Day 4: Sophisticated Corruption & The Spirit of Oppression

Breakfast Buddies

This morning I met an awesome group of ladies from Belgium and Holland who are volunteering at a facility in northern Cambodia called, The National Leprosy Foundation.  Earlier this evening, I spoke with a woman from a Nepal who was a doctor traveling with a team who was helping to train the staff at a nearby hospital.  It is so wonderful to meet these various men and women, teams and organizations, from all over the world who are seeking to cultivate and develop the future of this country.  I love being able to listen to what kind of work they do; where they're originally from; and what they have enjoyed about their Cambodian experience thus far.  One of the ladies from the Leprosy Foundation team gave me antibiotic cream to put on my mosquito bites!  Sadly, I have acquired two more, and my allergic reaction is both questionable and fascinating.

Jim's Final Lesson on James

This morning at Rahab's House was Jim's final lesson of James with the youth leaders. He had brought in a map of the U.S. to show to them where we were from and described a few popular cities (which they didn't really know anything about) and how far we had traveled to get to Svay Pak.  They all seemed to really enjoy studying the map!  Jim ended the lesson by asking them why they had wanted to become youth leaders.  All of them had said that they'd wanted to help serve the children in the community into becoming better people.  I strongly believe this is possible; much of the efficiency and effectiveness of the fluidity of Rahab's House depends on them being a strong team.  And they will lead by the best way: by example.

Afterward, some of the youth leaders had remained to ask Renee some questions.  One of them was particularly difficult: "Why do we suffer in Cambodia when people in America are so blessed?" It is truly a tough question to ask, and perhaps even more so for those who have not experienced or have been exposed to the type of oppression that exists here.  I don't really know how I would answer that question...I do know that it gave me plenty to be grateful for, especially because it's Thanksgiving.  We talk a lot about "giving thanks" or "being thankful", but I think that we should perhaps consider "thankfully giving". 

During our Thanksgiving dinner this evening, Alli shared with me that among the other teams who have come through Svay Pak, we have made an incredible impact.  "You are only a team of three people, but you have shown so much more energy, joy, willingness and humility than what we have seen," she says. 

Staring Evil in the Eye

Before lunch, Jim and I went exploring through the village again; this time, without the guidance of Pastor Chantah.  This was our preferred method of getting around, simply because we wanted to observe, interact with and be amongst them.  We had tried to follow our star volley-ball player back to her home, but she bolted ahead of us and we easily lost sight of her.  So, we turned down a couple of skinny alleys, walking past open shacks and shanty houses where many were lying down, wasting their lives away and atrophying in front of mindless entertainment.  Suddenly, we entered a small clearing that looked very familiar; we had recognized the blue colored buildings from when we were standing on top of the roof of the building that Chantah was wanting to convert into their new church.  One of the blue homes had a patch of bright, red flowers growing from one of the open windows...somehow, we had wound up right in front of it.  We looked inside through the open doorway, and saw posters of young girls (some in lingerie and in crude positions).  There were also "rooms", divided by a makeshift wall and thin bed-sheet as a curtained door.  We didn't linger too long, and turned round another road which led us, again, to another brothel.  This one seemed much larger than the first, though it essentially had the same set-up.

When we were walking back to Rahab's House for lunch, we ran into Kevin who had also been walking around the village.  Both he and Jim continued walking down the main street since Kevin had not yet seen that area.  I chose to stay behind to play with the the girls how had been grabbed hold of my hands while Jim and I were exploring.  While I was playing with the girls, a tall, Caucasian man stopped in front of us.  The girls immediately became apprehensive, and shyly hid behind me as I stood to meet this man's gaze.  He lowered his sunglasses and stared curiously at the children behind me.  Not for one moment did my eyes leave his, nor my hands the girls of those who I kept protectively at my side. 

I knew exactly what this man had wanted.

