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Published: February 22nd 2008
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After 3 days in Phnom Phen, we moved to the next attraction, Siem Riep. Actually, this is the town that is nearest one of the original 7 wonders of the world, the Angkor temples. Like the Mayans or Incans in North America, the Angkor civilization's power peaked long ago. They controlled much of SE Asia, and were architecturally very ahead of their time (just look at the pictures). Around 1000 AD, a succession of rulers started building massive temples to commemorate various gods or people. I know massive means really big, but Angkor Wat, the biggest and grandest of them all, was more than massive. Something like 500,000 people were working on it at the time. There is a mile long moat surrounding it, which was filled with alligators at the time. The temple, well just look at the pictures. The massive amounts of inscription around the outer wall were out of this world, each succession of pictures telling a story about life at that time. The stories and folklores went on and on.
We woke up at 4:30 AM that day to watch the sunrise. It rises over the temple and makes a colorful reflection in the front lakes.
Then, we moved to about 7 more temples, each with its own story and history. One of the temples, nicknamed the Jungle Temple, was used in Tomb Raider. Massive trees were growing into, on top of, and around it, putting immense pressure on the structure. Most of these temples are in ruins, various parts collapsed, other parts looted, even recently. As I put a hand on these pieces of history, I felt the same way as when I put my hand on George Washington’s stairway. What an incredible amount of history must have passed through these walls, walked these steps, contemplated next to these trees.
So, we had a full day of temple tourism, which was enough for us. We climbed to a mountain temple, hoarded with tourists to watch the sunset, then went home. In retrospect, the accomplishments of these people, the amount of work that had to be done, and the fact that the structures are still standing despite a thousand years of natural and man-made abuse pays tribute to their genius, and puts them in comparison to other great things (walls, pyramids and such).
It had only been a day or two since our visit
to the orphanage. We were eager to learn a little bit more about the humanitarian effort in the area. We came across an advertisement for a free cello concert, by a Swiss doctor named Beat Richner, accompanied by a short talk about a children’s hospital in the area. The performance was called Beatocello. It was so interesting to listen to him talk; you don't everyday see a renowned doctor basically begging for money. He even had composed a song about the foundations bank account, making it easy for people to remember.
He was in Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge, and then was forced to go back to his home country. In the early nineties, the king of Cambodia asked him to return and re-open the children's hospital he worked at earlier. Since then, he has devoted his life to this cause, adding several more top notch facilities in the country. The statistics he shared were startling. In the 70s, the Western world brought war to Cambodia, the heavy bombing in the east killing some 500,000 civilians, which facilitated the rise of the KR, then disease, starvation, more killing, with most infrastructure and hospital facilities being wiped out. Now, 65%
of Cambodians have TB, most in a dormant state. As TB weakens the immune system, it makes the body more susceptible to other diseases, like malaria or dengue fever, and children are the ones who suffer. While we were there there was a dengue fever outbreak.
A few years ago, there was a SARs outbreak in Asia. This brought reporters from major media companies to the area, though Cambodia ended up having no reported cases. For once in its life, he said, Cambodia was the safest place on earth. The same thing happened with bird flu. One case in northern Cambodia was reported and major media companies flocked to the area. Why were they obsessed with these diseases, he asked? Because they threaten the Western world and people with economic or political power can shed light on the situation. That same year, the deaths of 14,000 children were reported from Dengue fever. Since dengue affects children and not business men Not one reporter showed up to announce this figure. The children, he said, have no voice or political power, silent cries for help.
His clinics are free to all children, as 90% of Cambodians have absolutely no cash.
Other clinics in the country force you to pay up front for any procedure, leaving you to bleed to death rather than treat you.
We have seen some extreme poverty here. When people ask for tips or money, we are initially turned off, embarrassingly, even a little angry. You can’t just ask for tips, we think. They work for a dollar a day and I am getting perturbed at their audacity to ask for money. What is wrong with us? We've read in guiedbooks that we shouln't encourage a culture of begging, so we try not to. But when they ask for the scraps from our meal, then the guilt really sets in. This is a whole different kind of poor. And what did they do to deserve this? The American Dream is much more of a dream than reality here. Who chose to put me where I am and them where they are? And what am I doing to help? The answers for these questions are 2 strong I DON’T KNOWS and 1 NOTHING.
Anyways, it was such an informative night. After his presentation, we were moved, 1 part ashamed and 1 part motivated. Here is a
guy who is trying to equalize what the Western world has done. He doesn't do it so he can feel good about himself, but because he feels it's his obligation for all the harm we've done. It's our obligation to help. Children and mothers camp outside his hospital for days just to be seen. A large sign outside its doors said, ‘’DENGUE FEVER EPIDEMIC HERE…” As we rode past, relaxed on the back of a tuk tuk, the children waived and screamed haaalllllooooo. Without his hospitals, 90,000 of them would die per year. I shook his hand and told him we will do something to help.
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Brooke
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Interesting Hisotry
It is very interesting reading the blog about the history and what it is now like in Cambodia, 65% of the people having TB and how they don't have any money. We take a lot of things for granted sometimes in America