So here I sit, first day in the office; not quite receiving a task yet, but to drink an iced coffee (I always add ice because, well, it's blazing hot here; my colleagues drink hot coffee like no big deal) and drink some electrolyte packets the visiting Lutheran Australians have left me.  There is quite a lot to catch up to do.  So much as about three weeks worth of touring, visiting, meeting, doing..how do I fit it into one post?  I suppose..maybe I do several small posts, or maybe I just rant until I stop talking or typing.  I kinda like that better.  The words may spew, but at least I finally get to do an update.

Time:
I've been here a month in Cambodia.  Brief moments of home sickness, brief moments of exhaustion, but overall we're smooth sailing over here just as expected.

Location:
I'm FINALLY in the province where my heart has longed for weeks.  I've been here for about a week and a half, my home, the Aoral District Province.  I'm very happy to get out of the city, not because I didn't like it, it had a lot to offer, but I knew that I'd just have to pack up my bags and start all over.  So, I am here. In the Life With Dignity (LWD) office, a non-profit organization that works with supporting the rights and freedoms of the poor and oppressed here in Cambodia.

Life With Dignity (LWD):
The organization I am partnering with is working on several, several different projects.  With only a staff of about 20 people (from driver, to supervisor, to 3 security guards), they're responsible for encouraging and uplifting a whopping 70 local villages just within a couple hundred kilometers.  So far, I've visited maybe five.  I'm still unsure the power, statement, depth, or lack thereof my presence brings to these communities, it isn't necessarily the first white face they have seen.  There are, as I recently have learned, two other Americans working with the United States Peace Corps (another organization I am still very interested in) approximately 2km from me (less than a mile).  I finally got to meet them last night as we, LWD staff, hosted a traditional Khmer party and feast for the departing, visiting Australian group.  In accompanying the party was the governor of the district, whom late into the evening serenaded us with a song.  And by song, I do in fact mean Karaoke, it's very popular and very common, take what we know of karaoke at home and add an entire different vibe, sound, and atmosphere, yet still accompanied with laughter, celebrating, dancing, and chatting (even awkward times); sweet love songs and a little more upbeat songs.  A couple other leaders among the community were invited as well.  If I could hold this group, Life With Dignity, in any higher regards for a second..  This organization and people are very highly respected and appreciated among the rural provinces of Cambodia.

The Projects:
I've encountered preschool and primary schools being built or already in function.  These schools are very small in comparison (I can't help but to compare, it just makes sense) to what we know.  They are most always open air, as in, whatever way they can get four walls up and still create a breeze inside, thats they way they go up.  More schools are currently being built.  Land reservation projects are being administrated.  One of the biggest progressions I've seen is the moving of hundreds of (more or less homeless) people into a land where there is nothing but fertile ground.  These fields are now sugar cane fields and more than 600 people have been given work, land, and a new village to be a part of.  They are now working on a market they can establish to make and sell different goods and make extra income with further oppurunity.  The 600+ people can sustain themselves and they now have a purpose and an expectation in their new community.  I hope to continue to follow up on this throughout the year.  Among other various projects, like the magazine I receive yearly around Christmas time in the States from World Vision, LWD gives animals to the village people (ha) to raise.  This creates income for the household, produces food, milk, eggs, and gives them purpose in their villages.

I say this with grains of salt and sugar and 'I don't really knows yet', but I want to figure out ways where you, my church, family friends, can continue to support these projects throughout the year.  This time it isn't so easy as to writing a check, yet.  There are hoops I must jump through.  First, to find a need, then to talk over the approval, mission, goal with colleagues and partners at LWD, then, because I am sent by the ELCA (Lutheran Church of America) I must get approval from them as they find donors.  I could see myself being a valuable person here, but I want to do as much as possible from a place with personal connection and what little power and influence I may bring; resources.  America.  As I walk through these villages and meet the village leaders and the volunteers who want to make their homes and community a better place, I know there is a price on my head.  I only mean by that is, the color of my skin is a little obvious, they know where I come from, or at least have a pretty good idea until they officially meet me and I tell them.  These people are capable of many things on their own, please do not get that wrong.  But if I may inform you in this next section of writing and ranting, there is much recent history that has set Cambodia back for generations to come.. (gear change, hold on tight).

Cambodia has universities, Cambodia has land, Cambodia has resources, Cambodia has transportation, Cambodia has government, Cambodia has laws, Cambodia has Mountain Dew and you can even find a big bag of Lay's Bar-B-Que on the right corner in the big city (unfortunately Conns, my hometown potato chip from Zanesville, OH, hasn't quite made it here yet).

Let me see if I can do this justice...'hhh'...(sigh), I know I've already failed..

