While we were in Phnom Penh, Brooke organized a trip to a local orphanage where we spent two hours playing with about a dozen or more Cambodian children between the ages of maybe 5 months and 7 or 8 years. The kids loved us, and we loved them. It was refreshing to be able to just play. I'm so used to kids harassing us and trying to sell anything and everything for a dollar. These kids just wanted love.
On the other end of the emotional spectrum, the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, much like the land mine museum in Siem Reap, is a sobering experience. The monument of skulls piled in layer after layer of grim silence... leaves me with few words. And to think that this all happened very nearly in my lifetime!
Even though we are only two weeks into the trip, I feel as though we have been hurdled through the beauty and the horror of humanity past and present. Pollution and poverty, the ruins of Angkor Wat, the slums of Phnom Penh, golden temples, endless craft markets, children digging through garbage, children smiling and giggling in my arms... people trying to help us, people trying to rip us off. And we have another seven weeks to go!
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