Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 15

Just Do Good

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcomeevil with good. (Romans 12:21,  NewInternational Version)

Friday’sblog post was pretty dark and the next one I post will be even darker. Butthese are the words of the LORD which we must remember. Somehow when we aresurrounded by evil, when the world is falling apart, when we don’t understandthe sinful nature of wicked people - we need to do the best we can. Be kind andcaring, show love to others, live as Jesus did. Don’t let hatred pull us down,instead do good.

Our Scriptures tell us that if you seeyour enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him adrink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get thebest of you; get the best of evil by doing good. (Romans 12:21, The Message)

Killing Fields - Cambodia blog entry #6

Tuesday,September 17, was our trip to hell. The thing is we came back out into theblazing Cambodian heat and rain to live another day. Unlike 2 millionCambodians who didn’t live through the Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975 to1979. 

Again,I cannot believe that at the time, my 12-year-old brain only knew of theVietnam War and that when the US pulled out, we gave up on the country and letthe communists have their way. I didn't know that Cambodia had been an innocentvictim of war just because of its location. And there I was, 50 years agothinking only of some 12th century temple in the jungle. 

So,that Tuesday when I was in Cambodia last month, our first stop of the day wasthe Killing Fields, where 8,895 bodieswere discovered after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. It is believed that manymore were buried there as fragments of human bone continue to surface. It isonly one of 300 such mass grave locations throughout Cambodia. 

Thetour of the grounds was chilling, and it wasn’t from the rain showers whichfell on us most of the morning. 

AsI left the main grounds to walk around the pond on the east side of thegrounds, I listened through my headset to stories of survivors and witnesses of these atrocities. The rain fell steadily on the borrowed umbrella I held overmy head. It all felt so very surreal.

Howwas any of this possible? How did Hitler’s Holocaust happen? Or Rwanda or Darfur?How can any human being subject another human being to such absolute and uttercruelty and dehumanization? And how – why is it still going on right now, inthis year, in places around the world? 

Twolast thoughts.

Believeit or not, after sharing all of this, I skipped one thing on the grounds of ChoeungEk. It was even more horrific than any of this. If your curiosity gets thebetter of you, click this link.

Andlastly, we weren’t done for the day. My blog post next week is even moresobering.

Palace Grounds - Cambodia blog entry #5

 Mondayafternoon, after wandering the Central Market and touring Wat Phnom, we stoppedfor a tour of the extensive grounds of the Royal Palace. It wasn't on our mostrecent schedule, but K said we had time. However, it did take way longer thanwe had imagined; our tour guide was very knowledgeable but sometimes went intotoo much detail. 

TheRoyal Palace is the residence of the reigning monarch – King Norodom Sihamoni.Since 1993, the king of Cambodia has been an elected monarch, making Cambodiaone of the few elective monarchies in the world. The king is elected for lifeby the Royal Council of the Throne, which consists of several senior politicaland religious figures. Candidates are chosen from male descendants of King AngDuong, who are at least 30 years old, and are from the two royal houses ofCambodia (the House of Norodom and the House of Sisowath). The current king’s fatherand predecessor was Norodom Sihanouk.

Following are the notes I took, with some supplementation from the internet. 

Therewas a beautiful Banyan tree next to the Victory Gate and the dancing hall. 

Also called Preah Tineang Chan Chhaya, the dancing hall or Moonlight Pavilion was built in 1913. 

 

TheThrone Hall or coronation hall hosts the coronation and other special occasionsand was built in 1919. We couldn't go inside or even take pictures of theinside. There are three different thrones inside used at different times bydifferent people. It got me very confused. 

I loved all the details. 

Thegrey building is the Pavilion of Napoleon which was being redone when we werethere so we couldn’t go inside.  

Thisunique palm tree comes from Madagascar and is called Ravenala or the traveler’spalm. Not a true palm tree, its fronds grow in the pattern of a fan. 

Theroyal treasury room displayed costumes for royalty and even commoners when theygot married. The clothes were very fancy and would be rented, not owned, by thebride and groom. There were a lot of other items crammed in the small building,but this is where I started to lose it. I was getting so hot and weak. Therewas a fan in the building so I focused on staying in front of it, whileeverything our guide said sounded like an adult talking in the Peanuts cartoon. 

