Windows give you a small glimpse of what’s out there, but still serve as a barrier to protect you. However, that protection only extends to stopping the wind from hitting your face or the snow from getting in.
The sights that you will see through the windows of Cambodia can be ones of awe or ones that can shake you to the core. Open ocean, kids playing futbol, and people starving are only a few of the thousands of things I’ve seen from my window this past week.
Flying in on a plane gives the big overview of an area. As we flew in and landed in Cambodia, temples, forest, and city buildings were easily seen from my window seat. Cambodia did not look all to different from the U.S… After all, the trees were a little greener and there was less city, but other than that it was a lot like home.
But as we got on a bus for an eight hour ride to Battambang, the reality set in. Poverity, starvation, and pain were all staring at me through my transparent shield. Kids, adults, and everyone in between looked on at the bus of foreigners that went by. Some of them laughed or smiled and other took pictures. Within the first hour of our travel, the reality of a third world country hit me. A country that had been scared by the Khmer Rouge and poverty. A country with struggles and conditions I could never understand at first, but I’m beginning to…
Because after that 8 hour drive, I lost my shield, and here I am on the other side of that window.
