Kelvin's post #11 "Re-entry"

We have been back in Canada now for over a week and have settled back into what we consider to be "normal life". I have been thinking a lot about that in the past few days and now realize that what we have is really not normal. We live in a place where our landscape is green and full, our roads are paved, we don't need razor wire fences and pad locks around our homes and property, we have proper garbage pickup and disposal,we can drink fresh water straight from the tap, when we flush our toilets (with fresh water!) the waste actually goes away to be treated and doesn't just run a few feet away to drain into a swamp behind the house. These are just a few of the things that I have always taken for "normal" having grow up with it all. We are extremely blessd living in Canada and I will never take it for granted again.

The way that most of the adults interact with their kids is also a lot different, I never saw any of them playing or showing any kind of affection to the kids . I was told by one of the locals that as babies the kids are considered cute but once a child is able to walk and talk the parents lose interest in them (Barb's little sunshine girl and her mom were an exception). Is this because they do not know how to interact with their kids? When the parents were kids themselves it would have been around 30 years ago and alot of them have probably had to grow up on their own because their parents would have been taken away or killed. I do not know this to be the fact but given the countries history it is probably a fairly good assumption.

Another thought that ran through my head was that this may be a way for parents to disconnect themselves from their kid's knowing that some day soon they would be selling their little bodies to the highest bidder. If these parents have any kind of heart it must hurt knowing the torture the kid's are having to endure. It would kill me to know something like this was happening to my kid's.

The one big question I have is how did a little one lane dirt road town like Svay Pak end up being one of the worlds capitals for child sex? As was said on Sunday there is no sign on the side of the highway saying "Svay Pak, turn left 200 meters ahead".

There are things that go on in this world I will never understand and this is one of them. I just hope that this little project that our team has been a part of will grow into something that will push out the evil that lurks in the alleys of Svay Pak.
May God bless the people that will be working out of Rahabs house and may this place become a blessing to the comunity, especially to the kids.

Kelvin