SO I am a day behind.
Yesterday, we worked at DC-Cam in the morning. I am so exhausted from today (we were out in a province for twelve hours. NO JOKE). I am writing about Monday, today was Tuesday. Anyway, so DC-Cam, we got to look at, read, take notes on, photograph all original documents that the Khmer Rouge had left behind. There is a lot of their papers etc left behind because the Vietnamese marched to Phnom Penh and took over within two weeks in 1979 because the KR (Khmer Rouge) was so weak at that point. So, we had access to this that most people never see. That was amazing.
Then we had lunch. Exciting I know. If you must know, I had a delicious strawberry smoothie and then I thought “Oh crap. Daddy said no ice. No fruit I cant peel.” So I defied him twice with one beverage. AND lived to tell the tale. BUT two girls have fallen victim to illness. And by illness I mean twenty four hours of repulsive barfing. I am yet to fall prey to this, but I am freaked out.
In the afternoon, we went to Choeung Ek which I am going to try to muster up the strength to write about but I don’t know if I had all of the most heart-breaking words in the world if I could even begin to do justice to this place and the Khmer people.
Pol Pot had a prison called S-21/ Tuol Sleng (which I will be visiting tomorrow. Take note of this place because it is a recurring theme of my whole trip.) At s-21/ Tuol Sleng, they kidnapped, tortured 14,000 political prisoners, men, women, children of all ages (more on this to come after tomorrow). These 14,000 people were then taken fifteen kilometers outside of Phnom Penh to Choeung Ek, which is the largest killing site in Cambodia. The first thing one notices upon arrival is a giant glass tower thirteen stories high. The entire thing is filled with skulls of the victims killed. There are 88 other towers like this scattered across the country, 129 killing sites, and over 20,000 mass graves. It is unreal and heart-wrenching.
We then went on a tour around the mass graves which nothing could have prepared me for. The man showing us around kept picking up teeth and bones that are just in the dirt. The whole area is giant holes in the ground that have been excavated. By excavated I mean they took out the majority of large bones like skull, spine, arms, legs. There are bones everywhere. If that is not heartbreaking enough, there is cloth all over the place. It is the peoples clothing (see image for graphic example). Most of them were executed with clothes on after digging their own graves. The clothes are literally everywhere sticking up in the dirt because the rain uncovers more of them each time it comes.

There are also signs everywhere that read something like: this is where speakers were hung because the KR played super loud music to drown out the sounds of the people being executed so that the other truck loads of blind-folded people would not know what was happening. Another one read: "Killing tree against which executioners beat children". THis tree had tiny bones all around the ground. Another said: "mass grave for victims without heads". Then near some enormous mass graves it said things like: 466 prisoners were killed here. 

And with that, I am mostly out of energy to write. Even though today (the 12 hour in province day) was AMAZING. phenomenal. great. i have about 30 children i plan on bringing  back now from this province alone. 

I need to bullet point the other things that don’t need full sentences but are still freaking cool.
- the museum curator at Choeung Ek is working with DC-Cam. She heard we were interviewing perpetrators. Wants us to put together documentary to be shown there. VERY BIG DEAL.
- newspaper reporter heard about us. Wants to write story for Phnom Penh Post. BIG DEAL.