The Canal- Indianapolis
With apologies for my long absence from this blog (teaching has been sucking the life out of me recently!), I am happy to share some recent photos with you! We’ve finally had some springtime weather here in Indy and I was able to take advantage of the sunshine a couple Sundays ago. My friend Steve was passing through Indy and I got to show him some of the sights, including the central canal. Steve is an amazing photographer (see here and here for proof) and he gave me some fun tips on capturing the fountain water in action. Enjoy these shots of springtime in Indiana!
byTavi: Center for Global Impact, Cambodia
When I was in Cambodia this past summer, I was able to visit the workshop of byTavi outside Phnom Penh. It was really fun for me to be there and to meet Tavi, since I had attended a trunk show of byTavi products and have since worn an ID card holder made by one of these women everyday at work. Rather than putting it in my own words, I’ll share the Center for Global Impact‘s description of this successful project:
A faith-based micro-enterprise initiative of Center for Global Impact (CGI), byTavi teaches at-risk, impoverished women how to sew handbags and other accessories. Employed by CGI, the women receive fair wages while their products are marketed internationally.
Through this program these women have grown in confidence and joy as they provide for their families in a healthy way. In addition to learning marketable skills, these women are also surrounded by the love of Christ through CGI’s trusted Cambodian Management Team and other international partners.
Founded in 2009 by CGI’s president Chris Alexander and a meek woman by the name of Tavi, this program provides a unique opportunity to empower the poor and prevent human trafficking.
Please click over to the above links to learn more about what Center for Global Impact is doing in Cambodia to help women succeed. Here are some photos from the byTavi workshop. Enjoy!
Here are the elephant purses in the works.
This is Tavi (for whom the project is named) working in the workshop.
Bags ready to go to the U.S.
A bonus of being onsite was that I got to give a custom order! This is my rice bag in the making by Nary.
A Snowy Day in Eagle Creek Park
I awoke this past Wednesday to a winter wonderland outside my window. I was almost late to school due to 1.) clearing the snow off my car (it always takes longer than I anticipate) and 2.) taking pictures of the snow covered trees in my apartment parking lot. After work, my sister-in-law called me after driving through the local Eagle Creek Park to let me know that it was breathtaking. I was so glad that I had brought my camera along that day! I headed over her way and we jumped in the car to explore. I think the photos speak for themselves. Enjoy!
And a bonus pic of me, compliments of my sister-in-law’s wonderful composition skills. 🙂
Job 37:5-7 (ESV)
he does great things that we cannot comprehend.
6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’
likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.
7 He seals up the hand of every man,
that all men whom he made may know it.
32 Reasons I Love February
Every year since I turned 28, in an attempt to curb the winter blues and celebrate the years of life God has given me, I have fun documenting highlights from my birthday month. This year I thought I’d post it on my blog in addition to facebook. I had the task of narrowing it down to 32 things (in honor of my 32 years) that I loved about the month of February. I didn’t have photos of all the fun times, but here are 32 of them.
#1- An Almond Kringle from Wisconsin found in the local Target. Delicious does not begin to describe it.
#2- Brunch catching up with my wonderfully encouraging friend, Jen
#3- Buying yarn and having the teacher I share a classroom with whip up scarves for me!
#4- Free parking and Bru Burger after the Ash Wednesday service at church.
#5- Valentine’s Day treats from my students
Yes, that’s a bear playing “Baby Love” with lit up red cheeks on the right. 🙂
#6- Going out to dinner and a movie with friends from my community group on Valentine’s Day
#7- Napolese pizza and a fun time with my friend Rachael
#8- Just hanging out with my brother’s family and capturing this gem of a photo of my niece on a Sunday afternoon
#9- Someone to wave goodbye to and something to put on the fridge after I returned from my brother’s family’s house
#10- President’s Day brunch at Cafe Patachou with my friends Shanda and Janae
#11- Singing hymns with my community group on Sunday nights
#12- The annual bake-off at school. My kitchen and homemade Snickers bars on top and my friend’s chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch contribution (bottom right)… they were both really good, but my Snickers took the prize. 🙂
#13- My friend Kim bringing me her leftovers for my lunch at school- she knows I’m not great at cooking for myself all the time. 🙂
#14- Speaking with Burmese parents about our school’s ESL program and assessments at a parent meeting.
