Touring Cambodia and Seoul, Korea: Full of gratitude.
Sunday May 14:
Happy Mother's Day and phone call to Jacob!! (Because we were 13 hours ahead of America I was able to FaceTime mom the night before to wish her a happy Mother's Day and to make a little video for Jacob as I was going to be on a plane at the time they were calling him. There are still not adequate words to describe that feeling and the eternal gratitude I have for my mom for not giving up on her dream to have me speak and to be successful. I'm glad that I got to talk to her today, I didn't think I'd get to!
With our mission work officially done, we took the chance to use the time we had before we flew out to go visit a little orphanage, The Killing fields, S-2, the Genocide Prisons- Driving out the orphanage was a refreshing change of scenery as we have been driving on the same road almost every day. Today I again was overwhelmed with gratitude that I lived in America. We got to see more of the country side of Phnom Penh. We stopped at what was supposed to be an orphanage but looked like an attempt to create a community amongst the trash. The stench was seeping out from the black and green puddles of water yet the children were laughing and running around happily like they had the best lives in the world. The one older girl in the group fascinated me the most. She looked like 11 or 12, she had more depth in her eyes, more pain, and awareness of the situation, I wished I could have a glimpse into her story and her life. She too eventually she smiled and joined into the singing when the children sat in their little school house. We fed the kids candy, Tom and Dr. Larsen played their little magic tricks on the kids causing them to squeal with joy. It was amazing to see how happy these kids were with absolutely nothing. They were still kids. I wanted to take them all home with me. Maybe someday I will get to adopt a little child from somewhere like here. The children in this place had just been abandoned and local women were taking care of them. They had a teacher come in and teach them lessons during the day, but their living conditions were trash. Completely literally trash.
Cambodia is still recovering from the Khumer Rouge Regime who executed a mass genocide of their fellow Cambodians from 1975- 1979 right after the end of their civil war. The Regime killed anyone they felt were associated with the former government, any foreigners and any educated, professionals or intellectuals, people holding religious position, people that had children- anything excuse really- amounting to over 1 million people. This was carried out by telling people they were going to be taken to a new home but instead transporting them to what they called the killing fields where in the name of building up their new society and country to agriculture, the people were worked to death. We took the time to visit one of the killing fields and to take a tour learning of their history a little bit. They had an audio tour that thankfully was loud enough for me to hear through the headphones! #littlemiracles We were told briefly about the history of Cambodia before we came, and the reason the people are they way they are there- submissive, not trusting of anyone, and in pain. Oh. my. goodness. Nothing we could have learned before could have prepared us for the palpable feeling of darkness and evil we could feel the moment we walked into the fields and that continued as we quietly walked in shock viewing the place. Posts like these are all covered in bracelets of all different colors and kinds to commemorate the victims who had to experience this and who still are experiencing the psychological and emotional repercussions of this horrific time.
We then visited the S-21 Prison Genocide museum-today was just a really depressing day with all this heavy history- this place was originally a high school that the Khumer Rouge converted into a prison. It was full of chilling photos of the innocent civilians they took captive, interrogated and tortured. The balconies and walls were all barred with barbed wire. I didn't walk through the whole thing, it was just too overwhelming for me. I sat outside and was able again to just reflect how grateful I was to live in America. And to live at a time where I am not being persecuted. They through out these numbers of x thousands of people died here and to think of that on an individual level? That is so many lives, so much potential, generations absolutely devastated by this. And then to reflect on history on the countless times people have risen to power and felt the need to validate their superiority by slaughtering those around them. How absolutely sickening. And to think that in some places it is still going on. My heart was full of compassion for the Cambodian people. How absolutely traumatizing that would have been. There was one room of pictures where Brittany, who I'd just been following, told me to look beyond the picture to my reflection next to the prisoner. I got chills. It made this horrific scene that much more real seeing myself right next to them. These were people just like you and I with dreams and aspirations and lives and all of it was ripped away. Walking through these places allowed me to introspectively reflect on my life. With the blessings I have, a healthy body, opportunity to get an education, to work, to travel, to speak, write and worship how I wish- am I living my life to the fullest. Would these people look down on my life and be proud of what I am accomplishing or feel sorry for the opportunities I am not taking. What is the true genocide, the physical one we see here or the emotional, psychological, spiritual death that can come from not rising to our potential? Life is so precious and I hope that I can continue living it to the fullest.
