2011 Mission Trip to Cambodia
from Cody Chlasta, Nursing Student
May 23
Today we ended our trip to Siem Reap and began our 7 hour bus ride back into Phnom Penh. As you may have read the temples we were able to see during our time in the province were unimaginable. I could not explain to myself how an ancient people were able to construct such magnificent structures. I do not think I have the words to describe what I saw. As for the trip back that was a little more forgettable, I thought a 14 hour plane ride complete with my own personal entertainment system was bad but try sitting in the back of a bus over the most uneven roads you have ever been on.

As soon as I arrived in Phnom Penh a group of us were able to experience something just as unbelievable as the Angkor Wat temples but indescribably horrible. What we saw were acts of pure evil which took place in a camp known as “S-21”. The inhabitants of this camp were exploited, tortured, and murdered. The cells these prisoners were kept in were barely large enough to lay down in, and the paintings which depicted the torture they were put through were gruesome to say the least. My heart sank when I read story after story of the victims of the camp. However, although there are many terrible stories from that time and place it is easy to see that Cambodia and its people are overcoming the tragedy and growing as a nation.