(Yes, I was slightly stalker-like when I got this photo, but pictures help solidify memories, so I stalked a little.)
#15- A former student coming back to visit the evening of the parent meeting and drawing me a picture
#16- Doing a lesson with my students about Helen Keller by having them blindfolded and trying to write words in each others hands.
Yes, I that’s a steelers scarf used as a blindfold.
#17- Birthday love from work friends
#18- Birthday love from students: A gun safety drawing, pop-up birthday card, and neon eye shadow (that I had the chance to use a week later for my 80’s outfit!)
#19- Birthday evening with my brother, sister-in-law, nieces, and nephew: Five Guys burger and the futuristic pop machine hit the spot! 🙂
#20- Birthday recitations from my nieces and nephew (poor quality photos due to videoing at the same time- sorry!)
Those who know me well may recognize the towel pillow being held by my niece. 🙂
#21- Birthday cake! (and being sung to by my Indy and South Carolina brothers’ families, thanks to a well-timed call from the south!)
#22- An unheard of 2-hour delay: A day-after-my-birthday present from IPS!
#23- An ice storm and a car without ice on it (thanks to my brother’s garage overnight)
#24- Flowers. I love them. That is all.
#25- Out for Turkish food with Kendra
#26- A four hour brunch with college friends Kellie and Kendra
#27- Sunny Saturday fun: foot massages, the IMA, and signs of spring
#28- February birthday celebration fun with my community group
#29- An updated photo of my loves in Australia
#30- My super expensive dream lens gift from my parents… or not. Ok, so it’s just a coffee mug, but it still makes me happy. I’ll get that lens someday. 🙂
#31- Packing up 435 English language assessments from our school and taking them downtown (and being done with testing… for about a week).
#32- Going out for Mexican with friends from work and using my conversation starters present to talk about things other than school.
Thanks for taking a look at some of the many reasons I’m thankful for my life through my February fun. Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow!
Maddie is a Senior!
My niece Maddie is a senior this year, so we had a great time taking some senior photos for her while we were all in Pennsylvania for Christmas. The snow cooperated quite nicely as a backdrop. We’re all so proud of the beautiful young woman Maddie has become. God is (and will continue) using her in great ways to share His love and grace with so many. Without further ado, here is beautiful Maddie!
And here we have one of my all time favorite photos that I’ve taken. 🙂 She’s so beautiful.
And now for a few behind the scenes photos:
Had to get a shot of me with the senior.
The obligatory Mansell family funny face photo
This is what was going on behind us as we did our photo shoot. We felt a little guilty for not helping, but they obviously had it covered. 🙂
Many thanks to my sister-in-law for her help with getting these fun shots!
The Battambang Bamboo Train- Cambodia, June 2012
While I was visiting Battambang and the Green Mango Cafe & Bakery, I had the chance to go on the infamous “bamboo train” outside the city. Alan and many of the Green Mango girls went along with me (Katy decided to sit that one out with her baby in utero in mind). The bamboo train uses old railroad tracks that were used for trains during the time of the Khmer Rouge on tracks left by the French. According to my Lonely Planet book, the rail line may be upgraded in the future and the bamboo train may lose it’s usefulness. However, for the time being, many 3 meter long wooden frames covered with bamboo and resting on two barbell-like bogies make the trip up and down the rickety tracks daily. One bogie is connected by fan belts to a gasoline engine. You can fit about 10 people on the bamboo frame and take a 15 km/h ride down the tracks (though I’m sure they’ve managed to fit many more). The best part is that it’s so easy to take apart, so when you run into a group coming the other way, one group can just get up and take the car off the tracks to allow the others to pass. You can thank Lonely Planet for that detailed explanation of the train. 🙂 It felt like a very rustic amusement park ride to me.