After all of this, we were super depressed. Thankfully we are now on our way to Seoul Korea for a 36-hour layover where we are going to just tour the city! I'm super excited! I definitely have a travel bug now that is going to be really hard to get rid of.... I would love to just stay here with the people to follow them to observe how their new hearing aids are making a difference in their lives. I could make a living off that, couldn't I?? Oh my I wish.
Tuesday May 17:
And just like that in a blink of an eye, I am already back on the plane heading home. there were so many thoughts and emotions of the whole experience that I was trying to internalize that consumed every last bit of energy that I had. Someday I hope to figure out how to share thoughts and feelings in exactly the way we intended it- beyond the words we speak and write.
We spent the last 36 hours in Seoul South Korea - praying the whole time that North Korea would just stay on their side and not kidnap us- we had the lovely Bella as our tour guide showing us around the modern, posh city. It was such a shocking difference from Cambodia- The crowded streets filled with motorcycles of Cambodia were replaced with cars and taxis in Seoul. In fact, there they had signs saying no motorcycles allowed. The garbage lined gutters were replaced with impeccably clean water ways, the street vendors and markets with cultural paintings clothes, handmade items replaced with gaudy malls filled with excessive, cheap, clothes, toys and accessories. (May I just add that it was absolutely impossible to find a sports section to purchase a hacky sack in Seoul? Do people not play sports there?! They had a "sports wear" section consisting of preppy Nike clothes but no balls or anything no basketballs, footballs, frisbees, nothing. We found the wimpy little balls like what you find in Walmart and bounce around the store but no real sports stuff….) The combination of nose wrinkling smells combined was replaced with enough cologne and perfume that I could taste it as I walked by. Don't get me wrong Seoul was an incredibly interesting, artistic place fit for tourism. I resonated more with the Cambodia real life that we saw right outside our hotel. The people of Cambodia have more depth to their character, more compassion in their hugs, more joy in their smiles, more appreciation in their bows. Maybe I am not giving Seoul enough credit- they have 10 million people there and we just didn't get into the poorer parts of the city- there is just a whole different feel to the city, it felt like America in the sense that people don't really interact with each other on the streets, and there is just a superficial materialistic feel to the city. We did have a neat opportunity to walk in some of the neighborhoods which were absolutely adorable! They had narrow steep streets that were lined by the little tea houses and almost cottages. I am in serious trouble, I definitely have the travel bug haha
We visited the Deoksugung and Changgyeonggung Palaces (I think those were the ones we visited- essentially giant areas of multiple buildings where the royal family lives. The artwork on the buildings was absolutely incredible- so technical and detailed. I can't imagine having the patience for painting all of that....Like this picture was just one of the bedchambers- look at those ceilings. We saw a change in the Guard which was interesting. I couldn't really hear Bella very well and even if I could hear her, I couldn't understand her so Brittany and I delved into our life stories and that was the best. So I don't know much of the history of what we saw but I know that it looked cool!!
We went up to The Namsan Locks of Love Tower place- Wow there are so many people in the world. And how adorable that a couple can lock their love and leave it there. There were thousands of padlocks there. Wow. You know, locking a padlock to a random rail with my significant other in Seoul didn't resonate with me very much but it obviously did to all these other people. Now the question was it the having a significant other that didn't resonate (currently single, hopefully, won't be forever hahaha) or the locking the lock hahaha it was amazing to look at the city from so high up. And I found baseball diamonds and soccer field from up there so apparently Seoul is not a complete loss as far as sports go ;)
Happy Mother's Day and phone call to Jacob!! (Because we were 13 hours ahead of America I was able to FaceTime mom the night before to wish her a happy Mother's Day and to make a little video for Jacob as I was going to be on a plane at the time they were calling him. There are still not adequate words to describe that feeling and the eternal gratitude I have for my mom for not giving up on her dream to have me speak and to be successful. I'm glad that I got to talk to her today, I didn't think I'd get to!
