Karen here again... One thing that Liz did not mention about our tour of Phnom Pehn with Dave Manfred on Sunday...
Dave took us to Diamond Island (think Harriet Island in St. Paul with palm trees instead) and across the small bridge where hundreds perished last fall. It is not a large bridge, two or maybe three lanes wide, crossing water about as wide as the Zumbro River in Rochester. The river is not deep there, or treacherous. But hundreds were trampled in a mob rush over the bridge.
The people here are very superstitious, and will probably tear the bridge down, out of fear. They also believe that the spirits of the people who died there came back 8 days later (it took the spirits 8 days to figure out that they died a horrible death). So on the eighth day, the whole city shut down. Imagine no traffic, no people outside their homes in all of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Fortunately, there was an offering that the people could give to the spirits... bananas. Of course the price of bananas that week went up ten fold. So sad.
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