The Khmer Rouge.  Pol Pot.  Genocide.  Millions murdered -- the educated--lawyers, doctors, engineers, teachers, the religious--monks).  If you wore glasses, killed.

Please take this in for a second.  This is a history lesson that often gets overlooked in our history books, because it is not in our history books.  If I could just get you to imagine this happening in your homeland, in America, or wherever you live right now.  Mass genocide.  If you're educated, you're being hunted.  Hunted, betrayed, deceived, tortured, hung, slaughtered by your own nation, by your own people.  Woman raped.  Babies...

(After about a half-hour pause of walking away, sitting, turning in my seat, getting a glass of water, walking outside, using the restroom, conversing...I didn't want to continue typing the next words...)

...heads smashed against trees...

What can come from a single idea.  What can come from one single man's idea.  This.  After WWII and Hitler, it happened again.  Mass genocide.  Brutal Communism.  We share these stories, the stories of Hitler, the stories of the Khmer Rouge to not repeat history.  Unfortunately for the Cambodian people it happened to them, even just shortly after we and the world fought the greatest war the earth has seen against genocide and communism.  The Khmer people want their story shared; so that it does not happen here again to future generations, and so that it does not happen again in the rest of the world.  Share our story they say.

In trying to create the perfect world by force, death happens, control and turning a blind eye to the truth happens.  Communism and Socialism at it's best.  Bring everyone down (or up) to the same level, no room for creativity, no room for religion, no room for growth, no room for education other than what the ruler, dictator, or government wants to educate.  No open market, no free speech, no individual music, no individualism period.  No.  Freedom.  This is what a perfect society looks like, or rather, a perfectly controlled society.

History:
Enter the U.S.A., briefly, it's my home and it's the knowledge that I have.  What I didn't even know before I came here is that my home, the U.S., plays a role after the Khmer Rouge capture the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.  America has dropped tons and tons of bombs on the Eastern part of Cambodia, hearing this I begin to sweat, uh oh, what did we do?  Wishing I knew more, why wasn't I informed or have the slightest clue of what I was about to be told?

(For my generation, I'm sure most of us don't know much about this sadly, unless you have an uncle from 'Nam', but I'll keep it short still)

1978 Richard Nixon orders the bombing of parts of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (this is the Vietnam war leading to the Cold War for the U.S.) fighting communism against the newly founded Khmer Rouge, the Soviet Union (Russia), Vietnam, and China.  All desiring and pacing for communism against the world.

While I had knowledge, my knowledge was very minimal and I didn't know of the so-to-speak non-superpower that was Cambodia.  I thought about continuing with some thoughts and opinions of the war leading to the Cold War, but I'll put that off for now.  If I want you to get one thing, which we could assume, but to hear and to know is another, that Cambodia has a history and a past with great loss and great victory.  Just like much of the world, just like my homeland.

With That Said:
This was all within forty-years of today.  Many of my colleagues here at LWD were alive and young during the Khmer Rouge, many of our friends in America either were alive or fought in the Vietnam War, yet it's a war too easily forgotten..for those outside of Cambodia and surrounding territory.

Rebuilding:
And that's where Life With Dignity gets it's foundation.  To raise up new schools, new teachers, new engineers and doctors and lawyers.  To give people back the land where they once thrived.  To train people up to, indeed, live a life with dignity.

Ok ok ok ok...losing steam.

I want to try and post some pictures that give you a visual, maybe of the graphic Killing Fields, but also of the land, the people, among other things I have encountered.  It may seem like word vomit and picture spewing, but I just have to catch up somehow.  And if I missed facts or important things (like grammar!) or am wrong, apologies.

Many new faces and names run through my head right now, Samnang; Vinich; Sothea (female); Sothea (male); John the Australian; my new American friends, Rebecca and Allen; Pao; Neang; Leap; Anthony; Jet; Preap Sovath.

I don't know if I'm saying hello, thank you, or just showing my mother that I have colleagues and made friends..imagine that!  Adios Amigos.  Sorry no Khmer lesson today.

From Cambodia,
Andrew B. Smith

Office Work at Life With Dignity 

A feast for the visiting Australians with the Governor and District officials.
Dancing and singing are a happening.

Preap Sovath with Anthony and Pao.  Preap Sovath is a judge on the equivalent of American Idol, Cambodian Idol, also a very famous singer.  Anthony is a great guy, a business man working toward opening up a school in Phnom Penh.

Balloons?  Balloons!

Preschool.  So very attentive.  Sweet children.

Across from the preschool, a few ladies gathering crops.

Sunset at home in Aoral.  Original colors like I grabbed them straight out of the sky.

Believe it or not, the fruit on the right is an Orange.  The outside is green and looks
like a coconut, tastes exactly like an orange with a different texture.  On the left,
looks like a tomato right?  Tastes more like cantaloupe..