Whenwe came out of there, we crossed a small sunlit courtyard and then went underthe roof over the Ramayana Frescoes. That’s when I started seeing black spots.“Can I seat down here,” I asked, pointing to the floor. Not that it matteredcoz I would either sit right then or pass out full blown.   

 Isat down and immediately just laid back on my side on the cool tile. The otherskept walking, but I asked K if he'd wait there until I gathered myself,drinking water and dribbling some on my face.

 

Typicalguy, he said, “it will be even hotter at Angor Wat”. How helpful is that! 

Anyway,I felt better after a few minutes and tentatively sat up. Soon I was able tocontinue the tour with our little group. 

Thelast building we went in was the Silver Palace, aka temple of the EmeraldBuddha. The Silver Pagoda is a highlight and is named for the silver inlaidfloor. There was only a section of it exposed, the rest being covered withcarpet, but you could hear the tiles crinkling as you walked across the floor.Along with cases full of artifacts along the walls, there were several large,ornate Buddhas in the center of the room. I assume that the largest one was theEmerald Buddha. (And maybe I was still out of it, coz I remember taking pictures inside, but I have none on my camera! Or maybe we weren't allowed to take pictures inside and I was really still spaced out. As it is, I stole the picture of it below from Denise.)

Justbeyond that and a replica of the Angkor Wat was a small refreshment stand,where I bought a cold water and drank it in the shade. Thankfully, I was back to my usual self.

Who Walks Beside Me?

         Peoplemay plan all kinds of things, but the Lord's will is going to be done. (Proverbs19:21, Good News Translation)

I know I’ve written about this before, butnow that I have finally returned from my dream trip to Cambodia, I felt I hadto share this one more time.

I first learned about the temples atAngkor Wat when I was in sixth grade—fifty years ago. I was mesmerized, andthough the dream wasn’t always at the forefront of my mind, I knew that somedayI had to go there.

Flash forward to January of 2020. On awhim, I googled volunteer trips to Cambodia and came across the culturalimmersion trip for grown-ups over age 50 with Projects Abroad. I sent theinformation to my friend Denise, and it didn’t take her long to get back to mewith a big smiley face. She was game, and after a little more research, wesigned up.

Then COVID-19 hit, and we had to cancel.

The fall of 2021 held potential, but thepandemic was still causing enough uncertainty and inconvenience, so we canceledthe trip a second time.

The following year, COVID-19 had abatedenough that it was safe to travel, but my daughter wanted to return to Kenya,so Denise and I joined her.

It looked like 2023 would finally be myyear until my back went out in April, and the rest of my body fell apart afterthat. We canceled just weeks before our intended departure.

Ahh, 2024! Fourth time is apparently thecharm.

I had been thinking that God simply didn’twant me to go to Cambodia. And I get that—this wasn’t going to be a volunteertrip, mostly just a vacation to an almost entirely Buddhist country. Therewould be no Sunday morning Christian church service and certainly no sharing ofthe Gospel (not that God has blessed me with that gift!).

Would my fascination with all the Buddhistand Hindu temples lead me spiritually astray?

The answer is that no, it did not. Quitethe opposite. This fantastic trip reminded me that I serve an amazing God whowill never leave me or forsake me. For some reason, God wanted me to completemy dream trip this year and not any other.

And as you will see as I continue bloggingabout this trip, He walked beside me every day.

Andthe Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you; He will notleave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8, NewKing James Version)

Our First Two Stops - Cambodia blog entry #4

         Though Sunday, September 15, was our firstfull day in Cambodia, it wasn’t until Monday that we actually got out andstarted experiencing things on the ground, instead of riding by in our tuk tuk.

First though, here’s a picture of our tuktuk, in case you were wondering what it really is. I’ll post a blog about allthe different ones we rode in during our two-week trip, but this is the one weused in Phnom Penh. Our driver was a sweet man named Wo-Tea. He didn’t knowmuch English, but K was almost always with us and otherwise pointing,  handgestures, and the few words we knew in common worked.

We went to Central Market first. What amaze, filled with hundreds of vendors, hawking everything from watches to silksto fruits to fish. Also called Phsar Thmei, it’s a massive, mostly-indoorshopping center, which has everything you could want to buy.

