Last December during his sophomore year at Ukiah High School, Reed Scriven's history teacher handed him an application packet, suggested he take a look at it and said she thought he would be a great candidate; six months later he was in Cambodia as a participant in the American Youth Leadership Program.
After passing through the process of expository writing, garnering recommendations and preparing for and successfully passing the nerve-wracking experience of a phone interview, Scriven was selected to be part of a 30-member, student team traveling to Cambodia to immerse himself in its culture, and to learn about climate change, servant leadership, sustainable development and ecotourism.
Reed, 16-year-old son of Kim and Joe Scriven, had a lot going for him to make him a successful candidate in this program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and designed to develop youth leadership globally and create better relationships with Cambodia specifically.

"I had never been abroad and had discovered a lot about Cambodia from reading the introductory packet, but it was when I clicked on the link that I realized what an incredible program this was with amazing opportunities for someone my age. I figured I might as well try; it was only an application," he says.
Highly competitive with his outstanding academic record, participation in sports and karate, and junior team leadership for the Russian River cleanup, Reed was accepted in the program managed by Global Exchange whose mission it is to inspire responsible global citizenship by providing life-changing travel experiences for students and educators of all abilities and backgrounds. He began a series of Webinars and phone conferences that allowed him to meet the other students, teachers and instructors who would be traveling with him, as well as learn about sustainable development, ecotourism and history including the period of atrocities perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge. He says it was a crash course on Cambodia.
Packing sparingly, almost like backpacking, inoculated for Japanese encephalitis and typhus and carrying a prescription of malaria pills, Reed began the two-day training period in the Marin Headlands on June 2. It was there that he got to know the other students on a more personal level, participated in leadership exercises, learned some basics of the Khmer language and received his photo assignment specific to Cambodian architecture and homes to be published in AFAR Magazine.
Camaraderie established, they boarded their 12-hour flight to Tokyo, connected to their six-hour flight to Bangkok and finished the last leg of their journey with a short flight to the capital, Phnom Penh. They were met by a group leader from the Global Exchange Team, took a bus to their hotel and met their translator and guide.


History at ground level


Not having been in a Third World country before, he was surprised to see how dirty the streets were and by the odor of trash that hung in the air. One of his most memorable experiences during his stay in this city was visiting the Killing Fields where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979. Analysis of these mass gravesites indicate over 1.3 million victims were buried there. There were signs indicating how many people were killed and how they were killed. He saw bones rising up in some places.
"There was a tree that the Khmer Rouge used to kill people. There were bloodstains imbedded in the bark and they grew with the tree. You could still see them. There were nails in the tree hung with prayer bracelets," he noted.
His mother, Kim, went on to explain that in order to save ammunition, in some cases the children and infants of adult victims were killed by having their heads bashed against the trunks of Chankiri trees.
He was even more affected by their visit to Tuol Sleng, a former high school converted by the Khmer Rouge into a prison and now a genocide museum; he said he was better able to picture what happened there.
"You could walk along all the levels of the buildings and you could see every room. There were different kinds of rooms. The important prisoners had larger cells. It was surrounded by barbed wire and there were shackles on the ground and permanent blood stains. That affected me a lot," he remembers thoughtfully.

Getting to know the people

From the capital they traveled west on a boat up the Stung Phipot River to the village of Chi Phat, a small community of about 3,000.
He says of his time there, "We stayed at the homes of the villagers and because of the design of the homes I was not able to interact with the family as much as I would have liked. I also got sick there and was bedridden for a few days. We did get to see how they interacted with each other and some of their modern technology. It was very hot and humid or rainy, hot and humid and some of us went to a spectacular waterfall to get a break from the heat. We visited a wildlife sanctuary populated solely by animals rescued from trafficking where monkeys were roaming the jungle. We watched as a vendor went after a monkey with a broom after it took off with some of her merchandise and an elephant did a little dance and took our money with its trunk. Our service component here was working with native high school students helping them plant trees around the perimeter of their hospital and fruit trees on the grounds. There was a lot of trash here so working with gloves we put all of it in buckets to be transported to Phnom Penh. The villagers really appreciated how clean the village looked."
From there they took a bus northeast to the Sambor District, a larger inland district where they again stayed with families.
"This farming village was bigger, more spread out and seemed cleaner. There were rice fields all over and it was the most beautiful color green I have ever seen, light and bright. The high school lost its funding so one of the ways they are trying to sustain it is by rice production. After teaching us how to plant rice we helped the ag class in the paddies. We also had some language exchange with them and after they taught us some Khmer we taught them to sing "Hello Goodbye" by the Beatles. We visited the ancient ruins of Prei Kuk in the jungle and everything was spread out and overgrown. We helped with restoration by putting mortar in between the bricks; destroying new bricks by crushing them into powder so they could be used for making old-looking bricks using ancient techniques; and removing plants from the ruins because they were damaging the structures. I did not enjoy that last part."
The final leg of their journey was another bus ride west to Siem Reap, a cluster of small villages near Tonle Sap Lake, one of the biggest lakes in this part of the world.
He says, "We took a boat ride on the lake and I really connected with the floating villages. The first stop we made was at a floating elementary school. We were not able to interact with the students, only able to peer through the windows. We went past floating houses and villages and even a vendor selling sodas. Unfortunately there are no sewers there, just squat toilets right on the lake. We had a lesson at one of the villages and they showed us how they made mats from the leaves of an invasive plant; it gets rid of this nuisance and also allows them a way to make a living. We even saw some endangered crocodiles in cages that were going to be used for their skin. This was not a good thing."
Then to Angkor Wat built in the early 12th century and the capital of the Khmer Empire at the time. This ancient ruin has become a symbol of Cambodia and appears on its national flag.
"We were walking down a path to the big temple and when we saw Angkor Wat in front of us we stopped in place with our mouths open. We turned the corner and there it was; it was so beautiful you could not capture it. It was amazing how big the temple was," he says in awe, "and I received some blessings and prayer bracelets from the nuns for my respectfulness."
On the food, "Rice was in every meal; I kind of got tired of it. There was chicken, beef and lots of tasty pork. There were fried tarantula legs and since I have arachnophobia, I decided to give them a try. They tasted like hairy bacon. There was fruit for dessert after every meal: mango, pineapple, banana and passion fruit. The food is strong-flavored and the first couple of meals were startling; you get used to it after awhile."
Returning home at the end of June after his month of adventure he has had a bit of time to reflect.
"Everyone in our leadership group was different and everyone was very kind to each other. There were kids from different backgrounds from all over the United States, some from the city, some rural, and some from both public and private schools. We all became friends."
"As soon as I came home I noticed that I felt more positive; I realized how much I have in life after seeing how little the people of Cambodia have and how happy they are."