Corruption in Cambodia

Well, I finally got that beach holiday I had been waiting for so desperately!! Both Jon and I were getting a bit travel weary, our bodies were tired and our brains frazzled from the constant moving about! You wouldn't think it, but I was actually starting to feel quite low health wise simply because we hadn't stayed in one place for more than a few days.
The coast of Cambodia (Shinoukville) is a lovely beach resort. It's the same clear blue sea and sandy beaches like Thailand, but without the swarms of people. We spent one whole week here and done nothing apart from lie on the beach, drink beer, and read. We had a few nights out here which were a great release of energy after so much travelling!

Whilst we were in Shinoukville I noticed a poster about volunteering in a school in a remote village in Cambodia called the ETO (Education Training Organisation). The school was run by a lone man who had dedicated his life to helping poor children get an education. On paper it sounded great so me and Jon, along with a few others, headed out into the sticks ready to spend a few days teaching kids! Almost as soon as we got there we regretted it. The guy who claimed he was the "director" o the school could only talk about money money money. He made us pay upfront for our stay and rushed off to bank the money saying there were no refunds!?! Didn't sound good. By this time we had arrived in this remote village in the middle of nowhere. He took us to our "accommodation" - a straw hut with farm animals living underneath it, and gave us our "lunch" - boiled rice with cabbage (yum!!). Water wasn't included so we had to buy it from his neighbours at extortionate prices! Anyway to cut a long story short the whole thing was a scam. The "school" turned out to be about ten local kids who would amble in when they felt like it an expect to be taught. Me and Jon tried to teach a couple of classes - it was fun, there were some cool kids in this class, but it wasn't a proper school and no way did these kids see any of the money we'd given the "Director".
Because there were five volunteers there at the same time and just not enough kids to teach, we all decided to have it out with the guy and ask him where the hell this school was (he told us there were 3000 students!) and where had all our money gone? He denied everything of course and made excuse after excuse. We weren't buying anything and decided to leave there and then. We couldn't just walk out though because we were in the middle of the countryside so we asked him for a lift. Oh he agreed.... as long as we paid him another ten dollars!! This was the final straw, cue lots of shouting and demands for a free lift!! He finally agreed (just to let rid of us I think) and dumped us at a bus stand in the sweltering heat.
I couldn't believe it!! You try and do a good deed and help those less fortunate than yourself and it ends up blowing up in your face. It's such a shame because some of the local kids were really fun to teach and there could have been an opportunity for a proper school there had this "Director" actually spent money on it rather than his car and big gold watch!

We left there with a bitter taste in our mouths and headed for Pnomh Penh, the capital of Cambodia. After three days of eating boiled cabbage and rice, and living in a straw hut, me and Jon decided to treat ourselves and splash out to a room that cost $10 (a fiver) - complete with aircon, a TV, and a western toilet! Luxury!
Whilst we were in Pnomh Penh we visited the war museum (formerly a Khmer Rouge prison) and the Killing Fields, where 8000 victims of the Khmer Rouge genocide were buried in mass graves. This was a really sad day for us. For anyone who doesn't know the story, the Khmer Rouge were peasants who revolted against the government after the Vietnam War. They overthrew the police force, and evicted anyone who was middle class, or rich out of their homes and forced them to work in terrible conditions in the rice fields. They killed off anyone who was educated - teachers, doctors, nurses, students.... anyone who wasn't poor or illiterate was exterminated. The most cruelest part of this was that women and children (even babies) were ruthlessly murdered simply because of who they were. This genocide claimed the lives of almost 2 million Cambodians.
This truly opened our eyes to the horrors that were inflicted on Cambodia during the late 70's. The former prison was an eerie place with pictures of everyone who had been killed there. Out of 14000 people who had been sent there for "interrogation", only seven survived. The rest were sent off to the Killing Fields to be brutally beaten to death and buried in mass graves. So far 8000 bodies have been recovered from these graves and more are still being found today. It's a gruesome place with bones and clothes still sticking out of the earth.
Seeing how something so tragic could happen to a country so poor really brought it home to us. It was only 30 years ago - seems crazy that something like this was allowed to happen in our civilised world?? I really hope it will never ever happen again.

We spent just over three weeks in Cambodia and had a really good time. It is such a shame to see such a poor country ruined by war and political corruption. Even now the country still has a lot of problems. There is corruption from the lowest levels (dodgy guys claiming to run a school), to the highest level (the Prime Minister). How can a country ever claw it's way out of poverty when the very people who run it do not care about the poor? With the right governing Cambodia could eventually be like it's rich neighbours - it's has everything, the beaches, the mountains, the historical monuments... everything that could turn it into Thailand no2.... but at the moment it still has to recover from the horrors it has encountered over the past 30 years. I really want to go back and volunteer again properly. There are people there who really need our help!!

We left Cambodia a day ago and are now in Saigon, Vietnam. Only one month left of our travels!!! Who knows what it will hold....

P.S.... we had a lovely piece of news yesterday. Jon is an Uncle!! his sister gave birth to a little boy Louie on 5th of April and we cant wait to meet him :o)