Alicia kim's blog

Before Cambodia 

12/15/2024

I have been looking forward to this trip. Our organization, THEIA, had been working on this trip for a semester. We had donations and movie nights to prepare for gifts and donations. We brought in a lot of donations and gifts such as school supplies, bracelets, snacks, and kits. I saw how much the people have worked to make this happen, so I hope everything goes well. It will be very busy on the day we go to Cambodia. I missed the last meeting for preparations but I’ve gotten all the information so I hope there aren’t any complications in that. I’m excited about the hotel and the service days. I’m looking forward to seeing the children in the shelters and interacting with them. There is one day when we go to the trash mountain and the other when we wash the kids’ hair. We also prepared a skit for the play of Birth of Jesus. Because we are going at Christmas time, we prepared gifts for them. We also heard about the tours in the city, where we will be going to the killing field and the genocide museum. I’m excited to learn about the history of Cambodia and its “holocaust”. Overall, I’m excited and thrilled to go to Cambodia to see the kids in the shelters and carry out our service along with learning the history of Cambodia. 

Day 1

Today we went over the schedules and went through the orientation. We learned about the living conditions, culture, and religion of Cambodia. Then, we went to the S-21 genocide museum in the city. We were able to walk around, looking at different pictures and actual bones and skulls. We also saw some of the survivors of the genocide and looked at the tomb of some of the people who died at the site. I bought a book from one of the survivors just because I wanted to listen to his perspective and his voice on the history of the S-21. I also thought it would be easier to picture the experiences and the events from the victims’ perspectives. I also felt very depressed and respectful of the museum because it was the very streets and path of all of the victims who were tortured and starved at the site. Despite these feelings, I had a good time learning about the history of the S-21 genocide. Then, we went back to the hotel and just rested for tomorrow which was the start of our services.