CGS in Cambodia! Dec 2019

By Shelby Oak We got out of the van and approached our dinner at the Friends restaurant. Behind the outdoor section of the restaurant was a stage with lights, multiple LGBT flags, and microphones for people singing and dancing on stage. During our delicious dinner at the sister restaurant of our first outing we got to watch an LGBT activist show complete with Khmer poetry, singing, dancing and ending with a drag show. This sparked many questions among the group as to what human rights were like in Cambodia and really made us think about how they were able to put on a show like that. In bigger cities in Cambodia, the LGBT community is commonly accepted and celebrated, but in more rural areas it’s not to the same extent. Within villages, LGBT is less of an open topic and more something private that isn’t celebrated but isn’t prosecuted. After our dinner and the show, we approached the two queens for a conversation. They told us about how there’s a drag bar in Phnom Penh where they

By Sydney Molaver    Before our dinner, we had the opportunity to stop at a The Olympic Stadium, which is located in the middle of Phnom Penh. We arrived to the very busy parking lot that had many people wearing jerseys, which was odd because we were not aware of any game going on. We walked up very high stairs to a free viewing area which was around 3/4 of the stadium. In America you must pay to enter games and there is assigned seating, as well as security. This is different in Phnom Penh because only 1/4 of the stadium is assigned seats where all the fans are located (during local league games, however if the national team is playing the whole stadium is assigned). When we entered the stadium there in fact was a game going on, between two local Cambodian teams each sponsored by an organization.    We watched about 10 minutes of the first half including a great goal by one of the teams. At half time a giant dance team came onto the field and performed for the fans which was re

By Alex Boston We went to an area by the name of Silk Island where families process and weave silk, this area was only accessible via boat. We went to a house that was run by a family of sisters who explained the process of weaving silk. They explained silk comes from the cocoon of the silk worm which is a light orange color, but after it is spun they dye with natural dyes; for example, to make a purple color they boil a certain type of tree bark and soak the silk strands for up to two hours. After they explained how it was made, we saw a scarf being woven on a weave which was made completely out of wood. They then gave us the option to buy silk scarves as well as other silk goods which was an interesting experience because in the US and in many developed countries, when we buy goods, textiles or otherwise, we never know where they are from, how they are made, or how much work goes into them so this was a foreign experience.

By Sydney Molaver As we left Phnom Penh and drove into the countryside there were fewer buildings and more and more farmland. There were huge palm trees and rice fields located on the sides of the road. I also noticed less tuk tuks and motorcycles, in addition to cars that are common in the United States. Most of the housing we saw on the side of the road was on stilts. After our fun stops at the market place to try some tarantulas, we continued on the main road for another 45 minutes. We finally turned onto the dirt road in Kampong Cham and immediately you could see significant differences between the infrastructure. In the city there were large buildings and it was very populated, whereas in the village the houses are on stilts, and very spread apart. We learned this is because of the flooding during the wet season and to keep wild animals away and out of their house. Many people keep animals under the house such as cows and chickens. As we passed some of the rice fields I noticed

By Mackenzie Moore On our fourth and fifth  day of our trip while at our home stay we watched the movie First They Killed My Father which is based of a book written by Loung Ung and directed by Angelina Jolie. The book and movie is a true story of the writer and her family’s experience going through the Khmer Rouge. The movie follows Loung as her family is taken from their homes and is forced to work for the Khmer Rouge. In the movie her family is separated and forced to go through extremely difficult physical and mental challenges. The movie gave me a better visual of what went on during the Khmer Rouge and I felt empathy for the people who got ripped away from their lives and had to give up their life or work tirelessly through the rain of the Khmer Rouge.

By Mackenzie Moore In the morning at 9 o’clock after breakfast he went to the rice fields. Most of the people in the village  wake up and are at the field at five in the morning. They work for six hours in the morning and if they live near the rice field after six hours of work they can stop home and eat lunch then go back to the fields for several more hours. If they live far away from the rice field they bring their lunch with them and eat it there. while working in the rice field all of us students were inexperienced. However, there were four locals there working who helped teach us what to do. One bundle of rice stalks  equals about five bowls of rice which is only one day of rice for a person. While cutting down the rice stalk you have to bend over which is straining on your back. After a while of working we were all tired and hot so we took a break. During the Khmer Rouge the people were told that they had to work without stopping and the people got nothing out of it. The vi

By Maryalice Smith  Once we ate a lovely lunch with the family who makes silk.    The group circled up to learn about the life of Sothea, one of our rustic pathways guides, and how the genocide affected his family. First we learned how the village was that his family lived in before the genocide, with a lot of green area, an environment where everyone loved each other, and some conflict with wars and the U.S. dropping bombs on Cambodia. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge started to enter their village. The  Khmer Rouge  explained to the people that they needed to leave their village because the U. S. was going to drop a bomb, so people took only a few belongings and fled. The villagers walked 35 km to a different village, unless the  Khmer Rouge  saw nice items, such as watches or earrings, where they would then take you for investigation. At the new village, his family was split up into sections with old women, young women, old men, young boys, where all of them worked. If anyone were to v

