothing that have yet to be extracted from the ground.

By the end of the tour we were all feeling exhausted, both physically and emotionally, but we had one more experience before we could eat dinner and unwind. Our final activity was a cruise along the Mekong River. We were welcomed onto the home of a local family who took us on an hour long cruise. Along the way, one of the workers from Samaritan’s Purse showed us a few key items related to elements of Cambodian culture and history. This was a light-hearted way to teach us about the country, and was a much-needed emotional break for the day. We learned about the powers of bark tea, the continued impact that land mines have on the country and a few boys even tried dried fish to really embrace the experience.

To end the day we went to a beautiful restaurant, where we cooked meat and vegetables ourselves in the centre of our tables. We were given a round hot plate with a raised centre; this centre was the surface used to cook our meat and around the outside was filled with chicken broth to boil the vegetables and noodles that were given to us. It was a fun and different experience and, depending on the quality of the cooks, most food seemed to be delicious.

By the time we had finished eating there was very little energy left in the team. The day was incredibly exciting but also eye-opening and confronting. Despite the mixed emotions towards all events, most staff and students walked away with a better understanding of Cambodian history and a much greater appreciation of Cambodian culture.

Tomorrow we will be building 11 houses in a rural town, a few hours outside the main city. We are all incredibly excited but also exhausted already. Hopefully we can muster up the energy to complete everything we need to.