I've had my eyes opened today. Not just because I feel better than yesterday, since I still feel like shit, but because I've just been given a crash course in Cambodian history through a first person account. I wanted to start crying as she told me her story of her family members who were killed, the ones who died of starvation, and how she was sent far away from her village to a punishing work camp where, on a good day, she lived on literally three grains of rice. She would sneak into the forest to find things to eat. She was never sure if the random forest finding would poison her to death or keep her alive. This went on for years. Everyone here has a story like this. She thinks she got off easy. You probably know more than me about the history? But I think having been here I am now required to research and read about the Khmer Rouge regime. Too many unfathomable horrors in this world.

Many moments during the long drive through the country I kept thinking about the millions of people who suffered, or those who survived but are still suffering a lifetime of repercussions. And then there's the poverty, a seemingly unending cycle of poverty, that these people are enduring. Somehow they keep on living, smiling and loving. The human spirit is amazing. Juxtapose all that with the gorgeous landscape with the brightest green rice fields, perfect white clouds on a bright blue sky. It looks like paradise — in the background.

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