We had quite an adventure on our ride down and back up the tracks. I enjoyed the gorgeous Cambodian countryside until we saw a group stopping up ahead. We slowed down to find a few “cars” disembarking on a bridge. It turns out it was a wedding party that stopped on the bridge for a photo shoot among the rice fields. It seemed they were a bit surprised to see a group of Cambodian girls in green shirts and two Americans on a car come barreling through, but they were quick to step out of our way to allow us to continue our journey. We broke up our trip with a stop at a roadside rest stop where we could buy treats and scarves and check out a brick-making kiln. We then headed back to where we came from, with a stop on a bridge to get some photos of the breath-taking view of the green rice-field expanse. I haven’t figured out how to post the video I took of the ride, but I hope you enjoy the photos!
Click here to see the rest of my Cambodia posts in succession.
Taking apart the cars so we could pass.
Surprising the bride and groom. Somewhere in a Cambodian wedding album is a photo of our bamboo train full of Green Mango girls and two Americans waving as we passed the happy couple!
A brick kiln
Scarves for sale at the rest stop along the tracks.
Our car along the side of the tracks.
A man demonstrating how it worked.
Close-up for my engineer friends.
Children playing by the “rest stop.”
Images just don’t capture how beautiful this place is.
The girls who work at the Green Mango had a fun time accompanying us on the trip.
Green Mango girls
God did a good job here. 🙂
Had to prove that I was there!
¡Bienvenido al mundo, Andrés!
El mes pasado, tuve un tiempo muy especial cuando conocí este bebe tan adorable de tan solo diez días de edad. Andrés es el nuevo miembro de mi familia favorita nicaragüense, que viven aquí en Indianápolis. Sus hijos asistieron a la escuela donde yo enseño. Es siempre divertido compartir con ellos y poder ponernos al día cuando ellos vienen a eventos de la escuela y tengo la oportunidad de hablar mi español centroamericano con ellos. Andrés tiene tres adorables hermanos mayores y dos padres trabajadores a quien admirar y seguir mientras crece. ¡Espero disfruten estas fotos!
I had such a wonderful time meeting this adorable little guy when he was about ten days old last month. Andres is the newest member of my favorite Nicaraguan family who happen to live here in Indianapolis. Their children have attended the school where I teach. It’s always fun to catch up with them when they come to events at the school and to get a chance to speak my Central American Spanish with them. 🙂 Andres has three wonderful older siblings and two hard-working parents to look up to as he grows up! I hope you enjoy these photos!
Katy, Alan, and Jonah: Visiting from Cambodia
You may remember these friends as the great people who helped show me around the beautiful country of Cambodia this past summer, from Angkor Wat to Battambang to Phnom Penh and Kep (photos of that are still to come). Well, their family has since grown from this back in June:
to this:
They came home to the U.S. for Christmas and I had a great time catching up with them on a chilly Indianapolis day. The weather didn’t cooperate much for an outdoor photoshoot, but we had fun nonetheless. 🙂
Here are a few more fun shots from our time at the beginning of this month. Enjoy!
This was what he was like when I first met him. We didn’t let it last long. 🙂
Mass Ave Toys was a great place to warm up and check out some fun toys. This little guy was very intent in checking out the world, with his fingers getting pretty close to pointing to the place where he was born… it’s like he knew. 🙂
Such a contemplative look.
Indiana Fog
Monday was a dreary, foggy day here in Indianapolis. When I got home Monday night, I was struck by the way the street and parking lot lights were reflecting on the trees and in the fog and had to take some pictures.