Built in 1937, in the art deco style, by aFrench architect, it is a bright yellow building with an 85-foot-high centraldome, with four tall arch-roofed arms branching out diagonally across theblock. In between each of those halls, is an opening for more vendor’s stalls leadingout to the street. (I plucked this photo from Google, full credit to whoevertook it. I hate borrowing pictures from the internet, but I left my drone athome.)

Supposedly when it was built, thearchitect designed it with open air windows at the top, which were intended toallow air currents throughout the building to cool it. It didn’t feel like thatwas working to me. But the architecture was beautiful. 

Just like in Kenya, you can't even stop tolook at something without being pressured by the vendors. First stall westopped at I bought a scarf for four dollars, because I knew I wanted one. Thenwe wandered. D and I separated, and I couldn't find the way back to where we hadcome in. It's arranged like a wheel with eight spokes and after a while theyall look the same. Finally found my way out, and they were all waiting for me.

Next stop was Wat Phnom temple, a Buddhisttemple (which are called wats). It is the tallest religious structure in thecity, with a total height of 150 ft.

It is a historical site that is part ofthe Khmer national identity. The pagoda is named after Lady Penh from the storyof the discovery of the five statues: four Buddha statues and one Vishnustatue.

Set on top of a tree-covered knoll, WatPhnom is on the only hill in town. According to legend, the first pagoda onthis site was erected in 1373 to house four statues of Buddha deposited here bythe waters of the Mekong River and discovered by a woman name Penh. The mainentrance to Wat Phnom is up the grand eastern staircase, which is guarded bylions and naga (snake) balustrades.

We saw hundreds of pagodas throughout Cambodia.A pagoda is a tiered building with multiple eaves and ornate details, that is often usedfor religious purposes. Pagodas are common in many parts of Asia, including India,China, Japan, and Thailand. They are often Buddhist and can also serve ascommunity venues, schools, and places for sharing knowledge.

This is the stupa of Ponhea Yat who wasthe last king of the Khmer Empire and the first Khmer king of the post-Angkorperiod, from 1421until his death in 1463. A stupa is a steeple-shaped mausoleumholding the bones and ashes of the deceased, usually placed around the groundsof a pagoda. They can be made of sandstone, laterite, brick, and more recentlyof cement, and some are huge.

Streets of Phnom Penh - Cambodia blog entry #3

Sunday, September 15 was our first fullday in Cambodia. After a good night’s sleep (ten hours!!!), I woke up that morningfeeling pretty good. My chronic back pain wasn’t bad at all, only my rightwrist was killing me, but that’s kind of how my life has been the past eighteenmonths, so I wasn’t going to complain.

I won’t bore you with every detail of theday, except that D and I made one trip to the 7-11 on the corner for snacks andalso stopped at Dairy Queen for blizzards! Choosing to ease into the foreignfoods.

Actually nearly every meal we had waspretty good, always food we could eat and never went hungry. But I’m going tosave the food photos for the end when I have them all together.

After lunch, K took us for a ride aroundtown to show us the sites. Here are some of them.

I know that cities around the world have this kind of traffic, evern the large cities in the US. But this small town girl continued to be amazed by traffic every day.  

Indepence Monument built in 1958 to celebrate Cambodia's independence from France.
The monument in the background honors the late Buddhist scholar Samdech Chuon Nath. I couldn't figure out what the little statue in front left is of.
The front side of the staute of Samdech Choun Nath.
The riverwalk along the Tonle Sap River.
I think it's just the gate outside some random building. They had alot of ornate gates like this.
The Phnom Penh post office, where packages disappear into a black hole
The government building 
Not a government building. More like typical working class apartments
A typical street with light traffic.  A little bit more chaotic traffic. It was hard to get a picture that really captured it. 

I Know What I Believe

“If you think it is wrong to serve theLord, choose today whom you will serve. Choose the gods your fathers worshipedon the other side of the river, or choose the gods of the Amorites in whoseland you are living. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”(Joshua 24:15, New Life Version) 

Buddhismis the state religion of Cambodia. According to various sources, approximately 97%of Cambodia's population follows Theravada Buddhism, with Islam, Christianity,tribal animism, and the Baha’i faith making up the small remainder. From what Iwitnessed on my trip to Cambodia, I’d change that wording to say “97% of thepopulation claim to be Buddhists”. I really didn’t get the feeling that allthose people actually followed Buddhism; I could be way wrong and I don’t wantto accuse anyone of lying about their religion so I need to leave it there.

