So, I am currently in Seoul, Korea at the end of my trip. So this is my last Cambodia trip blog. Sad, but I am ready to come home. I am tired of living out of my suitcase and I am exhausted. I still have 1 and a half hours left of my layover and then the longest portion of the plane ride home. 14 hours from Seoul to Chicago. But after that only 52 minutes until we are home. Whoo hooo!

To catch you all up on whats been happening, since Life University here goes. We left Life University on Saturday and drove to the Independence Hotel. Absolutely gorgeous! It's a 5 star resort with huge historical significance in fairly recent Cambodian history. It is the site where leaders of the Khmer Rouge vacationed from their treacherous jobs at torture mongers and cold blooded killers. The leaders would often use the old pools on site as prisons as well. But, the hotel cleaned up the mess and made it in to something beautiful.

We stayed there for 3 nights and had most of our time free which was nice. On Sunday the class minus the teachers rented a boat and went snorkeling in the Gulf of Thailand. That was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. The starfish are bigger than some dogs I have seen. And there is purple coral. It was straight out of Finding Nemo.

Then on Tuesday we traveled back to Phnom Penh and had around 36 hours of straight free time, so we finished up last minute shopping, walked Wat Phnom and pet an elephant. We also tried to get a tour of the US Embassy in Cambodia. Unfortunately, security had been tightened and we couldn't get in. Our hotel was another 5 star resort with huge historical significance. During the Khmer Rouge reign, our hotel was the last "safe" zone for the foreigners still in Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge kicked them out and they sought refuge in the French Embassy until the could be airlifted out.

Now, I must say goodbye since I am using someone else's computer to type this. All in all, this trip has sent me through some of the darkest parts of my mind, body and soul. I have seen and heard about things no other person should have to go through but I would never change this experience for the world. I have found new passions that mesh nicely with my current ones. I can't wait to share all my stories with you when I get back. Love you! I am back in Minnesota in around 20 hours!

Life University and Other Things.

We left Phnom Penh on Monday morning and traveled to Sihanoukville. It's the third largest city in Cambodia and it's on the Gulf of Thailand. We traveled by 2 buses and a van. We started at the hotel and traveled on one bus. Then we made it to the bus stop in Phnom Penh and transferred to another bus. It was intense. The first bus was a party bus and the second was not even a little bit a party bus. The first bus had karaoke. It was unreadable in Khami but still fun. The second bus was a public bus. There were lots of friendly natives on the bus. We watched the movie Wanted with Angelina Jolie and my new BFF Morgan Freeman. Good flick, kinda dirty.

We got to Sihanoukville without incident and made it to Life University on Monday afternoon. Our living conditions are less than desirable. The bathrooms are windowless and the lights don't work. The shower is a hose and a nozzle. No drain, no tub. And there is no wireless. Well, there is in the teachers lounge and they close at 8. Its kind of sucky. Oh, and the stairs are not level. Any of them. And yeah, it makes it hard to walk.

The kids are AMAZING! I am so in love with them and I have felt a huge sigh of relief that I chose the right profession. I will never forget this experience. I have so many stories.

The beaches are phenomenal. It's ridiculously gorgeous and my words will not do them justice. Not even a little. Yesterday, while I was swimming in the Gulf of Thailand, there was a rainstorm, I was already wet so I kept swimming. It was epic.

I come home in a week. I am ready but will leave a tiny piece of my heart in Cambodia. Love you guys.

So, Friday we spent at the Agape Rehabilitation Center. It's an aftercare center for girls who have been trafficked. Agape was founded by a man named Don who lived in the United States and had visited Cambodia and saw the immense need for shelters in this area. He is good Christian man who has done amazing things for these girls. They are fed mentally and physically and have the ability to go to school. They can and are mandated to recieve counseling. If they are older they can recieve vocational training. They build new families and relationships.

When we got there we had an introduction to the center and what their goals and missions are and then got a walking tour of the entire facility. We saw where the girls live, eat and get their schooling. The counseling rooms are beautiful and just emit a sense of calm in them.

There are currently 26 girls living at the shelter. All of them have been there for varying amounts of time. Some months, some years.