By Shane Rao The Temple that we visited was called Wat Norkor Bachey Temple. It allows priests and monks to pray. In addition to praying, we saw the Buddist monks handing out red bracelets. The Temple was built to for the King to honor his death. The story goes as this: The King of Cambodia at the time was told his first born son would be killed so he abandoned him, he was found and raised in the jungle. Once he became a strong man and leader he went and killed the king only to find out later that it was his father. He then felt guilt and built the temple as a way to honor him for killing him without knowing he was his dad, while also becoming the new King of Cambodia. However, the temple is almost in ruins except for main praying part/main hall. The main hall contained painting and pictures of Cambodia and people. The temple smelled of incense with noises of bats that lived inside the temple. As we were wandering around, stray dogs wandered the temple with us on the outside of it

By: Jenisa Rodriguez The Royal Palace was definitely a sight to see. When entering the Royal Palace you are greeted with a corridor with beautiful greenery, and walls filled with intricate designs. The main courtyard area consists of a beautifully, well kept garden that stands right in front of the main palace. We weren’t able to take pictures of the main palace but a peak inside revealed the vast, almost simplistic room that encompassed only a large gold throne, and was adorned with chandeliers and more intricate designs. Besides the main palace and the beautiful architecture surrounding it, was the praying room. The floor is covered in more than five thousand pieces of silver. Inside of the praying room stood two main attractions, an emerald buddha, along with a solid gold buddha filled with 15-25 karat diamonds. Despite all of the large, over powering architecture, I felt a sense of humility in some of the things I looked at. For example, the large painting of the story of the Hin

By Marie Berliet On our way to the homestay, we had the opportunity to stop at a spider sanctuary and try tarantula and other bugs. Tarantulas are a delicacy in Cambodia, and are renowned for their healing abilities and taste. When we arrived, we were swarmed by children holding tarantulas and trying to place them on us to make a few dollars. 8 out of 13 of us tried the tarantulas while we were at the market and some more daring people even tried whole crickets. The tarantulas were crunchy and tasted more like the garlic sauce that was on them than anything else. While we were still in Phnom Penh, we went to a local grocery store and were able to buy snacks for the road. This was a fun experience because we were able to try new foods in both scenarios, but we were also able to get some snacks from home at the grocery store.

By: Sophia Hurwitz We all woke around 4, very tired and excited for the trip that was ahead of us. The bus was already at school as we arrived to school. Some of us where already half asleep on the bus or already asleep but others where to excited/sleepy for the 16 hour flight to Hong Kong (kinda not really). We finally landed, all of us ready to stretch our legs. Hong Kong wa rainy and had a lot of clouds, so we couldn’t see much except for the giant Mountains that surrounded the airport and surrounding cities. There were a lot of food options, some from home and others that we didn’t recognize, but wanted to try. We had a two hour lay over in Hong Kong, we went for a walk to go get something to eat and get ready for the three hour flight to Cambodia. We all boarded and got ready for the last bumpy flight that was leading us to our final destination. WE FINALLY ARRIVED!!! We looked around to our beautiful destination that we will stay in for the next 10 days, exploring villages,

By Joshua Clarke During our stay at the village Kongmaha we enjoyed various meals and dishes prepared by our cook Sin-Hyu, a local at from the village. Using many local and native fruits and vegetables, he prepared 5 meals for us in the time we stayed, dinner the first night, breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day and breakfast the morning we left. Every meal he cooked was absolutely delicious. Almost all of the dishes made had vegetables in them, they were almost never minced or diced. The meats included: chicken, beef, and pork, all seasoned and cooked perfectly. One meal that really stood out to me was dinner the night before we left, Sin-Hyu made a host of dishes all well prepared and delicious. One dish in particular that surprised me was the mushroom cream sauce pasta. The reason this stood out to me is not only because is was fabulously made, but because we had ate it the day before for lunch at ‘Friends’. There are many variations of cream sauce pastas but the one this wa

By Jackson Lovas The day started like most days in the village. Waking up to the sounds of chickens and roosters crowing, dogs barking, cows mooing, and the smells of the cattle. We slept on four mattresses side by side with a pink bug net over us to keep the insects, lizards, and frogs off us while we slept. In the morning we all met at the main house owned by Sreoun Peng, an elder of the village. We all ate breakfast at her house. The food was amazing. After eating we got the details on how to prepare for working in the rice fields. We had to put on long sleeves, long pants, gloves, and plenty of bug spray to keep the bugs off us. On our way to the rice fields I realized how hot it was going to be working with no shade in the middle of the rice fields. It was hot and arid regardless. When we got out there I felt free. Looking across the field at how much work needs to be done filled me with determination. It was so fulfilling to complete all that work and helping out the village