Halfway to Cambodia

Hello,

I am back again! I am at my halfway point in raising my money and about 6 months away from my trip. Thank you to everyone who has assisted me to reach my fundraising goal. I hope everyone had a great holidays and a great start to 2018. In this blog I will be giving an overview of Cambodian history and a few fun facts, as well as one goal I would like to accomplish throughout my trip. 

My number one goal that I hope to accomplish over my trip is to leave an impact on Cambodia and the people I meet there and have fun while I am doing it. What I mean is that I want to have fun while I am working hard and I want the people to remember what I did to help them for the rest of their lives. In Morocco the growth I saw from the kids learning English was amazing, what I want to see this year is that my teaching is working and that I am giving the kids desire to learn more. Overall, there are many goals I hope to accomplish over this trip. Such as making many friends with the people in Cambodia as well as the people I am travelling with. I also want to make memories that are going to stick with me my whole life.

Cambodia was first inhabited in 4000 B.C, that's 6,000 years ago. Cambodia gained its independence in 1953 from France. Cambodia did not win independence from a war, the French actually granted Cambodia its independence. Khmer Rouge was the name of the Cambodian communists who ruled Cambodia for some time. Khmer Rouge started in 1960 and ruled Cambodia after taking over the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh in 1975. What The Khmer Rouge did after their victory was establish a government called Democratic Kampuchea. The democratic of Kampuchea started the Cambodian torture camps and genocide, killing around 3 million people through famine, disease, exhaustion and elimination. During this time the education system collapsed as Pol Pot the leader of Khmer Rouge targeted lawyers, teachers and almost everyone of middle educated classes and eventually over four years eliminated 25% of Cambodia's population. Khmer rouge was eventually taken over by Vietnam in 1979, however the effects of Khmer Rouge are still part of Cambodia.  Right now Cambodia is ruled by a constitutional monarchy and the prime minister is Hun Sen who has ruled for 25 years. Hun Sen has established the longest non-royal leadership in south East Asia. Cambodia is also known as the kingdom of Cambodia, Kings in Cambodia are symbolic figures to whom the people are to respect and love, the current kings are elected and have to serve for their life, Cambodia is one of the few countries with elective monarchy. The current King is Norodom Sihamoni, who was elected in 2004.

The national colors of Cambodia are blue and red, blue represents the royalty and red represents the people of Cambodia. Another symbolic item to Cambodia is the Giant Ibis their national bird. The Giant Ibis has a long beak, legs and neck and the body has dark colored feathers with white wings. The bird is found in Northern Cambodia and is currently an endangered species. The Giant Ibis is mythical to Cambodians and that’s why it’s their national bird. Surprisingly Cambodia does not have and has never had a McDonalds. McDonald's has restaurants in 188 countries but not in Cambodia. Maybe they know something we don't!  

The most interesting thing I found out while I was researching was that recently there have been discoveries of cities 900 to 1,400 years old under the rain forest floor. Scientist had been researching this for years, and recently used airborne laser scanning to confirm that there are cities below the surface of the rainforest. One of these cities was found in the forest next to Angkor Wat an ancient Cambodian temple and one of the 7 world wonders. Some of these cities are almost as big as the capital city Phnom Penh which is 261 sq. miles! It’s amazing that a city that big can be covered and hidden for so long, I wonder what else is hidden beneath the rainforest dirt in other parts of the world. 

Talk to you soon,

Karsen