killing fields

So last night I had dinner with the Austrian. I can't remember his name - it's kind of like undergrad where for a long time you get to know people really well but often don't even know or remember their names. That's how it is with backpackers. I spent 5 hours today with 2 Swedes and a Belgian guy and I don't remember their names either!

But I was talking about dinner. The Austrian and I stopped at a little roadside stand and decided to try their soup - actually that seemed to be the only English word they knew so soup it was! It kind of reminded me of the soup in Ghana - filled with big chunks of meat, but it's more like fat and gristle. Both of us just pretty much ate the broth and rice and then sadly, right after we left, two women beggars came and had a feast with our leftover meat. There's quite a bit of begging here. Luckily the Lonely Planet guide gives suggestions for restaurants one can patronize that benefit street children, victims of landmines, etc.

This morning I woke up at 5 am - again. I seriously cannot get off this 8 pm- 5 am sleep schedule. But in some ways it works well b/c the Cambodians get up pretty early and there's lots to see and explore at this hour. And it's not so hot yet! So this morning I wandered around Phnom Penh for a couple of hours, which was fun. I found somewhere to eat breakfast, though it was more of a western place. I'm all about Cambodian food for lunch and dinner but I just can't eat rice, etc for breakfast. I need me some eggs!

Then I spent all morning with the Swedes and Belgian guy from my hostel visiting the killing fields and Tuol Sleng. For any of you who don't know about the Khmer Rouge and the 2 million Cambodians slaughtered from 1975-1979, I would suggest watching the film "the killing fields"or reading the book "First they killed my father." It's absolutely unthinkable what occurred and today we saw where some of it happened. Basically, Tuol Sleng is a former high school that the Khmer Rouge used as a jail before transporting the Cambodians to "the killing fields"about 14 km away. It's hard to even write what we say today - some 20,000 people were slaughtered at this location and then thrown into mass graves, most of which have been excavated at this point. They've put together a museum and you can see hundreds of the skulls of the people who died. And there's literally people's bones and teeth still lying about. All that combined with hundreds of chilling photos and the heat made me quite nauseous.

Tonight I'm meeting up with my first refugee supervisor's Cambodian friend and his family. He and his family fled the Khmer Rouge and came to Chicago as refugees in the early 80's. Recently he and his family moved back to Cambodia so he could work for the Khmer Rouge tribunal. Should be interesting conversation!

Lastly, mom I accidentally gave you the wrong name for my hostel. It's called the "Sunday Guesthouse." Talk to you all again soon.