My first "student", security guard Chet, helping each other in each others language.

My friend, Oscar I named him.  The staff just
call him cat.  You'll never find me petting
or speaking highly of a cat, but Oscar is indeed
my friend.  My first and last cat friend, I imagine.

It's one heck of a short ride to the market.
It really is short.

Construction of an upcoming preschool.

A team of workers and volunteers digging a
trench to store water next to a rice field.

Village Volunteers gathering to discuss future plans and projects.
Laying out the blueprints for the market in the field.

Rice Field

There is always time for nap time.  12pm-2pm everyday
you rest, you lie down or take a bath.  It's expected.

Guests in the field. 

Supported Chicken Farmer.  Fun guy.
War casualty victim as result of Khmer Rouge.

SamNang took me on his back today.

Life With Dignity - Aoral District Headquarters.

Ball.

Pretty sure it's Bocce Ball.

I couldn't possibly describe the sky sometimes.  You know when you want to
describe something as unreal.  It just doesn't quite look real, like it's a graphic. Hm.

One day I'll go into the mountains..Aoral has the highest point in Cambodia, shown above is not that mountain.
I'll upload pictures from the top one day.  Takes a couple days to hike.

The last four pictures are not mine, as I didn't personally take any photos of the Killing Field that we went to.
I did however see all of the pictures listed.  The bones were all collected and stored as a remembrance.  They know
how each person died, and in some of the camps, the people were identified upon entering the camp.  

You walk down room after room with faces all around you.  This is S-21.
Prisoners were taken here and tortured to admit
if they had any education or what background they had.  If one family member was killed, they'd often kill the
entire family along with the one.  In my research, honestly, they killed or at least
tried to kill anyone who came in contact with them, the Khmer Rouge.

 The heavy stuff.  Is remembered and not forgotten.
Do some more image research if you'd like,
it may lead you to reading a bit more about the Pol Pot regime and the Khmer Rouge.

Incense & Hotdogs

...

I almost just want to leave the title and hit post!  My first morning in Cambodia.  I wake up, more so with a burst of excitement today.  We traveled 20+ hours in flight yesterday so any amount of "bed sleep" was enough to get me where I needed to be (at least through the morning).  I don't want to spend more than a minute talking about the new bathroom outlook..  The shower and the toilet and the sink are all open and connected to one another - there is no division from the toilet  and the shower.  Which means, once you shower, the entire bathroom is now wet.  Not so bad actually, just different.  Just don't slip.

So moseying on out to breakfast.  My first whiff of non-tired-clear-thinking-and-sensing Cambodian life is indeed:  Incense and hotdogs.  I couldn't really smell the hotdogs, but the incense was, of course, very noticeable; hotdogs, warm milk, coffee, orange juice, bread and jam, some mini-bananas and some sort of other fruit.  I think we're staying in more of a Western Culture friendly spot right now, so this isn't even too far from my experience with a European breakfast.

We're currently staying in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, for approximately 3 weeks, culture learning, language learning, and other general, miscellaneous items that will help us in knowledge and movement throughout the year.

I'm going to keep this first post short, but you have experienced my morning with me.

There are 73 other people just like me that have been sent out into other parts of the world, Jerusalem, Rwanda, United Kingdom, Mexico, South Africa and a few others..  Our goal is to build relationship with the people, experience and immerse ourselves in the culture, we carry our Christian faith with us, but our priority this year is to stop and listen, to experience and learn another people.  We are not just here to evangelize but to absorb their smiles, absorb losses and cultural differences, hear their stories and to share our own.

As many, if not all of you, have asked me at one point or another and I didn't really know how to answer, am I excited?  Yes, now I am excited.  I am here, I am engaged with eyes open.  This journey has begun.

Stay tuned my friends, family, others,

From Cambodia, Phnom Penh,
Andrew B. Smith

Day 1 of Language Training
 (K'hmer, the Cambodian Language).

Our Country Coordinators, Adam and Sarah
 (main form of contact in country).

2 days till Chicago..  *holds breath*

Andrew Benjamin Smith

By now most of you have received a letter from me, explaining a bit if what I am doing and how to be a part. Thank you to those who have donated and who plan to donate, as well as those who are praying and thinking of me. I have a few more letters to go out as well. I'll begin making posts my week in Chicago and then continue to post when in Cambodia.

My feelings right now? All scattered.

Understand, when you ask me if I am excited for this trip, I have not yet once known how to answer it. The only thing I ask you to do is think about how you may feel upon taking this journey. Other than that, I am preparing in whatever way I can, mostly by relaxing and enjoying the time I have left here..16 days.

Peace,
Andrew Benjamin Smith