Cambodia
Trip Start
Jul 15, 2007
1
123
195
Trip End
Jul 16, 2008
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Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Thursday, February 28, 2008
I've often been aware that the people I most enjoy being around are those with a deep sense of gratitude. It's been very interesting to discover that the countries I have liked and appreciated the most are those whose citizens seem grateful for their lives, regardless of the circumstances. Cambodia is the latest example.
This country certainly has more than its share of challenges. The Khmer people are still rebounding from the genocide of Pol Pot's communist regime, where over 2,000,000 people, especially the most educated, were murdered beginning in 1975. Invasion by Vietnam and civil war followed, and a fragile peace has only been forged here over the last ten years. Today, the literacy rate is 35% and one in eight children die before their fifth birthdays. Each day, we have driven past the childrens'hospital, where long lines of women and children from rural villages wait patiently outside for the opportunity to receive care. There is an epidemic of Dengue Fever, which is also a mosquito-borne disease, raging here, along with the other usual suspects. Cambodia remains one of the poorest countries in the world.
In spite of all of this, the people we have met are unfailingly gracious and kind. This is a Buddhist country, although Hindu temples abound and religious tolerance is evident. There are many orphanages and facilities that provide care for land-mine victims, among others. A number of these organizations receive foreign-based support, and after all of the years of fear and isolation, it is good to know the country is on the world's radar screen. It's depressing to know that fewer Americans know about Cambodia's rich cultural history than know that Angelina Jolie adopted her first child here, but you take what you can get. We were thanked many times for visiting this country and contributing to its businesses and charities. We were also asked to promise to come back, which we will without question.
