Janne is the founding director of the Tabitha Foundation, which is the main reason I am over here with a few teammates. It is an organisation which coordinates and raises money to build houses and schools for orphaned and disadvantaged Cambodian children.
Janne gave us an insight into the history of this place through her own eyes and it was very interesting. For the first 18 months that she lived here, she slept in her bath tub because every night there would be warfare on the streets of Phnom Penh and she reckoned that was the safest place to sleep.
I had some idea of the history of Cambodia and the rein of Pol Pot, but she certainly filled in a few blanks for me and other boys.
After that briefing, we jumped in a bus and headed to the Genocide Museum, which was originally a school but under the Khmer Rouge rule became a prison.
Click here for a selection of photos from this visit.
As I said, I knew a little bit about Pol Pot, but this place was very confronting. I had read and heard a lot about some of the stuff that happened here, but as we walked through these grounds, it was a horrific journey. A Cambodian tour guide took us through and it was really eye-opening to see actual photos and to imagine the torture inflicted on so many people. They estimate that through the Pol Pot regime of a little more than three and a half years, 20,000 people were held at the prison. Only seven survived.
The Khmer Rouge considered each of those seven people to have skills that were required by them and that's the only reason they survived. Two of those survivors are still alive and we were fortunate to be able to meet them today. It was amazing to meet those guys and hear their stories.
Basically, the 20,000 people who were taken to the prison were arrested under so-called suspicion of having connections to the CIA or the KGB.
There were tortured into confessions and then taken out to what is now known as the Killing Fields, where they were executed.
That was our next stop and those who were slaughtered were tossed into mass graves of a couple thousand. They told us the field we went to was one of a couple of hundred and they estimate that during the Pol Pot reign, somewhere between two and three million people Cambodians were killed - including women and children.
One of the aspects that was most confronting was a thing called the 'killing tree', which is where, unbelievably, Khmer Rouge soldiers smashed babies against the tree to kill them and then just threw them into mass graves. We saw and heard a lot of terrible things that happened during that time, but that was probably the most disturbing.
All in all, it was quite an exhausting day, emotionally, and when you think back to our own lives it really does ram home how fortunate we are. It was good to experience that and obviously you can't help but feel very, very sorry for the people who suffered through that.
While it was tough, it does provide us a good insight into why we are going out to a remote part of this country tomorrow to build some houses for orphaned kids, which was arranged as part of the development for us younger guys.
As I said, I knew a little bit about Pol Pot, but this place was very confronting. I had read and heard a lot about some of the stuff that happened here, but as we walked through these grounds, it was a horrific journey. A Cambodian tour guide took us through and it was really eye-opening to see actual photos and to imagine the torture inflicted on so many people. They estimate that through the Pol Pot regime of a little more than three and a half years, 20,000 people were held at the prison. Only seven survived.
The Khmer Rouge considered each of those seven people to have skills that were required by them and that's the only reason they survived. Two of those survivors are still alive and we were fortunate to be able to meet them today. It was amazing to meet those guys and hear their stories.
Basically, the 20,000 people who were taken to the prison were arrested under so-called suspicion of having connections to the CIA or the KGB.
There were tortured into confessions and then taken out to what is now known as the Killing Fields, where they were executed.
That was our next stop and those who were slaughtered were tossed into mass graves of a couple thousand. They told us the field we went to was one of a couple of hundred and they estimate that during the Pol Pot reign, somewhere between two and three million people Cambodians were killed - including women and children.
One of the aspects that was most confronting was a thing called the 'killing tree', which is where, unbelievably, Khmer Rouge soldiers smashed babies against the tree to kill them and then just threw them into mass graves. We saw and heard a lot of terrible things that happened during that time, but that was probably the most disturbing.
All in all, it was quite an exhausting day, emotionally, and when you think back to our own lives it really does ram home how fortunate we are. It was good to experience that and obviously you can't help but feel very, very sorry for the people who suffered through that.
While it was tough, it does provide us a good insight into why we are going out to a remote part of this country tomorrow to build some houses for orphaned kids, which was arranged as part of the development for us younger guys.
For further information about West Coast's involvement in Cambodia, visit our dedicated Cambodia 2012 page.
