Cambodia 2011 Peace Project Event (Part1 The Story)

PREVI HEAR JOURNAL 2011 ! The Peace Project
PREVI HEAR JOURNAL 2011 ! The Peace Project
at the base of mountain
when Sambo suddenly
turns with his face
blanched, stammering,
then stuttering then
swearing. “Oh shit, I forgot
my memory card for the
camera.”
He immediately jumps
on on the Honda bike and
rides back with Mr Brown
at the helm. We wait until
he returns. Kicking dust,
ABC cans, Singh beer.
Talking. Jokes. Half-anhour
later he returns
sweating but his face is
beaming. He has it and
we can begin filming.
It is a small sequence
where I dismount from
the motorbike to the
checkpoint and greet Su
Pert, to get on a truck.
Once the filming is done
Dominic we drive the truck
up the mountain. The
driver whose name is Mr
Mab makes problems by
asking money repeatedly.
We stop halfway and film.
Then pick up Sre Pich.
Then he says it will cost
us an extra ten dollars. We
stop again and he says this
will cost us another fifteen.
And so on....
When we arrive at the
mountain halfway point
at a kind of cradle there
os the army base camp
just beneath the Previ
Hear Temple. Here there
is the usual ritual of
paying everybody. I feel
like the Pope, Pope Dom
distributing cigarettes,
High Fives, Angkor and
Marlboros to forlorn
bedraggled soldiers
standing beside tin sheds
with potbellied spouses and
crying grubby children.
On the summit there is the
usual ritual of painting and
location. Ring Karina with
Mao in the evening.
That evening as dusk
is falling we pack up. We
visits to a historical site
with Mr Vuthy I think
that means halfway down
the mountain where the
caves are. He discusses
the shelling and where
the bullets hit the historic
site of Previ Hear. He talks
about the day the shelling
began and what happened.
Who started it.
We unroll the canvas off
the stretcher then roll it
into tube to carry it down
the mountain. Normally we
would lie it flat on its back
ad pay the soldier to body
guard it for the evening.
Then it travels with us in
pick up and on motorbikes
to Sra’ Aem to fix and finds
tailor.
We have to be out of here
and leave the mountain
by 6. It’s a curfew. We cant
sleep on the mountain.
They won’t let us. Its not in
the rule book. So we must
do this crazy pilgrimage
every night of driving up
and back. It takes two hours
to get there but we cant two
hours up and and a half
back.
Dusk has fallen. It’s
only shadows. We are late
arriving down. My face
is wind and sun burnt.
Ten meters away from
the parked Nissan pickup,
there is a cloaked
figure waiting at the last
check point. It’s a sombre
shadow. Melancholy and
uncomfortable. The figure
is waiting by the side of
the road, hiding in the
shadows. Then his eyes hit
the moonlight. They glisten.
It is Mr Vanna, the security
guard and Intelligence
Officer and Spy for The
Previ Hear Army Battalion.
He is waiting for us at the
check point to receive the
money we are going to
pay him. It is 40 dollars.
Sokkeng pushes it into his
open palm. We stand way
in the distance but witness
the exchange. He promises
to help us but nothing
happens.
DAY THIRTEEN
Monday, 22nd of
November 2011 Sra
‘Aem
I climb out of bed. Wake
Mao. Beads of dust carried
by rays of sunlight cascades
through a half-drawn grey