Bike Race in Angkor Wat

The twilight lay over everything like a blanket, and the morning was just cold enough to cause goose bumps. We crammed into a tuk-tuk, all four of our bikes wedged against each other. I was both nervous, and excited. Not the best thing to feel immediately after waking up, but I was pumped, regardless of my half-consciousness. The previous night we had gone into Siem Reap, and I rented an amazing bike for only eight dollars.

As we got close, Angkor Wat came into view, breathtaking in the pre-dawn light. We arrived, as close to the starting line as we could get, mounted our bikes, and slowly pedaled to a place where we could rest. We got there in perfect time to watch almost 200 riders embark on a 100k journey that would last them the greater part of the morning. We waited for the last dregs of the 100k bikers to pass the starting line; then we watched over 300 more riders line up, and then the pistol, and they were off. 30 kilometers in their future, their own personal glories waited for them. Finally, it was our time to gather at that fateful line on the ground. I pulled my bike up, in front of the rest of the 17k riders, and readied myself to leave 100 people in my dust. Everyone became quiet, so quiet it seemed that even the early morning birds and insects seemed to silence. The pistol cracked, and the people in the front, including myself, raced away in a charge of adrenaline.

The cold morning air burned my eyeballs as we raced forward, the thrill of the start of the race still burning through our veins. I slowly advanced past everyone in front of me, until I was in the midst of the 30k riders. I had found a reasonably fast, comfortable pace that I knew I could keep up for hours. I raced forward until I ran into someone I knew: we stayed at the same guesthouse, and we both volunteered with the same organization. I said “hello” as I passed him. He responded with “I thought you were doing the 17k route.” I told him I was, and he responded with words that made me want to kick myself, even today: “you missed a turn about one and a half kilometers back.” No longer was I in front of everyone in the 17k race, but I was over half a mile behind them! I immediately turned around, kicked my bike into its top gear, and sprinted back a long ways. I looked for maybe five minutes, but I couldn’t find the turn I had missed, so I turned around and decided I was going to bike a 30k. I got back into my previous rhythm, right foot down, left foot up, left foot down, right foot up. Over and over and over and over and over….

The race was through the Angkor Wat temple complex, and everywhere you looked, there were beautiful things to see. The race went on, and the entire time I was by myself, an independent individual, moving at my own pace, relying on no one but myself; I reveled in my independence. After about 20k or so I ran into my mom, and our friend Jessika, who was biking with my family. They had taken the correct route, and so I decided to ride with them for a ways. Their pace was much more relaxed than mine, and we probably covered in 45 minutes what I could have covered in 15. It was nice, but eventually I decided that I wanted to get back in the race, so I shot ahead, back to my usual pace. It was a few more kilometers to the finish line, and as I came around a bend, and saw the huge crowd of people, I went into my top gear, and sprinted as fast as I possibly could to the end. My final time was one hour and 31 minutes to bike about 26 kilometers.

The Family & Todd

 The bike race was organized by a longtime friend of my parents Todd Sigaty and co-founder of Village Focus International, an organization focused on helping the disenfranchised and impoverished people of Southeast Asia, as well as victims of human trafficking, The bike race was a fundraiser for VFI that raised over $100,000. At the awards ceremony later that day, Avi and I got medals for coming all the way from Seattle, and for being some of the youngest people in the race. It was an amazing experience and I want to come back next year, and hopefully make the right turn.

Bayan Temple Video

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth volumes.  It's often much easier (and more fun) for me to share my experiences through photos and videos rather than through writing.  So please click here to check out the
Bayan Temple Journey video.










Namaste  ~  Veronica

Passage to Hualomphong Station

After a sweet send off by fifteen of the staff and volunteer community at Golden Village Guesthouse this morning [late post, that was 14/12], we left the sweet security of our Siem Reap life on a long journey to Luang Prabang, Laos. Step One: road travel from Siem Reap across the Cambodia-Laos border to Hualomphong Railway Station in Bangkok.

Against my instinct and better judgment (here’s the lesson in this blog), I bought us tickets for the much maligned-online “package trip” with a bus from Siem Reap to the border followed by a minivan to Bangkok. We were to leave at 8 am and arrive in Bangkok at 3pm with plenty of time for some chill time and Thai (yum!) dinner before our overnight train trip to the Thai-Laos border.

Our courtesy shuttle no-showed, the bus left an hour late, the bus to the border and the mini-van in Thailand had three “commission” stops for 30 minutes at remote restaurants where the driver gets paid for bringing in the customers. Ultimately we arrived in Bangkok in crawling rush-hour traffic short on time to 

catch our train.

