Cambodia is just what I expected. The cities are crazy crowded, lots of ‘motos’ (motorcycles), ‘tuk tuks’ (motorcycles with a cart attached behind), and just ordinary bikes. We flew into the capital of Phnom Penh where we spent the night after a quick debrief of the country and culture. For some reason the history of Cambodia has really caught my heart. I’ve actually started typing it out several times, but it just gets longwinded and boring if you’re not interested in history stuff. Look it up on Wikipedia if you’re interested. I found it very insightful and I recommend it.
The important part is that in the 1970’s, the Khmer Rouge took over the government and made Cambodia a communist country. The first thing Pol Pot did was send all of the Cambodians out of the cities to work on farming communes. He also killed all educated people-doctors, engineers, teachers, etc. Along with them, he killed religious people, most leaders in Buddhism, including monks, and 90% of the Christians in Cambodia. Between his killings, and the deaths caused by starvation, disease, and malnutrition on the farming communes, an estimated 2 million people died in a span of 4 years, said to be a third of the population of Cambodia. Fighting in Cambodia did not actually cease until around 1997, which means that this country has only been really able to rebuild for the past decade and a half. Unbelievable. Over 50% of Cambodians are beneath the age of 20, 80% under 30. Only 3% of the populations is over 65 years old.
Imagine a country rebuilding with few educated people. Imagine a country in which, for several years, there was no school system, there was no cities. Imagine the economic hardships a country like that must face. Cambodia may be one of the least developed countries we’ve been in. Some in Central America had places that were relatively undeveloped, but even the capitol city didn’t boom with development.
And here we are. In Cambodia.
We’re working with a YWAM organization called University of Nations-Siem Reap. (insert website here) We will be doing three different ministries during ht week, 1. Helping at a Pre-School. 2. Teaching at a Village, and 3. Working at a drug rehab facility.
We ride bikes everywhere we go. And we love it…so far.
We sleep and eat at the YWAM base-which is fantastic. Such a blessing.
It’s hot. But we get a nice breeze on the bikes.
It’s going to be an awesome month here, and I’ll be sure to keep you posted on all the stories and experiences!
