After 16 hours on a cramped plane, I've arrived! The flight into Cambodia was gorgeous, with rice paddies and the snaking Mekong River ("The Great River") dominating the landscape below. Had some delicious Pad Thai and slept like a rock last night.
This morning I woke up to the bustling capital city of Phnom Phen. This is my first time in southeast Asia, so I really don't know what to expect, but so far I find the city young, vibrant, and deeply spiritual. It's the wet season here, and we had a good afternoon downpour to cool us off. Otherwise, temperatures hover around 80-90 degrees. Our hotel--the Goldiana--is in the heart of the Foreign Embassy section of Phnom Phen and NGO's abound: within blocks of us are an UNESCO field office, the UN Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Catholic Relief Services, and a number of smaller NGO's catering to everything from the arts to street children. There are ex-pats everywhere and a steady stream of tuk-tuk drivers at our service.
Classes began this morning with an overview of the Nuremberg Trials and the difficulties/limitations those first justices and lawyers encountered when trying to address the grievous crimes of the Third Reich. Tomorrow we will parse the specific language of the 1948 United Nations Convention on Genocide. Fascinating stuff.
For dinner, we headed to the trendy Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) with a three-story overlook of the muddy Mekong River--a short tuk-tuk ride away from our hotel. The FCC sits near to the National Museum and Presidential Palace, and is reminiscent of our own National Mall in Washington D.C. only instead of church spires, there are Buddhist temples and monasteries. The Mekong River appears to be the very lifeblood of this country, providing a living superhighway to the rest of the world. As such, there is a palpably spiritual connection with the people here. Along the river are multiple Buddhist shrines, and even on a Monday night, entire families flock to its banks to eat, dance, sing, and pray.