Afterreading about Buddhism in several books and on the internet, as well as talkingto a few people in Cambodia, it seems really complicated.

Theeasiest part is the five precepts or rules that must be followed. Do not kill. Donot steal. Do not commit acts of sexual immorality. Do not speak badly ofanyone. Do not drink to the point of intoxication.

Thefirst four are in line with the Ten Commandments and no one can argue that ifeveryone kept those laws, the world would be a better place. Avoiding alcoholor other drugs is a good idea too, but just like in America, there seemed to bea definite presence of alcohol consumption, with signs advertising beer andsimilar beverages everywhere.  

Thenafter those five rules, Buddhism takes on all kinds of weirdness. Yes, peopleprobably think that parts of Christianity are weird, so, again, I shouldn’tjudge. I’m also not going to go into more detail right now.

Justone last comment. Between the 9th and 14th centuries,Hinduism was the dominant religion in Cambodia, and the vast temples built bythe country’s kings during those years were dedicated to Hindu gods. It’sthought that many people in Cambodia practice Buddhism along with Hinduism tothis day.   

Thatmakes my head spin and reinforces my faith in the triune God and in JesusChrist as my Savior.

Here I Am! - Cambodia blog entry #2

           I didn’t know where to start, so I decidedto show you pictures of the Projects Abroad volunteer house first. After you’velooked at them, if you want to read my ramblings of our arrival in Cambodia,you sure can. Didn’t want to bore you from the get go.  

My bed
The other side of our bedroom The living space / dining room downstairs
We had a very small balcony from our room and this was the view from it. 
There was a roof top deck, however, on the six story building we were in and this is the view from there. 

This will be the first trip in a long timewhere I didn’t bring my trusty laptop. I prepared a journal with typeddescriptions of all the places we would be visiting, leaving pages in betweeneach place to write facts and my thoughts at the time.

Then I decided that maybe I’d tryjournaling into my cellphone. I wasn’t sure how it would work as I hate typingon my phone, with my big clumsy right index finger. Type with both thumbs? Areyou kidding? That’s even more difficult for my arthritic hands. I gave it ashot, though, first sending myself an email via my phone, then typing a Googledocument on the Drive.  

Our flight arrived on time at 11:15.Getting thru immigration was easy, as our paper work was in order. Just handhim my passport, Visa, and e-arrival QR code. Stick my hand in the finger printreader. Or is it really a device which sucks out part of our life force for thegovernment to use to strengthen its military?

Baggage claim. Wait and wait. How do someof those bags spit right out and ours is always one of the last. When Denise'scame down the conveyor I thought, yeah, mine is next. But then it was another 20minutes. Or so it felt. Really probably two more spins of the belt.

Outside, our ride Phirum, was waiting withthe Projects Abroad sign and wearing their signature green shirt. Greeting uswith a smile and a wave. Did our American looks stand out that much.Considering there were only two other non-Asians on our flight and one of themwas a man. Yes, I guess we were easy to pick out.

Ride to house was maybe 20 minutes. The streets!So, like Nairobi. It was like being back home in Africa. The chaos. Thevehicles whipping by on all sides, many more scooters and motorbikes than inKenya though. Whole families - mom, dad, a little boy, a baby girl, all ridinglined up on one bike. Sometimes wearing helmets and eye protection, sometimesnot.

And the smells. Garbage of course, butfried food too. The occasional whiff of raw fish hanging in the hot sun. Didn'tnotice the diesel fumes which are prevalent in Kenya though.

The sounds of motors running. Somebodygrinding metal, lines and lines of auto and bike shops. Very few horns honking inthe chaos. Such patient, pleasant people.

Anxious to try the street food but willwait for one of the workers here to direct us.

We met out guide for the two weeks – KhouchKen, who we will call K. After a short rest and some unpacking, he took us outto eat supper at a place called Eleven One.

Tuk tik ride there thru the same busystreets, even more crazy in the twilight. And because we rode in a tuk tuk, as opposed to riding in the car fromthe airport, we were closer to the sights and sounds. No obstructing carwindows, closed so the air conditioning isn’t wasted.

Oh, yes, the heat and humidity. The roomsat the volunteer house were air conditioned, but as soon as you open one of thedoors, the oppressive weather takes your breath away.   

