With a population number rounding the 14 million people you honestly cannot stop thinking how on earth this number is accurate, when it is most likely that a large part of the population doesn't even have person numbers. Kids sit in the side of the red muddy streets playing with sticks or making bottle lids float on the surface of the dirty puddles. Kids come rushing to your side in the cities, the temple entrances, even late at night you see the street children who with their begging tired voices repeat; 'one dollaaar, ladyyyy'. Meanwhile they will hold up small souvenirs or bracelets for you to buy, but their gazes will flicker to whatever is more interesting to catch a kids' attention rather than your constant forced stream of 'no thank you'.
(Little girl we saw in front of the completely insanely beautiful and wealthy looking Royal Palace in the capital Phnom Pehn)
(More kids playing outside the Royal Palace where they know a bunch of tourists are sure to come and visit)
(We had just ended a trip where we saw several different temples located in the Combodian jungle and so many street salesmen were waiting for us. There were at least ten kids trying to sell some of their stuff to us. One from our group bought a small thing and naturally our bus shortly after was surrounded with kids hanging in through the door and presenting their items for sale up against the window.)
Education in Cambodia is free - but for the teachers to be able to survive on their extremely low salary (30$ a month) they often charge more from the students. Therefore it is a complete luxury and sign of success if you are able to speak English in Cambodia. Since tourism is the #1 industry in Cambodia its a life changing skill to obtain. But often the parents cannot send their kids to school because of it being too expensive.
We visited a school called New Hope which was founded with help from the travelling agency we are travelling with; G-Adventures. Here we visited an English class and talked with the students who had been lucky enough to get a free education. The place was amazing. Beautiful people, beautiful project and so much happiness. www.newhopecambodia.com
(They were quite shy most of them 😊)
With half the population of Cambodia being 17 years old or under the amount of children living like this might not be as surprising. 36% of the population lives on less than 63 cents per day - and it is so evident that everyone is completely on their own. There is no government to help you - there is barely any roads which are proper. We drove on the only proper highway in Cambodia and the rest of the different bus trips were basically just on roads with countless of holes made from the raining. 7 hours free massage is all Cambodia's streets have to offer besides the up close view into the lives of the Cambodian people.
As shocking as the living conditions are - as shocking is the history of Cambodia. Around 1965-75 something the Pol Pot regime managed to completely ruin a perfectly functioning country. Pol Pot was a perfectly normal Cambodian boy who was such an excellent student he received a scholarship to go study in Paris (Cambodia was under influence of the French). Here Pol Pot spend his time reading communist books and letting the ideology consume his soul and heart. He gave himself the name Pol Pot which is short for Potential Politican (or something like that). He returned to Cambodia and worked as a history teacher - slowly influencing his students and coworkers with the idea of the communists. Somehow he managed to get power enough to prohibit the education system, export/import, force the Cambodian people to move from the cities to the rural areas to be farmers and excecuted up to 2 million of the well educated people or former profiles within the military (1975-1979). Furthermore 1 million died of starvation from the hard and merciless work in the fields, as Pol Pot tried to force the ideology of communism into the society structure of Cambodia.
We visited both a prison where 'public enemies' where kept and tortured right till they were send to the second place we visited; The Killing Fields. Here the bodies of several thousands have been found in mass graves. When it rains more bones, teeth and clothing surface from the dirt of the graves (the government hasn't given the resources to find the remaining victims in the area ( - as our guide told us they have been telling the Cambodia. people the many past years that 'it will come soon').
Most shocking was to see the so called Killing Tree were soldiers of the Pot Pol regime would smash small babies against the trunk of the sorrowful tree.
(Visitors have paid their respect by hanging a bracelet on the trunk or around the graves.)
Our guide - who lost his father during the Pol Pot regime - told us that during some of his first tours as guide the trunk of the tree was still covered in blood, hair, and strands of clothing.
Supposedly there's a movie called the Killing Fields which I'll definitely see when I get back home to better understand the history. It's is such a devastating story of a country that fights to move on and get back on track. To be honest most of us were quite surprised a genocide like this only taking place some 40 yeas ago has not been mentioned in our education etc.
What shocked me even more was an old man we met at the prison which is now open for tourist and function more as a museum. He was one of the two remaining survivors of the prison stay. His personal hell. Where he was tortured and heard the screams and cries of his fellow inmates. A place where hundreds were killed and tortured as if no humanity existed. You could still see the blood stains on the floor - yet this survivor returns everyday to this place in order to sell his autobiography and talk with the tourists - tell his story of how his drawing skills saved his life (he drew Pot Pol's portrait).
I asked him how he felt about returning everyday to this place and he answered it was incredibly hard - but he had to do it to share his story. If you ask me there's a financial reason too.
Just the fact that this poor man has to return to this place - most likely because he needs the money he makes on selling his books and drawings - just to survive is beyond me. Cambodia is a country with so much poverty and an absolutely heartbreaking and horrible story that your heart prays for the Cambodian people and their strength to move on.