We had the minivan pull over on a very busy street so we could catch a taxi to the subway to the railway station. We encountered a long line of people waiting for taxis with none in sight. The tuk-tuks were all full. And with the dense traffic, neither was a great option. Then appeared , around the corner, like a vision of an oasis in the desert,  three shiny taxi motorbikes with helmeted riders. After a short moment of hesitation, we were mounted behind the drivers, Isaac hanging half his butt off the back of his bike behind Avi, all of us with backpacks on our back and daypacks on our front. With ninja driving, the bikes swerved and sped between cars and expertly maneuvered against traffic on one-way streets. We got to the subway station in about three minutes! It was the awesome highlight of the day!

After a very nice subway ride and some quick pitiful food shopping at the station, we embarked on our comfy overnight train journey. BBQ Pringles were the highlight of dinner, a far cry from the amazing Thai cuisine we had anticipated. No stress amongst the family through it all; we are all getting good at having fun with life as it comes at us!

From Cambodia with Love

Mission accomplished. One of our primary goals on this around-the-world journey was to have Isaac and Avi see how dramatically people need assistance and for them to give that helping hand. In addition, for us to develop an identity as a family that shares the many gifts we have received.

Our month in Siem Reap, Cambodia was the heart of our trip in many ways. Central to this was the incredible nature of the Cambodian people. Given what they have been through, I expected them to appear post-traumatic. Instead, their energetic presence was the most open, generous, happy and gentle I have ever felt in a country.

We stayed at Golden Village Guesthouse; as I told the matriarch Gui on our departure, “Golden Village is so beautiful to my eyes, and even more beautiful to my heart.” Beautiful landscaping, a balcony for yoga, a young man Piset who was so helpful every day without hesitation, two key women Huy Eng and Sokhom whose radiant smiles and calm presence sweetened our days, and Huy Eng’s parents Gui and Tu who gifted us interesting things to eat and were so energetically present and kind.

New Hope Cambodia was the perfect volunteer experience for us. Almost all of the volunteers stay at Golden Village Guesthouse making for a wonderful community feeling. We rode our bicycles 25 minutes to New Hope, which started out 4 years ago as a single-room school, founded by a calm and powerful Khmer man Kem Sour and an unstoppable, kind Australian Kerry. Now, they have a new three story school building serving 650 students, teaching them English which is necessary for most decent jobs, and also skills such as sewing, computers, farming and fish farming. There is a new restaurant building where they teach cooking and other restaurant work. They have an outreach program that goes out into the community to assess family’s needs and creatively offers whatever assistance they need. 180 families are sponsored by donors and receive 20-50 kilos of rice monthly plus several other food items. The new health clinic has two Khmer doctors and several nurses; they see up to 100 patients a day with very limited resources including a small pharmacy. The people seen cannot afford to buy any medicine so they are limited to what we can give them from the pharmacy. Everything New Hope offers is completely free.

Isaac, Avi and Veronica taught English in the school to children from age 9 to 18. Isaac also helped teach them how to use computers. Avi also helped with math. On our last day there, there was a wonderful opening celebration for the new clinic building, attended by New Hope Cambodia staff, students and donors as well as provincial government leaders. At Kerry’s request, Veronica went into all the classrooms with Avi to teach the children the school song to sing at the opening. She also developed a landscape design for the new buildings.

I spent about half of my time in the clinic working with the wonderful Khmer doctor Dr. Lay. She just graduated from medical school and does not have as thorough an education as American medical school grads. She does have, however, a great desire to learn more and I much enjoyed working with and teaching her. I spent the other half of my time making home (thatch hut) visits. It was amazing to be in many people’s homes. Hunger was present in many of the homes. Everyone is thin although most are not obviously malnourished. About half of the homes have someone missing limb(s) from landmine accidents. I worked with a few special cases: a man with confusion due to AIDS and tuberculosis meningitis (missing one leg) and a woman (double leg amputee, in her case from diabetes) with severe respiratory distress which was hard to sort out but proved to be due to heart failure precipitated by kidney failure caused by diabetes. I spent the most time with a woman with an untreatable advanced facial tumor that was the most horrific thing I have ever seen in my medical work (don’t worry, I’m NOT posting that photo). She had undertreated pain (on no narcotics when I met her) yet maintained the most calm presence; I told her she was like Buddha. With her, the focus was pain management, end-of-life planning, and the complicated issue of how to overdose…  Saying goodbye to our Golden Village Guesthouse and New Hope Cambodia family was sad and full of much heart-warming mutual appreciation.