Anyway, the restaurant was very nice. Hadan open air ceiling, so no AC but not too warm with the sky above and fanschurning in all the corners.       

I had the stir fry chicken with mango and cashews.Denise had the shrimp with toasted hash brown potatoes. I don’t remember what Khad but it was adorable, a little teepee of rice next to his main dish of somemeat in some sauce. Because we just met him, we didn’t try it, but as the weekwent on, we all tried each other’s meals. Pictures of all those meals will becoming later.

          Back to the house and fell into bed ateight to sleep like the dead.

Where am I? – Cambodia blog entry #1

           I opened my eyes and looked across the dark room. A dim light was streamingoutside the open door from a source to the right. Where was the bathroom? Ithad to be out there somewhere.

         My travel partner, D, snored very close behind me. We’d been sleeping inseparate beds for the past sixteen nights; why was she in bed with me now?

         Then it dawned on me. It was my husband snoring, and I was home in my own bed.

         I rolled over and read the clock. The red number 12:15 screamed at me. Totallyexhausted, I’d crawled into this perfectly comfy bed only four hours ago. Whywas I wide awake?

         Darned jet lag.

         My left brain wondered from the beginning how I’d be affected by thisphenomenon this trip. Previously, I’d only ever flown to Kenya, eight timezones to the east, and jet lag never bothered me when I got there, but alwaysmessed me up when I got home.

This trip took me twelve time zones to thewest. So my left brain reasoned that the jet lag would be worse going toCambodia and not as bad when I got home.

Left Brain has definitely got it wrong. RightBrain believes that when I go somewhere, I am so excited about the trip that mybody and my brain adjust quickly so as not to miss out on anything. When I gethome, all the hormones let loose, and my internal clock doesn’t want to switchback to Central Standard Time; it just wants to sleep.

And Stomach Clock grumbles because itthinks it’s just past noon and we should be eating.

Then Writer’s Brain pulls me by the arm toget me out of bed to write down all these peculiar thoughts because it knowsthat, just like when we dream, if I go back to sleep, all of this will be gone.

So here I am, at 1:40 am, trying to keepmy eyes open while the rest of me feels crazy-energized. But I am going tofollow the lead of my eyes and wander back to bed. Whether I go back to sleepor not, who knows? Will my hypothalamus figure this out and allow me to driftpeacefully off, or will the rest of my brain continue bouncing around neurons?

In any case, I’ve been home from Cambodiafor just over thirteen hours. It’s been forty-eight hours since I left, Ithink, because I still can’t put any part of my brain around the whole timetravel thing about these trips.

It was a short flight from Phnom Penh toTaiwan with a brief layover at Taipei Airport. The ticket on the second flightread that we were leaving there at 8:00 pm and arriving at our destination inChicago at 8:45 pm. So, I’m supposed to convince my body that it took 45minutes to fly halfway around the world when I know it really took thirteen hours.

Oh, well, I’ll come around. I promise thaton Friday, I will start posting about my once-in-a-lifetime,fifty-years-in-the-making trip.    

Good night – or good morning. And the first and last pictures - with over 2,000 taken in between.  

Sunset over Chicago before our flight out

Sunrise over Chicago before our drive home from the hotel

Can’t put my head around it

September eleventh. 911. Twenty-threeyears ago. So long ago. So tragic. Hard to believe that there are young peopleout there today who weren’t alive on that day.

I won’t be flying today, but I will beflying on Friday the 13th. I’m not superstitious. And at least therewon’t be a full moon.

There are a lot of thoughts and imagesrunning through my mind. I watched the movie “The Killing Fields” yesterday andhave been reading all I can about that time in Cambodian history.

I just can’t put my head around it. Sure,I was only twelve years old when the Khmer Rouge overran Cambodia andinstituted its brutal form of communism. But all I remember hearing about inthe 1970s was Vietnam. Shoot, I even wrote a novel about the Vietnam War. So, Iwas aware of at least some news when I was entering my teens. But it sounds like the Cambodian genocide was swept under the rug at the time. 

Here I am, about to fly halfway around theworld to learn, firsthand, about the plight of the Cambodian people fifty yearsago. I think of meeting someone my age, who was also twelve years old at that time,and instead of worrying about what they were going to wear to school on pictureday, they were just trying to stay alive.

As I posted the end of August, there havebeen many genocides over the decades. When will the madness end?