Day 1

A word to describe my first day here doesn't come easily- because it was a lot of things. Hot, for one, because as soon as we got off the plane -even at midnight- I was blasted with the humidity and the warm air. It doesn't get cooler, either. As the day progressed I kept my mind occupied by wondering how a person could sweat this much and not pass out from dehydration. Surprisingly, I mind it a lot less than I thought I would, and it actually can be relaxing if you take a moment and get comfortable.

Today was a tourism day. Volunteering, I suppose, is being saved for the rest of the trip and we spent today growing accustomed to the new surroundings and culture. We visited the Genocide Museum and Killing Fields which were nothing short of both awe-inspiring and devastating. It was the most "real" experience I've had with a piece of history, because it was right there, not just in pictures but literally ten feet in front of me, so close that I could throw a penny into the pits where bodies of men, women, and children were carelessly tossed decades ago. It made me wonder why- which I'd never really wondered before. I've always just assumed there were crazy people out there, and that was the end of it. Though, it might be a bit less black-and-white, I suppose it still is the only answer, but as I walked passed scraps of the victims' old clothing and bracelets to celebrate the countless children killed, I genuinely wanted to ask these people what kind of human being could convince himself that his cause was for the better and that doing away with a life -no, thousands of lives- was acceptable, even a good thing. I stared at the fields and pictured how hundreds of people daily were killed here, in pain, still clinging to one strand of hope, their stories left unfinished and their families left lonely. The thought made me sick. How could someone do this? How could you treat a human life as anything short of a miracle? I'm afraid I'll never know the answer, but to be honest I'm not sure I really want to.

In other news, the second part of the day didn't bring tears to my eyes, I'm happy to say. We went to the Olympic Stadium here and had a blast doing aerobics to foreign pop music instructed by someone we didn't know. I'm sure we looked and acted like the whitest kids in the country, which was a beautiful thing.

First day at the orphanage tomorrow, I can't wait!!