Fourth of July

Friday, Nov. 14 -- It must be karma that we arrived on the second day of the annual water festival, commemorating the Khmer (Cambodian) victory over the invading Vietnamese sometime in the distant past. After leaving a brand new, sparkling and nearly empty Saigon airport on a brand new, sparkling and nearly empty plane, we arrived in Siem Reap and went directly to the boat races that highlight the festival. They took place on the Siem Reap River, where the atmosphere was like our Fourth of July. Thousands and thousands of people, mostly families and young people, picnicking and enjoying the festivities. There were no rowdy gangs of teens, no drunken crowds behaving badly, just happy folks. In the evening, they light candles and incense on little floats, about the size of a dinner plate, make a wish and send them down the river. I bought one and made a wish; we'll see if it comes true. Seven of us crowded into a tuk-tuk, the principal means of travel, to get back to the hotel, Tara Angkor (very lovely, very western, a little expensive).

I somehow thought Cambodia would be a lot like Vietnam. Although the terrain is similar, the people are quite different. They're bigger, have rounder eyes and much darker skin. There are only 14 million Cambodians; their very own Hitler, Pol Pot, murdered 2 million in the late 1970s, including most of the intelligentsia. Those left have had to educate themselves essentially without benefit of teachers. Half the country is under 18. Eighty-five percent live on less than $1 a day; 85 percent are without electricity (they use car batteries that they charge all day at a recharger place for 25 cents); 67 percent start elementary school but less than half finish. We attended a cello concert last night at a hospital founded by Dr. Beit Richner, a Swiss doctor who operates five hospitals that have treated more than 8 million children over the past 15 years. In his pitch for blood (for transfusions) and money, he said most of those children would have died without the medical help dispensed at the hospitals. Richner is an Albert Schweitzer-type doctor, who's devoted his life to helping the desperately poor and sick who would otherwise receive no help.

The history gets a little confusing. As I mentioned above, the water festival commemorates a victory over the Vietnamese. Siem Reap means Thai (Siem) defeated (Reap). This tells you the country has been often invaded and conquered. They've had peace only for about 10 years.