Insanity
I think my last couple days in Cambodia have been a decent simulation of manic depression. Or maybe it’s just a condensed serving of all the best and worst of humanity on one heavy plate. I can’t adequately explain the feelings associated with visiting “Choeung Ek Genocidal Center” or the Tuol Sleng Museum (a high school closed to use as a torture center for the Khmer Rouge). Hundreds of pairs of eyes peer at you from pre-death photos with varying amounts of premonition, courage, sadness, anger, resignation. Your feet walk over mass grave sites, tromping on remnants of clothing, teeth, and femurs that wash up in rainy season sludge. You are amazed that this happened not so long ago, so that you can’t even try to explain it as barbaric practices of the ignorant past or those asshole ancestors who hadn’t yet evolved. And people still do it now.
But then….
I walk circles on the street (I lost my navigator, remember) sharing laughs with tuk tuk and moto drivers who vie for my nonexistent business. I smile at a lady cleaning the street, entire head and face wrapped against the dust, and her eyes squint in returned friendliness. Little muddy naked boys run up to me in a field to exchange peace signs, thumbs up, giving each other dripping hugs. My parents arrive with nearly 10 pieces of luggage filled with balloons, balls, puppets, tattoos, and hats for kids in the villages we’re going to visit. Everywhere in Phnom Phen and Siem Reap I see flyers and posters for organizations to serve the poor, the disabled, the women, the children, the sick…. And the good side of humanity wins this round.
Tags: Cambodia, Phnom Phen, Tuol Sleng
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