While we Bethel students were there, we played volleyball with the girls. Who were awesome at it by the way. Some of the girls wore matching shirts. It was fantastic. Then, it was lunch time. We ate with the girls and it was delish. Rice, chicken, and stir fried vegetables.

After lunch some of the girls took some Bethel girls aside and painted our nails. They were really good at it.

We played more games and sang songs with them before our time at Agape ended.

It was one of the most heart wrenching and yet completly rewarding days I have had on the trip. To think that these girls came from places where they had thier identity, their rights, their lives and very humanity stripped from them and they are happy, smiling and just full of the belief that things could get better was amazing. So, heartwarming.

After Agape, we went to Rehab's house. It's a former brothel that Agape bought and turned in to a community center in Svay Pak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svay_Pak) one of the roughest parts of Phnom Penh. The whole street where this community center is used to be full of brothels until US journalists enlightened the world to the problem and the Cambodian government shut down all the concrete structured brothels. Unfortunately the wooden shacks can still be used as brothels. Agape is working with in the community however to stop this. We lead the children in songs and then our time with them was over.

All said and done it was a good day. Next up, we have a free day and in the morning we are off to Sihanoukville. It's on the Gulf of Thailand. I am excited for what the next chapter brings!

Update. Sorry it's been a while.

So, Sorry this took so long to post but we have had soem heavy content to deal with the last few days and then I got the stomach flu that our group has been passing around.

We went to Toul Sleng and Cheoung Ek last week. For those of you who aren't familiar with Cambodian history, Pol Pot ruled Cambodia from 1975 until 1979. He was a dictator and under his regime, more than 2 million out of the estimated 7 million Cambodians ath the time were killed. Many of them were tortured and killed. Brining me to the first spot. Toul Sleng was the prison Pol Pot created here is Phnom Penh. He turned a high school in to a torture chamber and killed more than 20,000 people here alone. After a while he got worried about the disease and smell, so Pol Pot, moved the exceution site to Cheoung Ek better known as the killing fields (there is a movie avaiable about this). We toured the Killing Fields and it was absolutely horrific. There are more than 800 mass grave sites at this location and some have yet to be opened. There are bones and clothes from the victims still visible on the ground. It was really intense.

Whe you go to the riverfront in Phnom Penh, that's where all the tourists hang out. But it is filled with begging children. One of the organizations we are working with is Child Safe. They have told us not to buy from these children, since this action only perpetuates street life. It can make you feel like the worst person in the world. But saying no, I realize is for the greater good.

We started our unit on present injustices and are currently working with CHildSafe, IJM and Chab Dai. These organizations help combat human trafficking and watching the videos is enough to make anyone sick. The most common age for prostitutes is between 8-16. It's disgusting. Many of the pedophiles who come to Cambodia are foriegn sex tourists who know that these girls are readily avaiable. It makes me so angry to think about.

Not all of my time here has been spent with a broken heart. I have seen and done some really fun things. I got to do soulja boy at Angkor Wat and the night life here is incredible. So much fun! I can't describe it via blog. I have some stories for you all when I come back!

Next week, I head down to Sihanoukville to being really teaching. Tomorrow I am spending the day with victims of the sex traffic industry.

See you all in February!

The Craziness that has become my trip.

So, since I haven't posted anything about the actual trip. I thought I should give that a try.

January 5th

We got to our hotel around 1 am on Tuesday morning. It was sheer craziness. The traffic in Cambodia has only one rule. There are no rules. Everyone drives like a bat out of hell and pays no attention to others on the road. I would rather drive in Mexico again. Mexico seems like nothing now. Now imagine riding in a top heavy bus screeching around the corners with 22 very tired and jet lagged people. Not a good time. At all. So my roommates and I get up to the hotel room and being to get ready for bed. One of my roommates goes to the bathroom and around 45 seconds after she flushes the toilet, this insane screeching noise bellows from the toilet. After much debate, we decided to just leave it for the night and go to bed. In the morning....same thing. The screech fills the room and wakes the two remaining roommates up. While at breakfast that morning, I decide something is living in there. Know what I cam up with? A bobcat. So now there is offically a bobcat living in my toilet.