Here are a few of my favorites:
The Market in Battambang, Cambodia- June 2012
The day after I went up the mountain to the Killing Caves outside Battambang, I was able to visit the Battambang market with a kind woman from the Green Mango Cafe & Bakery on her daily market run. She has a very efficient system to her market run, which includes visiting regular vendors who she knows and having the Tuk Tuk driver appropriately parked and ready to come assist in retrieving the good when they’re ready. She has friends with whom she leaves some of her buys to pick up on the way out, so she doesn’t have to carry everything around with her. I appreciated her willingness to slow down a bit so I could capture some of the many sights of the market with my camera. Please note that if you don’t enjoy the sight of raw meat, you may not want to proceed to some of the final photos… don’t say I didn’t warn you! 🙂
First, a photo of the lovely, kind woman who took me to the mountain and allowed me to tag along with her at the market the next day:
my wonderful market guide
This is where the Tuk Tuk driver dropped us off.
I have no idea how she sat there by the grill with long sleeves on in the Cambodian heat.
Yes, I believe those are yellow chickens… and yes, I wish that the pajamas as normal day wear trend would reach the U.S.
I love tropical fruit.
Buddhists monks walk around in the mornings asking for donations for the temple.
I can’t remember what these are… i think it might be some kind of fish paste? Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
They sell everything in those markets!
A meat section… not exactly the USA supermarket meat department!
Yes, I did take a photo of the pig heads and I posted it here… just want you to get the full experience like I did!
And finally we picked up a treat for the girls at the restaurant- fried bananas.
The Mansell Family
Now that Christmas cards are sent out, I can share these pictures. Over Thanksgiving I had the chance to take family photos for my brother’s family. It wasn’t difficult since they are some of the cutest kids in the world! Many thanks to one of my other brothers and niece who stood behind me and helped get the smiles you see here. Enjoy!
And here’s a bonus: My dad and his granddaughter on a walk out at the lake. 🙂
Headshots for my Friend, the Author!
I had a really fun time catching up with my friend from college, Marissa Shrock, a couple weeks ago. She is an author who is looking to have a young adult fiction book published in the near future. She asked me to take some headshot photos for her and I really enjoyed catching up and hearing about her new adventures in writing. You can check out her writing on her facebook page or here on her blog: www.marissashrock.com Stay tuned for news of her book getting published in the near future!
Final Post from the Wedding of Collin and Mollie: Pennsylvania Summer Wedding
Hello everyone! I hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas season and are excited to see all that is in store for you in 2013. I thought I’d end the year with one final post of photos from my niece’s wedding back in August. There were too many great moments to share them all, but here’s a final sampling of the beautiful day. Click here to see the previous posts from the wedding and here to see their engagement photos. I hope you enjoy another look at their wedding day. Have a very happy new year!!!!
Since it’s my blog, I get to post pictures that are special to me. 🙂 Here are all of my nieces and nephews plus the four spouses… the photo is just missing the four nephews who are still in Australia and then we’d have the whole crew.
Another photographer took outdoor pictures of the guys, but here’s one I took so they can be represented here. 🙂
The dads with their flower girls. 🙂
Riding off in my dad’s car with just a hint of rain on the windshield. 🙂
My favorite wedding tradition: the Western Pennsylvania Cookie Table!
The matron of honor’s speech
The best man’s speech
the guest book
The groom got her pretty well with the cake…
Their first dance as bride and groom.
The father-daughter dance
The mother-son dance
One more of the bride and groom
… love this shot my niece Maddie got of me and my mom: like mother, like daughter!
Oone last shot… we had to be sure to get a shot of my beautiful niece and me on her wedding day! 🙂
The Green Mango Cafe & Bakery in Battambang, Cambodia
As promised, it’s time to share about the great things happening in Cambodia that I was able to see this past June and July when I visited. (Click here to see the previous posts from my trip, in succession.)