Cambodia was a very rich experience for all of us and a wonderful medical volunteer experience for me. We highly recommend you all go to Cambodia and volunteer with New Hope Cambodia! If you’d like to make a donation to support New Hope Cambodia, please go to our fundraising page: http://www.gofundraise.com.au/page/bavi

New Hope School

 

Veronica & Avi's Students

New Hope Teaching Restaurant

New Hope Clinic

Waiting room at the New Hope Clinic

 

Dr. Lay, interpreter Pirom & Filipino pharmacist Lovegrace

At home with CHF, renal failure & a dedicated
husband who gives his sick wife all the food

At home with AIDS and TB Meningitis

Travel Photos and PLEASE DONATE

You’ve seen a few of our travel photos on our blog, now you can see ALL of them in our Picasa Gallery at https://picasaweb.google.com/bradroter
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On this day of givingThanks, please donate to the wonderful organizations we are working with here in Cambodia. We are working first-hand with many suffering from malnutrition and untreated disease. Many cannot afford to buy rice, or medicine for serious illnesses such as pain medicine for advanced cancer. They also need education to get a decent job.

Education and helping survivors of sex-trafficking:
DONATE to Village Focus International: click on “Sponsor a Participant” and sponsor one of us for the “Bike for Kids” event: http://www.villagefocus.org/bike/
Village Focus International is committed to working with and serving the poorest, most vulnerable people of Laos and Cambodia. On December 3, we will ride in VFI’s main fundraiser, the “Bike for Kids Angkor Wat Race & Ride”, which will be used to support 4 schools in slum areas in Cambodia and a shelter for survivors of sex-trafficking.

Stopping hunger, providing health care, community outreach and education:
DONATE to New Hope Cambodia on our fundraising page: http://www.gofundraise.com.au/page/bavi
New Hope Cambodia is focused on breaking the vicious cycle of poverty through free education, health care and nutritional support for the residents of one of the poorest slums in Cambodia. Veronica, Isaac and Avi are teaching English which is essential for the students to get jobs. Baruch is working and teaching in the clinic, which takes care of many very sick people that have no other access to health care.

Thanks so much for your support!
Avi, Isaac, Veronica & Baruch

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is a temple complex near Siem Reap, Cambodia that my family visited. We hired a very nice Khmer guide with good English who knew a lot about the famous place. Our group started out at a smaller, less crowded structure called Preah Khan. It was nice to go to a site with less people because I could enjoy it without all the noise.

Then we went to Angkor Thom, which means “The Great City”, it contains most of the buildings in the whole complex. The place covers an area of nine sq. km and had population of over 100,000 people during the 14^th century.

Angkor Wat is one of the most famous temples within the entire Angkor Wat complex; it has a giant moat surrounding itself that once had crocodiles. It was given its name after the word ‘Angkor’, which means 'city' and ‘Wat’, which means temple hence the name, “City Temple”.

I find religion in Cambodia interesting because while the vast majority of the country is Buddhist, there are Hindu and Buddhist sculptures throughout the country and in Angkor Wat. The blend of religion happened because India used to control this part of the world and then Buddhism was introduced. Inside and throughout the exterior of the structures you can find carvings of ancient battles or people in marvelous garments from the period the figures were carved.

Though my brother and I played around most of the time, I did appreciate learning some interesting facts about the city. Overall I think Angkor Wat is an amazing destination and I'm grateful that I was able to experience it. 

The Recent History of Cambodia

Near the end of the Vietnam War the North Vietnam Army and the Vietcong were operating out of Cambodia. Because of this America decided to bomb and launch a land invasion in Cambodia. This was very bad for Cambodia. In April of 1975 the country was taken over by revolutionaries known as the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge believed in creating a peasant-dominated nation, centered around agriculture. Unfortunately the way this was carried out was by marching everyone out of the cities, even the young, old, sick, and disabled. They were then forced to work on farms 12 to 15 hours a day. They wanted to also get rid of everything that had come before them. Anyone with any sort of an education was killed, including those that had glasses or could speak two languages. The Khmer Rouge treatment of the Cambodians was horrific and by the time their rule ended in January of 1979 almost 2 million, one-third of the total population, were murdered, died of starvation or disease. In addition to their terrible treatment of the Cambodians, the Khmer Rouge also planted landmines all over the countryside that have plagued the Cambodians to this day.

Although the total rule of the Khmer Rouge ended in 1979, they continued to have holdouts throughout Cambodia. Sadly the Khmer Rouge were not completely defeated until the spring of 1998. Then the Cambodians were finally able to begin to rebuild their society, and try to heal their injured psyches after all the awful things that happened to them. Because all of the educated people were systematically killed, it has been very difficult for the Cambodians to continue to develop their society.

