Media Credit: Kaitlin Johnson

Trip to examine effects of genocide
Kaitlin Johnson
Issue date: 5/27/08

This trip began almost a year ago when The Northern Light gave me my first story: a feature about Dr. Jesse Owens, a professor who had won an award. Eager to start, I called Owens and scheduled an interview. He told me it would be easiest if I'd meet him at his house in Palmer. The afternoon before the interview, I Googled Owens and found out that besides teaching at UAA, he was also an inventor and did philanthropic work in Cambodia.

I had just completed Bill Myers' history of genocide class in the spring semester of 2007. The Cambodian genocide in particular had both horrified me and piqued my interest. Shortly after the Vietnam War, a political group called the Khmer Rouge seized control of the country. The Khmer Rouge, led by the infamous Pol Pot, was a communist group that rejected all ties to the West. In order to bolster the country's economy, the Khmer Rouge forced Cambodians into slave-labor camps, where they toiled in rice fields. The regime executed anyone with ties to the West, including all educated people, doctors, teachers, lawyers. It also included people who wore glasses, or who opposed the regime. More than a million were killed or allowed to starve to death. I had a vague, underdeveloped idea of turning the article on Owens into a piece focused on the genocide.

When I arrived at Owens' house, I quickly jotted down a few prepared questions to ask him and went to the door. His house, among several inoffensive, average houses, was vibrant purple. The yard was littered with mechanical contraptions. A wheelchair ramp led up to his home and a dog let out baritone barks from inside. Owens, in a wheelchair, answered the door and introduced both himself and Ferlin, one of the largest dogs I'd ever met.

I felt comfortable with Owens immediately, even though it was my first time conducting an interview. He spoke easily and was fascinating to listen to. He told me about how he had taken up inventing after he had been paralyzed as a young man. His inventions were designed to help him regain access to the wilderness. He had had much success in this; with the assistance of his Kilikart, he had climbed Mount Killimanjaro.

As fate had it, the article was very much entwined with the Khmer Rouge. Owens had won the award that prompted the article for an invention designed to assist paraplegics in Cambodia. Land mines, a side effect of the Vietnam War and the Cambodian genocide, have disabled thousands, while chemicals like Agent Orange are responsible for crippling birth defects. Without proper infrastructure, also a side effect of the Khmer Rouge, the nation is ill-equipped to assist these people. They live as parasites, without access to medical attention, food or employment. Owen's invention was designed to give poor people in developing nations mobility.

After the interview, Owens and I discussed at length the genocide and how the Khmer - Cambodians - were recovering as a culture, and he invited me to have dinner with his friend Jim Gollogly. Gollogly runs a surgical clinic in Cambodia called the Children Surgical Center. The clinic is an Alaska non-governmental organization based in Cambodia that provides free surgeries to children. I thought the dinner would be a great opportunity to learn more about the country I was becoming enthralled with.

A week later I met Owens; Gollogly; Gollogly's wife, Kanya; and a few of their friends at a house in Wasilla. I listened as they spoke about the challenges Cambodia is facing. They discussed political corruption, the poor population and the lack of bureaucratic infrastructure. At the end of supper, Gollogly invited me to spend a few months in Cambodia as a volunteer. I excitedly told him I would love to, without any thought of what I would do, how I would get there or what the trip would entail.

And here I am. A year has passed and I'm sitting at a computer in Jim's house in Cambodia, sweaty and tired. I will be working for CSC until July. My job is to produce the literature that CSC sends to potential contributors and benefactors. Also, I'm publishing articles in English-Cambodian publications. But primarily, I'd like to examine how a dehumanized society recovers and how Cambodia has rebuilt itself since the Khmer Rouge set the clock back to year zero.

I will not pretend that this is at all possible in six weeks. This trip is only an introduction to Cambodia culture.