The Center for Global Impact has a fantastic thing going on in the city of Battambang in northern Cambodia. Their website describes it well, so I’ll quote them here: “The Culinary Training Center (CTC) is the largest project undertaken by CGI to date. Students are enrolled in a two-year training program that will prepare them to enter into the most distinguished kitchens in Cambodia. The CTC plays a significant role in establishing a successful strategy for developing future employment opportunities for orphans, at-risk, and formerly trafficked women .”
My friends, Katy and Alan, and I were able to spend a few days in Battambang seeing The Green Mango Cafe & Bakery in action. It was so fun to hang out with the head chef and teacher, Ryana, and get to know the girls in the school a bit. During those days, we ate a lot and I had a fun adventure at the market and on a bamboo train that I’ll post about in the future. The food was SO delicious and the atmosphere was very comfortable. It was fun to see how much business they were getting after the few short months they had been open. Check out their website here.
I hope you enjoy a look at this great project that is providing work for some wonderful young women in Cambodia! Oh, and since you probably can’t stop by for a food sampling anytime soon, please check out the Green Mango Cafe & Bakery Cookbook available for purchase here. You won’t regret it!
The food there is seriously delicious. I’m still craving the pickles and sauce (bottom left photo). You really should go buy their cookbook (see link above). 🙂
They had a big group that day!
Chef and teacher, Ryana, does a great job keeping things running smoothly.
The girls are able to build relationships with each other and volunteers. Through the school, they also have life skills and English classes, culinary teaching, and devotional times with mentors.
They sell byTavi items there, another project of The Center for Global Impact.
Place-mats out to dry.
This makes you want to go buy the cookbook now, doesn’t it?
The tuktuk is a moving advertisement for them. It goes to the market at least once a day! Stay tuned for a blog post about the sights, sounds, and smells of a Cambodian market. 🙂
The Yang/Macke Cousins
I had such a fun time hanging out with my friends’ sons last month in Fort Wayne. We had a session with Levi at home and then met up with his cousin for some Christmas pictures. As you can see from the photos, these boys are on the move! Enjoy!
Cousin time- Already learning to share. 🙂
Get us out of here!
- Went for a vintage look with this edit.
- Someone dropped their toy!
The Macke Family
More from the wedding of Mollie and Collin- Pennsylvania Wedding Photography
As promised, here are some more photos from the wedding day of Mollie and Collin back in August (click here to see previous posts from the wedding and here for their engagement pics). It’s mostly the girls again since I spent pre-wedding with them. Stay tuned for one last set of photo highlights sometime soon. 🙂 Until then, enjoy the beauty you see below. 🙂
My sister and her daughter putting the six pence in Mollie’s shoe.
Reading a message from her groom (with her grandmother’s wedding photo in the background).
With her cousin the flower girl (yes, my nieces are gorgeous).
Setting the dress down carefully on a slightly rainy day.
Collin’s cousin’s daughter was the other beautiful flower girl.
Going to the chapel and she’s gonna get married!
Another beautiful niece handing out programs.
My lovely niece Katelyn singing during the wedding. (Yes, I have a lot of nieces. Twelve, to be exact… and a couple more on the way!)
They’re married!
bubble time!
Only my mother would be ok with a photo of the photographer blocking the bride and groom!
The Clemmers- Indianapolis Family Photography
These are some great friends of mine from my community group at church. Knowing they were heading back to the great state of Pennsylvania (we share a home state!) for a while, I was excited to help document this stage of their family’s life before they left. Many thanks to our friends who helped out with entertaining the boys and getting some smiles out of them during our quick photo shoot! 🙂
I loved this random show of brotherly affection. 🙂
Wedding Details: Mollie and Collin, Pennsylvania Wedding
You may recall a sneak peek I posted a few months back from my niece’s wedding or their engagement photos from last fall. Though it’s been a while since that beautiful August wedding day, I thought I’d take the time to post some more photos of details from day. Everything came together beautifully, as you can see. Stay tuned for more pictures involving actual people from the wedding in the coming weeks! 🙂
Her shoes are sitting on top of a wall mounted coat rack that the groom made the bride as a wedding gift.