As a volunteer helping to teach kids, I feel like I'm playing a part in the reconstruction of Cambodia. 

Please Donate to Support the Sweetest Country with the Greatest Need

We have arrived in the sweetest country with the greatest need that we have been in since we left home. When we arrived in Cambodia last week, we were amazed and inspired by the radiant smiles and heart-warming nature of the Cambodian people, despite their extremely challenging recent history. They are rebuilding their society since peace was finally established in 1998.

We are in the heart of our trip now, helping impoverished Cambodian children and families.  We’re working with two amazing, highly efficient well-established non-profits.

New Hope Cambodia is focused on breaking the vicious cycle of poverty through free education, health care and nutritional support for the residents of one of the poorest slums in Cambodia. Veronica, Isaac and Avi are teaching English which is essential for their students to get jobs. Baruch is working and teaching in the clinic which takes care of many very sick people that have no other access to health care.

Village Focus International is committed to working with and serving the poorest, most vulnerable people of Laos and Cambodia. We plan to work with Village Focus in Laos for a month after we conclude our month in Cambodia. On December 3, we will ride in VFI’s main fundraiser, the “Bike for Kids Angkor Wat Race & Ride”, which will be used to support 4 schools in slum areas and a shelter for survivors of sex-trafficking.

PLEASE MAKE A DONATION to support the vital work of these organizations.

DONATE to Village Focus International: click on “Sponsor a Participant” and sponsor one of us for the “Bike for Kids” event: http://www.villagefocus.org/bike/

DONATE to New Hope Cambodia fundraising page: http://www.gofundraise.com.au/page/bavi

Thanks so much for your compassion and taking action to help!

Avi, Isaac, Veronica & Baruch

PS  You can check out and subscribe to our blog at baviworldtour.blogspot.com

Into the Heart of our Journey

Today we arrived.

The wonderful and busy first phase of our trip has ended.

We are resting in profound gratitude for where we are now.

After a much-smoother-than-we-had-heard land crossing from Thailand into Cambodia, we were met by a friendly taxi driver (pre-arranged inexpensively by our amazing new hotel manager) and smoothly landed at the beautiful Golden Village Guesthouse in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Tears of gratitude and relief! We were warmly greeted by the two charming Cambodian women who work at the guesthouse.  We have noted each time we move on to a new country that the people have been more relaxed and happier.  This is certainly true today and we are so pleased to be amongst smiling and kind people. We have two large, beautifully appointed rooms at this gorgeous hotel for $25 a night total.  The volunteer coordinator and another leader of New Hope Cambodia, the organization we will be volunteering with starting next Monday, came over right away to welcome and orient us.  New Hope Cambodia has a school where Veronica, Isaac and Avi will help teach English, and a clinic where I will work.  They are located in Mondul 3, the worst slum in Cambodia (and I think that is saying something…).  The boys are in for a big lesson about how much of the world lives.

It feels so good to be on the verge of making a contribution for a great cause.

Veronica and I are both excited to have our own beautiful, peaceful room to relax and connect in.

What a blessed life we live!

Baruch (Blessed)

Beauty and the Beast

Chugging down the tracks, following the Nile from Luxor to Cairo, feeling a sense of relief as we move away from the extreme chaos, filth and sensory overload of an Egyptian city.  We take comfort in the timeless beauty of people working the rich brown earth by hand, growing food as they have for millennia. 

The train ride is a constantly changing view from lush green fields speckled with palm trees, donkeys, sheep and farmers juxtaposed by blocks of crudely constructed, tightly packed, often decrepit brick buildings.

We can’t help but notice how peaceful we feel when looking out at the green fields and the internal constriction we experience when we feel far removed from nature. That’s why we chose to move from Seattle to Vashon Island. Since we have been traveling through so many cities, we realize the importance of creating opportunities on our journey to connect with nature.

Baruch & Veronica

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Petra

The Treasury

Nestled in a valley in Jordan lies an ancient city carved out of sheer cliff faces. There are hundreds of buildings, each one carved out of one piece of stone. We were luckily enough to visit this magical place, and walked miles around, through, and within many amazing stone carved buildings.

Petra was built over 2,000 years ago by the Nabateans, a nomadic tribe from western Arabia who settled in that area around the 6^th century BCE. It is the biggest tourist attraction in Jordan and it is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The area is currently populated by non-nomadic Bedouins. They are very friendly and talkative, especially when they are trying to sell you things.