With our mission work officially done, we took the chance to use the time we had before we flew out to go visit a little orphanage, The Killing fields, S-2, the Genocide Prisons- Driving out the orphanage was a refreshing change of scenery as we have been driving on the same road almost every day. Today I again was overwhelmed with gratitude that I lived in America. We got to see more of the country side of Phnom Penh. We stopped at what was supposed to be an orphanage but looked like an attempt to create a community amongst the trash. The stench was seeping out from the black and green puddles of water yet the children were laughing and running around happily like they had the best lives in the world. The one older girl in the group fascinated me the most. She looked like 11 or 12, she had more depth in her eyes, more pain, and awareness of the situation, I wished I could have a glimpse into her story and her life. She too eventually she smiled and joined into the singing when the children sat in their little school house. We fed the kids candy, Tom and Dr. Larsen played their little magic tricks on the kids causing them to squeal with joy. It was amazing to see how happy these kids were with absolutely nothing. They were still kids. I wanted to take them all home with me. Maybe someday I will get to adopt a little child from somewhere like here. The children in this place had just been abandoned and local women were taking care of them. They had a teacher come in and teach them lessons during the day, but their living conditions were trash. Completely literally trash.
Cambodia is still recovering from the Khumer Rouge Regime who executed a mass genocide of their fellow Cambodians from 1975- 1979 right after the end of their civil war. The Regime killed anyone they felt were associated with the former government, any foreigners and any educated, professionals or intellectuals, people holding religious position, people that had children- anything excuse really- amounting to over 1 million people. This was carried out by telling people they were going to be taken to a new home but instead transporting them to what they called the killing fields where in the name of building up their new society and country to agriculture, the people were worked to death. We took the time to visit one of the killing fields and to take a tour learning of their history a little bit. They had an audio tour that thankfully was loud enough for me to hear through the headphones! #littlemiracles We were told briefly about the history of Cambodia before we came, and the reason the people are they way they are there- submissive, not trusting of anyone, and in pain. Oh. my. goodness. Nothing we could have learned before could have prepared us for the palpable feeling of darkness and evil we could feel the moment we walked into the fields and that continued as we quietly walked in shock viewing the place. Posts like these are all covered in bracelets of all different colors and kinds to commemorate the victims who had to experience this and who still are experiencing the psychological and emotional repercussions of this horrific time.
We then visited the S-21 Prison Genocide museum-today was just a really depressing day with all this heavy history- this place was originally a high school that the Khumer Rouge converted into a prison. It was full of chilling photos of the innocent civilians they took captive, interrogated and tortured. The balconies and walls were all barred with barbed wire. I didn't walk through the whole thing, it was just too overwhelming for me. I sat outside and was able again to just reflect how grateful I was to live in America. And to live at a time where I am not being persecuted. They through out these numbers of x thousands of people died here and to think of that on an individual level? That is so many lives, so much potential, generations absolutely devastated by this. And then to reflect on history on the countless times people have risen to power and felt the need to validate their superiority by slaughtering those around them. How absolutely sickening. And to think that in some places it is still going on. My heart was full of compassion for the Cambodian people. How absolutely traumatizing that would have been. There was one room of pictures where Brittany, who I'd just been following, told me to look beyond the picture to my reflection next to the prisoner. I got chills. It made this horrific scene that much more real seeing myself right next to them. These were people just like you and I with dreams and aspirations and lives and all of it was ripped away. Walking through these places allowed me to introspectively reflect on my life. With the blessings I have, a healthy body, opportunity to get an education, to work, to travel, to speak, write and worship how I wish- am I living my life to the fullest. Would these people look down on my life and be proud of what I am accomplishing or feel sorry for the opportunities I am not taking. What is the true genocide, the physical one we see here or the emotional, psychological, spiritual death that can come from not rising to our potential? Life is so precious and I hope that I can continue living it to the fullest.