He smiled and winked at us before he continued walking, heading down toward the area where I knew Jim and Kevin were.  Later, when they had returned, Jim had said that this same man had struck a conversation with them.  He claimed to be a traveler from New Zealand, and that his tuk-tuk driver had dropped him off here because he was looking for a "torture museum."  Obviously, this was code for "I'm looking for a brothel" since there certainly is no such thing in Svay Pak; there is, however, torture rape which he might have been referring to.  At first, neither Jim nor Kevin understood what he was looking for...it wasn't until after he'd started walking away that they'd realized that he was definitely not there for a museum exhibit.  Apparently, the New Zealander had walked back up to his tuk-tuk driver, perhaps asking him to lead him to one of the brothels, when he ran into Pastor Chantah. 

"I know why you're here," he said.  "And I want to help you out.  If you don't get out of here before 3:00, you'll get arrested because we're close with the government, and they're interested in the work that we do here."  Without a second thought, the man and his driver left the village.

To have stared evil in the face, as Jim writes, made the reality of Svay Pak and that of many sex and labor slaves all over the world, more real.  I was ready to die fighting for those girls, and Jim and Kevin were already planning on how they could get pictures of these pedophiles to splash all over the media and get them registered as global sex offenders.  "What Pastor Chantah had told that man sounded like he'd said it hundreds of times before," says Jim.  I don't doubt he has...since we've been here, I've seen a couple of older, Caucasian men wandering through this village.  I hesitate to write the stories that I have heard, but am empowered by the fact that if I were to withhold such knowledge from you, I would be doing both you and Svay Pak an incredible disservice and injustice.  With that, I warn you that what I am about to write may be too disturbing to read...

Corruption & The Spirit of Oppression

During dinner, Bridget and I were discussing the incredible spirit of oppression that sits thick and heavy in the air, and settles like lead in the pit of your soul each time you breathe in the infested air of Svay Pak.  There is no joy here.  Wherever we are, etched on the hard faces of men, women, and children are the lines of hopelessness, distrust, and fear.  There is a kind of paranoia that lives amongst the people, and it breeds thieves of every trade, particularly sex trafficking.

A Russian billionaire is currently being held in prison while he awaits trial.  But it's not "prison" as we understand it.  He "suffers" comfortably in a well air-conditioned cell where he is served, daily, a three-course meal of gourmet foods.  Furthermore, he is allowed to go on outdoor excursions to check on his businesses, one of which is a casino on one of Cambodia's islands.  He will, at most, get 1 year in prison for being caught in his bedroom with 19 naked, young women.  He plead "not guilty."  

In Japan, women are warned to not enter bathrooms inside department stores.  The back walls to the bathroom stalls are fake, and while women are sitting on the toilets they are abducted from behind.  White women, especially, are among the preferred commodity, particularly in Saudi Arabia.

In the Kid's Club where we have worked and played with the Svay Pak children, a small, 5 year old girl named Mai has been raped and beaten every night by grown men until three weeks ago.  Sometimes, while attending Kid's Club, it would be too painful for her to sit down or walk properly.  Ka-moi, our star volley-ball player, was trafficked just last year and she carries with her the burden of taking care of her baby sister since her mother's abandonment years ago.  Her personality does a complete 180 when she returns to Kid's Club in the day after a horrific evening; she is too ashamed to look any of the staff members' in the eye and hides in silence.

Ming, a young girl we will be meeting tomorrow at the ARC Home, was involved in a hideous torture rape so violent that the police actually arrested the men involved (practically unheard of in Cambodia).  
 
These are just a small handful of the stories that we have heard and whose lives our hearts have broken for. These are real lives, real human-beings who are subjugated, daily, by this deep-seeded spirit of oppression.  This is sophisticated corruption.  I have held in my arms fragile, beautiful children who are the victims of an incredibly dark evil; I have spoken with now strong, young women who were for much of their lives raped of their voice.  I have heard them sing songs about Jesus, seen and heard them laugh in joy and wonder during arts and crafts, and my Spirit is overwhelmed with fury over the thought that many of these kids' parents have threatened to beat or kill them if they ever brought home any of the crafts they do in Kid's Club.

In the past 3 months, AIM (with Pastor Chantah and his wife, Bunthan), have rescued 16 girls.  In the past year, all of the government organizations and thousands of dollars later, have rescued only 1 girl.  This is the difference: AIM seeks first to save the girls through the impenetrable power of Christ, whereas many government organizations desire to imprison the offenders under the corrupted power of the law.   

GOD IS TRANSFORMING THIS PLACE.