War officially ended in Cambodia in 1998 after 30 years of fighting. Looking around Siem Reap it is hard to imagine that as recently as 11 years ago these people were still fighting. If however you look around you will see much evidence of the war in the form of people without limbs. When you talk to people you will discover they all have horrible stores about those years mainly about the 1975 – 79 period. It is estimated there are still 3-6 million landmines in Cambodia. One out of 275 persons have been affected by landmines. Landmines were created to maim not to kill. If one person is killed you lose one soldier. If one gets caught by a landmine you immobilize 3 or 4 people as takes two to three to help the person who has been injured by a landmine. It is never nice to see a person without a limb however it is great to see a large percentage are trying to make a living and be useful. There are for example many legless booksellers outside of stores, who do not want pity at being beggars. They help each other too. I bought a book from a man who had two straps for arms. His friend who had one leg helped him give me change. As we walked into one of the temples at Angkor Wat there was a musical band all members were without one or more limbs and selling C.D.’s. We also visited the Landmine Museum started by Aki Ra a former child soldier who set thousands of landmines but has since taken to dismantling them. He has personally dismantled over 50,000 and is now training others to do the same. Canadians have played a major role in the museum, partly though funding and by the leadership of Richard Fetussi a Canadian photographer and of the honorable Lloyd Axworthy. They also have 27 school children. Five of our sweat equity team will be helping teach English to these children. Bill Morse a Rotarian from Palm Springs heads up the program. We were all moved by the good work they are doing. The darkest period in Cambodia’s history was the period from 1975 – 1979 when Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge ran the country. Approximately 25% of the Cambodia population was eliminated in a genocide sometimes referred to as the Killing Fields. Many people were simply eliminated by firing squads, others were sent to do hard labour and died of starvation, and many more were shot after they outlived their usefulness. Some survived including our partner Ronnie Yimsut. On Saturday we went out to some of the floating villages, an amazing sight of houses built on limbs and floating along the shore. To get there we followed a channel that in the dry season is still under water. This channel was built by upwards of 10,000 people during the Khmer Rouge reign. Ronnie a boy of 15 was one of them. Both of his parents were killed very close to where we were. We passed a few huts which formerly was a Khmer Rouge garrison. This was only the second time Ronnie had been this way in over 30 years. It was for Ronnie, to say the least very difficult and very sobering for the rest of us.Submitted by Chris Snyder
War officially ended in Cambodia in 1998 after 30 years of fighting. Looking around Siem Reap it is hard to imagine that as recently as 11 years ago these people were still fighting. If however you look around you will see much evidence of the war in the form of people without limbs. When you talk to people you will discover they all have horrible stores about those years mainly about the 1975 – 79 period. It is estimated there are still 3-6 million landmines in Cambodia. One out of 275 persons have been affected by landmines. Landmines were created to maim not to kill. If one person is killed you lose one soldier. If one gets caught by a landmine you immobilize 3 or 4 people as takes two to three to help the person who has been injured by a landmine. It is never nice to see a person without a limb however it is great to see a large percentage are trying to make a living and be useful. There are for example many legless booksellers outside of stores, who do not want pity at being beggars. They help each other too. I bought a book from a man who had two straps for arms. His friend who had one leg helped him give me change. As we walked into one of the temples at Angkor Wat there was a musical band all members were without one or more limbs and selling C.D.’s. We also visited the Landmine Museum started by Aki Ra a former child soldier who set thousands of landmines but has since taken to dismantling them. He has personally dismantled over 50,000 and is now training others to do the same. Canadians have played a major role in the museum, partly though funding and by the leadership of Richard Fetussi a Canadian photographer and of the honorable Lloyd Axworthy. They also have 27 school children. Five of our sweat equity team will be helping teach English to these children. Bill Morse a Rotarian from Palm Springs heads up the program. We were all moved by the good work they are doing. The darkest period in Cambodia’s history was the period from 1975 – 1979 when Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge ran the country. Approximately 25% of the Cambodia population was eliminated in a genocide sometimes referred to as the Killing Fields. Many people were simply eliminated by firing squads, others were sent to do hard labour and died of starvation, and many more were shot after they outlived their usefulness. Some survived including our partner Ronnie Yimsut. On Saturday we went out to some of the floating villages, an amazing sight of houses built on limbs and floating along the shore. To get there we followed a channel that in the dry season is still under water. This channel was built by upwards of 10,000 people during the Khmer Rouge reign. Ronnie a boy of 15 was one of them. Both of his parents were killed very close to where we were. We passed a few huts which formerly was a Khmer Rouge garrison. This was only the second time Ronnie had been this way in over 30 years. It was for Ronnie, to say the least very difficult and very sobering for the rest of us.Submitted by Chris Snyder 
1 comment:
Hello Pat and Chris! It sounds like you are working really hard making the cement blocks! I can only imagine how much work that is. You both look really good, keep up the hard work. I will keep praying for both of you.
Nadira
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