Here Am I: Tuol Sleng Museum--Phnom Pehn

This woman came up to me at the back of church. She was a tiny framed Asian woman. I'd never met her before. She told me, "thank you" and slipped a fifty dollar bill into the palm of my hand. Shocked I told her, "No, I can't take this from you." How often as a high school student do people give out 50's! It had never happened before and it never happened afterward. I showed my mom. Maybe she saw the exchange. To my great surprise my mom said said to keep it. With her mouth she said, "No, it is OK." With her body language she said more. She motioned in a way only a child reads, "You have to take it and show that you are grateful. Or else!" So confused and elated I took the money and conveyed to this kind stranger my thankfulness.

There was so much explaining needed when we got in the car that morning after church. What had just happened? Why in the world would you--mom--let a complete stranger give me money? And even more shocking why would a complete stranger give a child so much money?

My mom, brother and I had visited the little Church of Christ in Bellflower, California. It was the church of my mom's childhood and the church of her grandparents. My parents were married there. The pastors Jerry and Vance Curruth were special witnesses to the Kingdom for so many people over the years but I'm grateful for their Christlike witness they lived in front of my parents. On that particular morning we had gone to the old "stomping grounds" so that my mom could see people who were like family and a place that was liken to home. It wasn't planned that we'd meet up with some old friends of the church.

On that morning Jerry and Vance of Cambodian ethnicity were at church. They had taken on the names of Pastor Vance and his wife Jerry years ago when they had started their life over in Southern California. They were some of the "lucky" ones who escaped the Khmer Rouge regime. I know so little of their story. They were in the jewelery business and they somehow managed to build a relationship with this little church in Bellflower, California. If my memory is correct it was Jerry from Cambodia that gave me 50 dollars. Years had passed since the my mom had been a part of the church. Yet, this woman's gratefulness abounded and she lavished some of it on two unsuspecting and undeserving kids--my brother and I.

The generosity of a stranger and the partial story my mom would explain to me as a High School student stayed with me over the years. I was always curious about Cambodia but never ever dreamed I'd have the chance to visit this country. Today, as I walked the halls of Tuol Sleng Museum I saw some of what Jerry and Vance from Cambodia were escaping from. They left hell on earth! As I read some of the stories of people who died and people who killed I couldn't help but wonder about the story which unfolded in Jerry and Vance. What did they experience as they fled this place? How much before Pol Pot's rise to power had they arrived in the USA? What was it like for them to live in safety, as hard as it is for any new refugee coming to the USA, knowing that their friends and family were suffering and dying?

The images and stories depicted on the walls of Tuol Sleng--S-21 are graphic and horrific. The stories of children who became "combatants" for the Khmer Rough regime are heart breaking. Humans can become so inhumane! There are few words for yet another place giving testimony to the horror humans do to other human beings. Again and again such atrocities happen throughout history. It could make one believe that nothing more is possible. But I know a little secret. It is! So much more is possible. There is hope for better!

Here are the pictures of the day.