Later on Tuesday after sleeping and unpacking my classmates and I get ready for our first excursion. We hop in these little carts that are attached to motorcycles. They are the primary form of transportation for the cities in Cambodia. I thought the bus was horrendous the night before. Boy, was I wrong. That was insane. We make it to the Royal Palace with our lives, though just barely I suspect. The Royal palace is gorgeous. Intricately decorated with yellow and white to depict both the Buddist and Hindu religious traditions. Diamonds and Emeralds are dripping off of everything and each piece and part tells a story.

January 6th
We went to the National History Museum today and saw lots of art dedicated to Visnu and other Hindu dieties. During Pol Pot's regime, the museum was abandoned and looted. Many of the pieces were later reclaimed luckily. We were also introduced to the riverfront. This is where I visited my first brothel. It's an experience no one should ever have and it was awkward and uncomfortable. One of Cambodias largest attractions is their sex trade industry and we are here and will be working with several agenices who help stop it. There is nothing more frustrating than to be sitting next to this and be powerless to stop it.


January 7th.
Today we took a bus to Siem Reip. In this Cambodian town lies Angkor Wat. It is a Hindu temple was built in the 10th or 11th century. It is the largest religious monument in the world. Many people however know it as King Louie's house. He is the monkey from the Jungly Book. There are not even words to describe that place. It was breathtaking and a once in a lifetime trip.

Traveling to Cambodia

So, I arrived in Cambodia despite fates attempts at delaying my trip. Everything started out ok. I managed to wait until I got in to the airport before I started crying after saying goodbye to Dave. I probably should have just cried in the truck because blurred vision in the airport while trying to find your group is kind of tricky. But, none the less, I managed to find everyone and get all situated. Then the choas started. 5am on a Sunday morning, doesn't seem like it would be a busy time to travel but it was insanity. People were everywhere. Since our traveling group is comprised of 22 people, MPLS had us do a group check in. Makes sense, except that is a level down from where everyone had met. So we dragged all of our luggage down, checked in and then dragged all of our carryon's BACK up the escalators to the security lines. Many people didn't check the size list of what you can take on a flight so a bunch of kids had to ditch stuff before security busted them. We managed to make it through security with no delay. Our plane was scheduled to take off on time but due to a back up on the runway we sat on the tarmac for an hour. When it was our turn to take off, we had waited so long that ice was beginning to form on the wings! So, they delayed our flight a little longer and we de-iced. We made it to Chicago with no incidents in the air and on to the flight no problem. The next flight was the really long 14 hour flight from Chicago to In-cheon, Korea. Yuck. Korean Air is amazing though. Nice big planes, tons of ammenities and great service. The seats were reall cool. The seat in front of you had a touch screen monitor, that let you choose from a varitey of movies. I watched Julie and Julia, The Ugly Truth and part of the Time Travelers wife. There was a remote in the air rest that controlled the sound, the lights, the fan and called the stewardess if you needed her. On the flip side it was a phone as well. I had plenty of leg room as well. I had a window seat on that flight and looking out the window was really cool! The flight takes you up over Canada, through Alaska, Russia and a small chunk of China. Part of the flight were unidentifiable as to where we actually were and it looked a little bit like middle Earth from Lord of the Rings. Once we landed in Seoul, we had a two hour lay over and so I went to a little internet cafe and did some emailing. While sitting there I saw a anime charachter and a giant snowman. Pretty neat. I also listened to some very dramatic Korean soap operas. After what was supposed to be a two hour layover, our flight was delayed due to a huge snowstorm that had hit Korea only hours before. But the flight from Seoul to Phnom Penh was without incident again! Once we landed in Cambodia, we discovered that we had filled out the wrong visa applications so it took us another half hour longer to find the right forms, get them filled out and go through immigration, customs and security. We also had to do a health scan. All that means is you fill out a form with any sickness symptoms on it and then they thermally scan your body to see if you are sick. No big deal. After all was said and done, we travelled all day Sunday and spent Monday in the air. We finally arrived in Cambodia after more than 24 hours of traveling. Oy.