Phnom Penh

I'm in Cambodia for 9 days for a teacher mentor training session and then to observe our incoming teachers during their TESOL practicum. It's going to be a busy week, but I'm looking forward to spending time with some of our new teachers. Our team is basically doubling in size this year (country-wide) and my responsibilities will be increasing significantly as I'll be meeting weekly with some of the new teachers to discuss pertinent topics on teaching, as well as to assist with lesson planning and such. 

But this morning I had some free time, and strolled around Phnom Penh for a bit, mostly in search of a coffee shop where I could hole up and read in the air-con for a while, but also deep in thought about this infamous city.

I tried to imagine, as I took in the hustle and bustle of the busy Saturday morning...

I tried to imagine that just under 40 years ago - only 8 years before I was born - on April 17, 1975, this city was completely evacuated, all residents forced out into the countryside. They left everything behind, flooded the streets and started the slow crawl away from their homes, their jobs and for some, their families. 

Life was completely and utterly changed in an instant.

I'm staying in a home with some Cambodian girls (they're referred to as Khmai here) and when we were talking about our families, one girl said she has no family. She was raised in an orphanage. It didn't seem polite to press it any further, but it made me wonder. She is too young to have been orphaned by the events that took place from 1975-1979 when the Khmer Rouge controlled Cambodia. But there are undoubtedly countless others, perhaps only a few years older than me, who have been effected.

It's a crazy thought - that in one instant your life is normal, the streets are busy in a comfortable sort-of-way, and then in the next nothing will ever be the same.

I'm reading a book I picked up at the library on campus where we've been meeting. It's on the Chinese Cultural Rev in the 60s. A pretty eerie read in many ways as I watch certain events unfolding in my homeland (and perhaps it's yours as well). 

Not sure where I first heard this quote, but it should be held in every mind as we reflect on the past and ponder the present. Those who refuse to recognize the past will be condemned to repeat it.