Great idea for a church without air-conditioning in August!
I took this in my sister’s yard that day. So thankful that the rain went away when we needed it to!
The Vayanos Family
I had the joy of photographing the Vayanos family near Pittsburgh over fall break last month. Marlynn and I go way back to Kindergarten and it’s been great getting to know Steve over the past few years as well, so it was really fun to play a part in documenting this stage of their family in photos. I’ll allow the cuteness of this family to speak for itself. Enjoy!
Cambodia: …the Bad and the Ugly
As promised, this is the last post about the negative things I saw in Cambodia, with many beautiful and hopeful posts coming soon about all the great things happening there. 🙂
As I’ve mentioned before (click here to see previous posts), I was a bit surprised to find that Cambodia wasn’t as much like Thailand as I’d expected it to be. There are a lot of similarities, but I didn’t expect Cambodia to be as underdeveloped as it appeared to me. After learning about the effects of the Khmer Rouge’s rule on the country in the 70’s, it made more sense to me. Cambodia has had a lot to overcome.
Below are some photos of some living conditions I was able to see in Phnom Penh. It is known that some young women from this neighborhood have been sold into prostitution to help earn money for their family. I was able to see some organizations that are working with people from this exact neighborhood, so that was encouraging. I’ll be posting about that organization soon. This web page explains Cambodia’s poverty situation in an understandable way (over 30% of Cambodians live below the poverty line). The rural areas are even more affected by poverty as their traditional agricultural methods that don’t produce for quick profit.
This is the home of one of the girls being helped by a program that provides training and work for young women at risk of being sold into prostitution.
Another sad part of Cambodia’s story is its high rate of human trafficking. Last fall, my friend led a book study on the book Not For Sale by David Batstone. This book is very eye-opening to the problem of present-day human slavery all over the world. The projects I visited, associated with the Center for Global Impact, and many others are working to fight against this problem. Specifically in Cambodia, there is a problem with children being sold into prostitution. Of Cambodia’s 15,000 prostitutes, 35% are under the age of 16 (click here for the source of this statistic and more information). Here are some of the sights I saw that opened my eyes to this heart-breaking problem.
A sign in my hotel in Siem Reap
Sign from another hotel where I stayed in Battambang
Nighttime in Siem Reap on Pub Street
Pub Street in Siem Reap
One of the “motels” outside Phnom Penh
One of the “motels” outside Phnom Penh
One of the “motels” outside Phnom Penh
One of the karaoke bars near the airport that are known more for the prostitution available in the area than actual karaoke.
A karaoke bar near the airport where the women are lined up in chairs every night, basically a modern day brothel…
So, poverty and young women being sold into prostitution… sorry about the downer post. However, there’s good news! Organizations like Center for Global Impact, Hagar International, International Justice Mission, and many others are working to both help prevent and rescue women from this modern day slavery. Just last night I heard an amazing woman, Somaly Mam, speak here in Indianapolis about her own experience of being sold in Cambodia’s sex trade as a little girl and now she’s helping save and assist in the recovery of thousands of girls. Learn more about her organization by clicking here or read her book, The Road of Lost Innocence. Stay tuned for more photos of beautiful Cambodia and the great things going on there.
The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek
Continuing the effort to get the sad posts over with, here is what I documented from the Killing Fields just outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Much like the previous post about the S21 prison in Phnom Penh, I must preface this by saying that some of the pictures and explanation below are graphic and tragic, so don’t feel pressured to continue looking. The quick version is that the Khmer Rouge used this place to exterminate about 17,000 people who first went through S-21 (Tuol Sleng prison) between 1975 and 1978.