Tuesday May 17:
And just like that in a blink of an eye, I am already back on the plane heading home. there were so many thoughts and emotions of the whole experience that I was trying to internalize that consumed every last bit of energy that I had. Someday I hope to figure out how to share thoughts and feelings in exactly the way we intended it- beyond the words we speak and write.
We spent the last 36 hours in Seoul South Korea - praying the whole time that North Korea would just stay on their side and not kidnap us- we had the lovely Bella as our tour guide showing us around the modern, posh city. It was such a shocking difference from Cambodia- The crowded streets filled with motorcycles of Cambodia were replaced with cars and taxis in Seoul. In fact, there they had signs saying no motorcycles allowed. The garbage lined gutters were replaced with impeccably clean water ways, the street vendors and markets with cultural paintings clothes, handmade items replaced with gaudy malls filled with excessive, cheap, clothes, toys and accessories. (May I just add that it was absolutely impossible to find a sports section to purchase a hacky sack in Seoul? Do people not play sports there?! They had a "sports wear" section consisting of preppy Nike clothes but no balls or anything no basketballs, footballs, frisbees, nothing. We found the wimpy little balls like what you find in Walmart and bounce around the store but no real sports stuff….) The combination of nose wrinkling smells combined was replaced with enough cologne and perfume that I could taste it as I walked by. Don't get me wrong Seoul was an incredibly interesting, artistic place fit for tourism. I resonated more with the Cambodia real life that we saw right outside our hotel. The people of Cambodia have more depth to their character, more compassion in their hugs, more joy in their smiles, more appreciation in their bows. Maybe I am not giving Seoul enough credit- they have 10 million people there and we just didn't get into the poorer parts of the city- there is just a whole different feel to the city, it felt like America in the sense that people don't really interact with each other on the streets, and there is just a superficial materialistic feel to the city. We did have a neat opportunity to walk in some of the neighborhoods which were absolutely adorable! They had narrow steep streets that were lined by the little tea houses and almost cottages. I am in serious trouble, I definitely have the travel bug haha
We visited the Deoksugung and Changgyeonggung Palaces (I think those were the ones we visited- essentially giant areas of multiple buildings where the royal family lives. The artwork on the buildings was absolutely incredible- so technical and detailed. I can't imagine having the patience for painting all of that....Like this picture was just one of the bedchambers- look at those ceilings. We saw a change in the Guard which was interesting. I couldn't really hear Bella very well and even if I could hear her, I couldn't understand her so Brittany and I delved into our life stories and that was the best. So I don't know much of the history of what we saw but I know that it looked cool!!
We went up to The Namsan Locks of Love Tower place- Wow there are so many people in the world. And how adorable that a couple can lock their love and leave it there. There were thousands of padlocks there. Wow. You know, locking a padlock to a random rail with my significant other in Seoul didn't resonate with me very much but it obviously did to all these other people. Now the question was it the having a significant other that didn't resonate (currently single, hopefully, won't be forever hahaha) or the locking the lock hahaha it was amazing to look at the city from so high up. And I found baseball diamonds and soccer field from up there so apparently Seoul is not a complete loss as far as sports go ;)
We had Korean BBQ twice, ate some weird crispy sardine things that were really... yeah the texture was not delicious. But I loved just getting into the heart of the city and eating like they eat. Feeding 13 Americans was probably the highlight of those people's day haha we stayed the night at a hotel after touring around all day and then the next morning we woke up and went on this mini little hike thing and saw some other palaces. Honestly, I was so wiped out. I tried to take a sleeping pill on the flight home and it didn't work. At all. I think it kept me awake actually haha ahh driving back to Logan will be fun tonight along with my 9 am clinic tomorrow morning. Yeah, this will be really interesting. #firsttimejetlagger
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