Killing Fields
Our visit to Cambodia’s killing fields was a powerful and harrowing experience. To visit an area so replete with artifacts of such a vicious history was remarkably intense; during the day, a number of us were in tears. The gate in this picture surrounds a mass grave in which children who had been beaten to death against a nearby “killing tree” were buried. Each piece of bamboo is decorated with the colorful offerings of passersby meant to honor the unspeakable number of young lives that were brutally ended there. Walking through gardens of beautiful color and impressive architecture provided a striking contrast to the graphic descriptions and warnings we read on passing signs -- “PLEASE DON’T WALK THROUGH THE MASS GRAVE!”--Lucas D.
Never Forget
By Ian D.
A tower stands in remembrance
With honor inscribed in marble
Decorated with solid gold
Words that shock at the core:
Never forget
That in the blood-soaked land of the Killing Fields
Where graves span infinity and
Bones still return from the earth
As soil erodes from the warm rain
Never forget
In the seventeen floors of shattered skulls
Death stares fear into you as you imagine
Each life ending with a crack, a gush of blood and brains;
A sustained cry of a living hell
Never forget
Holding back the tears is not an option
In the depths of this obscene terror
In the intensity of threatened life
And a culture on its last limbs
Never forget
That a nation now so full of life
And boundless kindness endured a holocaust
A sobering lesson of human reality
An ultimate teaching the world should never forget
With the colors of respect
Decorating broken bodies of the fallen
And the gates which guard their souls
Let the innocent rest assured that we will never forget
Angkor Wat
By far one of the highlights of our trip was the day we spent visiting Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, near Siem Reap. The site is a stunning religious temple complex, in fact the largest in the world. Waking up at four in the morning in order to be as early as possible turned out to be totally worth it, as we made the entrance at the precise moment of sunrise. The view was gorgeous. It was virtually impossible to stop taking pictures throughout our entire visit, but this photo of Angkor Wat’s brilliant black silhouette against the deep colored Cambodian sky was my favorite. --Lucas D.
Angkor
By Ian D.
In the primordial beauty of a violet sunrise
And the midst of forests and waters
Reflecting the light of an ethereal serenity
Stands an ancient temple at a culture’s heart
The orange silhouette of rising towers
Speaks to the images in the shallow pools
With a gentle whisper of solitary grace
And the purest souls of all who see
The saturated stones call from a distant past
When religion led the people to divinity
Through the elegance of intricacy and
The perfect allure of stunning creation
The illustrious spires of faith endure
Like extensions of the invincible nature
With expressions of human embodiment
As they emulate the tranquility of the trees
The warm wetness of the wind comforts
As the overwhelming pride of a nation
And a true wonder of our world
Remains in the artistry of a pure humanity
Seametrey School
The most life-changing aspect of the entire trip for me ended up being our multi-day service visit to the Seametrey Children’s Village school, situated upon the beautiful Tonle Bati river near Phnom Penh. Through this experience we were exposed to an entirely new type of “schooling” -- one provided free for a significant portion of students coming from the families of an impoverished country, who spend their days being educated by a team of rare local educational professionals and international volunteers. We helped support an array of activities from landscaping to teaching in classrooms, and made connections we will never forget. This portion of the trip culminated in a school-wide assembly in which Seametrey’s principal led the student body in a discussion on world geography, in which she illustrated to her students from where we had come in accordance to the globe in her hands. It was a meaningful gesture to all involved.--Lucas D.
Cambodia
By Ian D.
In this place
Where an ancient temple stands at a culture’s heart
Represents the historic pride of an entire nation
And demonstrates the artistry of a pure humanity
In this place
Where a tower commands to never forget
The blood-soaked land of the Killing Fields
And the innocent souls guarded by colors of respect
In this place
Where performers dance to the beat of the drum
Reviving their culture and nation through honest joy
Despite the devastation of hatred and evil
In this place
Built on foundations of ancient religion
Obscene terror and revived culture
A school of hopeful sons and daughters
Who look to a future beyond pain
Make their statement to the world
In this place
One stands among many
To represent the new nation
The new hope, and the new dream
Born of faith, ripened in terror, sustained in revival, and matured in pride
This is Cambodia
Cambodia Living Arts Dancers
As Cambodian Living Arts’ website states, “For most of its history, Cambodia was home to some of the most diverse and abundant arts and culture in Southeast Asia. There were singers on every corner, musicians in every village, and a dancer in every child. Music, dance, and theater flourished. But in the years between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge put a devastating end to that. During those years, 3 million Cambodians died from execution, starvation, and overwork; among the dead were 90% percent of Cambodia’s artists, who were specifically targeted for execution. This was a ruinous blow to Cambodia’s artistic heritage.” The Cambodian Living Arts organization now serves to support the artistic community of Cambodia as it rebuilds itself. On our first night in Phnom Penh, we attended a performance by the group, and were taken by the beauty and vitality
of the culture’s new artistic endeavors. --Lucas D.
Nation, Revived
By Ian D.
In the warmth of the evening the dancers emerge
To the beat of the deepening drum
With the clack of the coconut, the tap of the feet
And the rhythm of song, they come
As the long, flowing hair and the satiny dresses
Sway with the pulse of the dance
The words of the singers turn the swing of the dancers
To a faster, more passionate prance
The pattern continues with colors, so bright
In front of the arches of stone
Which echo the natural beauty of age
And remind you that you’re not alone
The performers reveal their smiles, so pure
As honest as joy can be
With a new prosperity of laughter and bliss
That offers the gift to be free
A culture so recently ravaged by hatred
And by evil of goodness deprived
By these dancers a new page is turned in the story
A chapter called “nation, revived”
