Naked emotions?
MS Hung's family became our personal tour guides as we approached the Genocide Center. Now a memorial dedicated to the victims during the Pol Pot led Communist regime, this was a place laden with massive spiritual influence.
Like when I'd envisioned the thoughts and feelings of the victims of the Choeung Ek (Killing Fields) Genocidal Center.
You may be thinking, "Genocide? What? I thought your mission was to teach English, Justin."
And you'd be interested to know that not only have we been teaching English these past couple weeks - what seemed to be mere hours passing, our team has been personally reaching out to the people of Cambodia on an emotional level: children, youth, and adults.Since Week 1, Day 1 we've been providing the opportunity for their spiritual needs by sharing the Gospel. Yet, through the days of laughing, crying, and sharing life together with these kids, we couldn't help but become curious about the mystery of this wonderful culture.
That's how we got to the Killing Fields of Cambodia.
MS Hung's family became our personal tour guides as we approached the Genocide Center. Now a memorial dedicated to the victims during the Pol Pot led Communist regime, this was a place laden with massive spiritual influence.
The air hung heavy with the sighs of the tourists solemnly walking towards the museum that displayed killing methods of extermination. Bamboo trunks, often used as fences during daily farmwork, were reinstated to beat the prisoners' spines. Axles used for the carts were blunt weaponry. Knives for sugarcane harvest were for slitting throats. This was just the beginning of the tour as we were ushered into a movie theatre that explained the Khmer Rouge mass murders and its history.
Huong, MS Hung's second eldest daughter, explained that the Khmer Rouge did not discriminate when it came to executing prisoners. Men, women, and children were all equally slaughtered.
Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, reasoned that intellectuals, foreigners, and/or anybody with an ounce of resistance was deserving of death. Infants were smashed into tree trunks headfirst because, as the K.R reasoned, if the babies were not killed now and allowed to love, they would grow up, wonder why they had no parents, eventually figure out the cause, and lead a rebellion.
Finally, we left that place with heavy hearts. You can see why I said it was a place of massive spiritual influence because, as a heavily Buddhist country, Cambodian government deemed a monument be built, housing all the bones and skills of the excavated corpses. As I walked up the white steps, worn from the shoes being carefully removed before stepping on the premises in respect, the smell of incense deeper into my clothing. A familiar feeling. Recorded chants filled the air and tourists were squatting down to get a better look at the bloodied clothing, stripped from their owners decades ago.
*Personal note* I had filmed the monument and this tour, taken pictures and such, but later tonight had deleted them all. It was too much to witness once more.*
For lunch, we'd gone to a Khmer restaurant called SWAG. Turn of events, am I right? Lunch was very tasty! The traditional foods, not sure what's it called, required us to be very immersive with our dishes and active with our tablemates! <3 Quite bougie, I may add.
For our final day of shopping, we entered...the Aeon Mall. The place was YUGE! Takoyaki - 4 for $1? SIGN ME UP.
Finally, we got to end our day with phở and ice cream for our sister Lucy's birthday ^-^
I apologise for nothing for this long blog post :D Today was a long day, not gonna lie. Blessed *sigh* to be with this family. Thank you, to Pastor Hung's family. It is finished.
Regaining our posture,
Justin H. Nguyễn