The extermination camp of Choeung Ek is located about 15 km from central Phnom Penh. It used to be a Chinese graveyard before the Khmer Rouge took over that area to dispose of people who didn’t fit into their plan for Cambodia. Remains of thousands of people have been found in mass graves in this area. In 1988, the Memorial Stupa was built with more than 8,000 skulls as a memorial to the victims. I’ll allow the pictures to speak mostly for themselves. Click here for Wikipedia’s information about the killing fields. There was also a well-known movie called The Killing Fields made about the Khmer Rouge. Thanks for bearing with me with these tough posts. There are many hopeful projects and beautiful things about Cambodia to still share!
In an attempt to save bullets, they used things like trees to kill people.
Sites of some of the mass graves
There was an audio tour to listen to while walking around the area, including many survivors’ stories of the horrors that took place here.
The Memorial Stupa
The Memorial Stupa
There are more than 8000 skulls arranged by sex and age in the Memorial Stupa
In the museum, they had artifacts and information about many of the people killed by the Khmer Rouge.
These are the clothes that all prisoners and workers had to wear during the Khmer Rouge’s leadership of Cambodia.
The leader of the S-21 prison was recently convicted of his crimes.
Click here to see a video of his admittance of guilt in what happened at the prison.
Below are descriptions of sites on the land.
Discovery of a mass grave
Stay tuned for more information about the many ways the Khmer people are moving on from this horrible time
and all the great things that are happening now in Cambodia.
Cambodia: Tuol Sleng Museum (S-21 Prison)
Like ripping off a band-aid quickly, I’ve decided to post all of the sad stuff I saw in Cambodia in a row to get it out of the way. As I continue to share Cambodia through my lens (click here to see previous posts), I do think it’s important to learn from history and not just brush over atrocities such as this. I wanted to get a full look at what makes Cambodia the place it is and this is part of it. Just a couple more posts of the bad and then I’ll post all the great, hopeful, beautiful things I saw. So please stay-tuned! The best is yet to come. 🙂
When I arrived in Cambodia, I was expecting it to be pretty similar to Thailand (where I spent the summer of 2003). I was surprised to find that Cambodia seemed less developed than Thailand overall. After learning more about the effect of the Khmer Rouge’s rule in the 70’s, it made a lot more sense. When almost a quarter of a country’s population gets wiped out in four year period, it’s no wonder that it’s taking a while to get back on their feet.
When in Phnom Penh, my friends were gracious enough to accompany me on a very tough day visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and The Killing Fields outside the city. This post documents what I saw at the S-21 Prison, now called the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Please know that some of the descriptions and photos below could be considered graphic and are very sad.
I am no expert on the Khmer Rouge and I realize that I cannot explain everything about it in this little blog post, so please feel free to do some research on your own if you’d like more information. I read the book First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung and was given a heart-wrenching look into one girl’s experience living through the Khmer Rouge rule from 1975-1979. Netflix also has a documentary on this specific prison. Click here for Wikipedia’s information about the Khmer Rouge. Basically, the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took over Cambodia to restructure it into a peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. They had to get rid of much of the population to accomplish this goal. Much of my information about this comes from what I learned from the Lonely Planet Cambodia guidebook, by the way.
Tuol Sleng was Tuol Svay Prey High School until the Khmer Rouge took it over and turned it into a prison in 1975. From then until 1978, over 17,000 prisoners were taken through the school’s corridors before being taken to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek (which I will post about soon) where the majority of those prisoners were killed. Much like the Nazis, the leaders of the Khmer Rouge kept very detailed records of each prisoner who went through S21. The museum was full or photos of men, women, and children who were brought there. Virtually all of them were killed soon after.
I found Tuol Sleng to be a very disturbing and sad experience. It quickly brought to mind other stories of genocide that have occurred across the world and throughout history. The evil human beings are capable is almost inconceivable, yet there are evidences of it everywhere. It’s hard for me to know what more to say about that except that seeing things like this reminds me once again how much we need God and how thankful I am for His work in the world through Christ. As I said before, the positive stories are coming soon, so please stick around!
Until then, I’ll let these photos speak for themselves.
Hard to believe an educational institution could turn into a place of such sadness.
