Day Five: Tabitha Orientation and Sunshine Centre for Children

Today was both a challenging and rewarding day. We commenced with a visit to the Killing Fields at Ek Choeng. This is one of a number of locations where the Khmer Rouge conducted their viscious genocide during the late 1970s. It was very confronting for our group as they heard the stories of what took place here and stepped through the areas where thousands of bodies had been unceremoniously dumped in massed graves. The final part of our visit was the stupa, which is a buddhist memorial for the dead, where the ashes of the dead are normally housed. In this case, the stupa contains the skulls, bones and bone fragments, and clothing of those that they have recovered from this site. 

Our next stop was the notorious S21 Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. This was a high school that was converted to a prison camp during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol Pot. Any people with a reasonable level of education and certainly any professionals such as doctors and teachers were brought to this prison, where they were subjected to torture and unbearable living conditions. 22,000 people were executed at this prison. The High School was closed because Pol Pot insisted that education cease. The Khmer people needed to undertake physical work and this did not require education. We were able to view rooms where prisoners were kept and row after row of the photos of people who were detained and executed. Those that survived the prison, were typically transported to the Ek Choeng Killing Fields where they were executed. There were, however, just seven people who are survivors of Toul Sleng, some of which still live today. Two of the survivors were at the museum to sell their books and allow photographs.

It was great to arrive at the Tabitha centre for our orientation session with Janne Ritskes, the founder and director of Tabitha. To assist us with a further understanding of the people of Cambodia, Janne gave a chilling account of some of the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge period in what was a very valuable history lesson on Cambodia and the Indo-China region. Janne also told us about what we would be doing during our house building day and provided us with a list of rules that we must abide by while visiting the village. Some of the rules included not holding babies under the age of two otherwise parents would think that you want to take the child as payment for the houses, don't take their money or eat their food, leave your belongings on the platform provided for the group and they will not be touched by the locals - anywhere else, it is considered community property, don't react to any injuries but seek very quiet attention from an adult of the same gender, boys should not touch girls and vice versa as only people who are married touch people of the opposite sex, etc. Following our briefing session, we perused the impressive collection of silk items that had been produced at Tabitha and a number of purchases were made.

Following a stop for lunch we proceeded to the Sunshine Centre for Children, this time in a new location for us. They run a new centre on Friday's at Prey Teah, nearby the Phnom Penh International Airport. We were met by the director of the Centre, Nop Channey, who guided us on his motorscooter through many narrow roadways to the small hall where they meet each Friday. Today there were over 30 children who were taking part in their program. They were very excited to see the visitors from Australia. Miss Fowler gave a welcome and then led a talk on the Prodigal Son, ably assisted by a number of our group, with Connor playing the role of the Prodigal Son. Following the talk, we played a number of games with the children including "Stuck in the mud", "duck duck goose", and balloon relays. Our group greatly enjoyed interacting with the children and the children from the centre certainly had a lot of fun as well. As the children were dismissed from the centre at 4pm, Nop Channey gave our group a tour of the surrounding neighbourhood and provided some insights into the challenges of living in Prey Teah. We were also able to see the construction work on their new permanent centre that will be established in Prey Teah thanks to the generous donations of Australian supporters.

On return to the hotel, we had a brief time to have a swim before heading out to dinner. Early night today as we have a long day ahead of us as we head out for our house building day.