No laughing- though I can’t imagine anyone being tempted to do that in this place.
Looking through a cell door
It felt strange to look at the beautiful green and flowery trees and to think about how the prisoners must have felt about this place.
By far, the most heart-wrenching part of this visit was seeing all the photos of prisoners, men, women, children, and babies who came through those gates. Seeing the look in their eyes as they anticipated what to come led me to tears. I can’t imagine the horror they went through.
This shows how every prisoner was forced to be photographed with a contraption holding their head up behind them.
The Khmer Rouge tried to wipe out the educated class, so people had to try to hide the fact that they were educated to escape being killed. This man was a doctor of law.
Remains and a memorial for those killed
Many of these leaders have not yet been prosecuted for the atrocities that occurred so many years ago…
Cambodia: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve posted about the trip… I continue to struggle with figuring out how to balance teaching full-time, editing photos, sleeping, sharing about my experience in Cambodia, etc. I might figure this out sometime in the near future. 🙂
As you can imagine, sharing about a culture and travel experience through photos is a challenge. It’s difficult to present a cohesive narrative, so I appreciate your willingness to follow along with the randomness of some of my posts. Click here to see previous posts from my trip.
When I was given the opportunity to go to Cambodia, I told my friends who live there that I wanted to experience as much as I could of life there: including the good, the bad, and the ugly (knowing that all countries and cultures have good and bad to discover). The day I’m presenting to you on this post included all of those things. While in Battambang, I was given the opportunity to visit the Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau. A lovely Khmer woman from CGI came with me in the TukTuk and helped me find my way there. I experienced a lot of the good of Khmer culture and country and some of the bad and ugly too… a typical Camobian pop bottle gas station, a moto ride, nice and helpful people, seeing beautiful artistry and a beautiful view of the countryside, and a very sad visit to a cave where thousands of killings took place in the 70’s.
Once arriving at the bottom of the mountain (or some may call it a really big hill… it’s about 12 km from Battambang), the next leg of the journey involved riding a moto up to the temple (with apologies to my father who is not a fan of such unsafe transportation!). We had to stop for gas from the roadside “gas station” (aka old pop bottles filled with gasoline of varying types for easy moto fill-up).
A Khmer “gas station”
Filling up for our ride up the mountain.
Once there, I was able to see a freshly painted Buddhist temple still under construction.
This type of scaffolding was common throughout the country.
Then my guide led me to the Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau. This is a cavern area where the Khmer Rouge performed about 10,000 killings of Khmer people by throwing them off a ledge and into the cave below (please be aware that some of the photos below are very sad and disturbing). The cave is now the home of a reclining Buddha and a memorial to the people killed there in the late 70’s.
A painting depicting the killings performed by the Khmer Rouge in that location
At the top of the staircase looking down toward the cave.
Before going down the stairs
Part of the memorial
The original memorial.
The new memorial stuppa
Sadly this is just a small representation of those who were killed in that place.
The official memorial
Looking up at the skylight through which people were thrown.
It was tough to process all of my thoughts and emotions as I left such a solemn place where such horrific things happened and then go up to the summit of the hill and see this beautiful view:
The valley below
There are some really great legends about these hills involving chickens, women, crocodiles, and other fun stories. I wish I could remember the details as they were pretty entertaining stories.
I’m not really sure how to close this post. There really are no words to describe the sadness of seeing an example of what’s left behind from man’s inhumanity to man (something found throughout the world, not just in Cambodia). Knowing there will be more posts about the bad and ugly that I saw in Cambodia, I can share that, overall, I experienced such good in Cambodia that I left feeling hopeful. Stay tuned for the hopeful and thanks for bearing with me through the bad and the ugly.
Sneak Peek: Addison is One!
You may remember Addison’s six-month photos from this past March. I was so excited to see how she’s grown in the past six months when I took her one-year photos this weekend. Here is a sneak peek. I’ll try to post more soon! 🙂
jenni mansell photography 