There are many things to see at Petra, such as the iconic Treasury (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), and the Monastery, an inconceivably tall building thought to be a church because of the crosses found on the interior. On the second day we hiked 2 miles and up 850 stairs to see the jaw-dropping Monastery. When we were there we saw a Bedouin man climb up a rock face to the side of, and then on top of, the 200 foot tall Monastery. On the walk back down, after we were done going the down the stairs, we got to ride camels through Petra, which was probably the third coolest thing I’ve ever done.

A Bedouin on top of the Monastery

The Monastery

hanging out twenty feet up

The Dead Sea

Avi floating in the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is the one of the saltiest bodies of water and the lowest point on earth (1,388 feet below sea level). This inland sea is named because it’s so salty that there are no living creatures in it. The sea has 8.6 times higher salt concentration than ocean water. The Dead Sea is so salty because it has no outlets. While the water evaporates, the salt remains and builds up.

Salt-covered rock
Dead Sea shore

Salt-covered Dead Sea shore

Salt water has a higher density than fresh water. You float easily because you move the heavy water downwards and it pushes upwards trying to fill in the space. That’s why things float much better in salt water.  The Dead Sea is extremely salty and therefore extremely dense making things very buoyant.  Being in the Dead Sea felt almost unreal to me, I could stand straight up and the water would take me off my feet onto my stomach or back. I found it amazing that with no effort I could float.  It also occurred to me that I could use the resistance to swim very fast, even while doggie paddling. The only thing was I had to be careful not to get any water on my face, because it’s so salty it can burn your eyes, ears, nose or mouth.

An Inspiring Community

While Avi already wrote about Kibbutz Mishmar Ha' Emeq, we (Baruch & Veronica) were so blown away by our experience there that we wanted to share these words.

While planning our trip to Israel, given our interest in intentional communities, we really wanted to find a way to experience kibbutz life.  A month before our departure, an Israeli family just happened to come to Veronica’s weekly acroyoga class.  Veronica introduced herself and mentioned that we would soon be in Israel.  Though they had met only a moment before, Yenai immediately offered to host us. Without hesitation, Veronica accepted the offer.  A month later we drove directly from the Tel Aviv airport to Kibbutz Mishmar Ha’ Emeq.

After travelling around Turkey, we were all ready for a homier environment.  The Family Levor (Yenai, his wife Dafna and their children ages 16-21) along with the kibbutz generously provided what we were hoping for.  Yenai is an amazingly multi-talented person.  He’s a prominent homeopath, an acrobalance teacher, has many circus arts skills, and has a leadership role in the kibbutz. He is a thoughtful and knowledgeable man who speaks fluent English. As a result, we learned so much from him about kibbutz life and Israeli history.

The morning after we arrived, Yenai and his teenage son took us for an exciting first surfing lesson.  We all got ‘washing machined’ by the rowdy sea, and experienced the thrill of riding some waves lying on the boards.  We also all had a great time doing acrobalancing on the beach.

We spent the next four days graciously hosted by the Family Levor and their amazing kibbutz.  Yenai gave us a wonderful insider view of kibbutz life.  It was heartwarming to see how 1000 people can live together, each one contributing to the community and each one having their needs very well met. 

While the kibbutz movement is diminishing in Israel, this kibbutz is going very strong, celebrating its 90^th anniversary in 2011.  Over the years Mishmar Ha’ Emeq has grown from a handful of pioneers living in tents to a thriving community that owns a successful agricultural plastics factory, a large dairy and chicken farm, and several other agricultural ventures.

Kibbutz members provide almost all of the labor for the kibbutz’s business and community operations without receiving any pay.  The elderly can keep working, as much as they are able. All kibbutz members receive what they need: a nice place to live, three great meals a day in the amazing kibbutz cafeteria, a car or van to use when needed, laundry, healthcare, childcare, education, and a monthly allowance for clothing and all other expenses.  The factory manager receives nothing more than any other kibbutz member. It is in many ways the full manifestation of the dream so many of us share of living together with abundance and without money or class distinctions.

Between the generous family energy of the Levor’s and the heartwarming experience of the kibbutz life, we left feeling renewed and inspired!

Baruch & Fernmoss

Kibbutz Mishmar Ha'Emek

Recently my family and I spent a few days at kibbutz Mishmar Ha'Emek. The kibbutz has 1,000 residents.  Every member contributes in the decision making to run the kibbutz through voting during meetings. The kibbutz members all rely on each other to work.

The members in the kibbutz might work in the cafeteria, the factory, or the dairy farm, but they don’t receive income. The money made by the industries is put straight into the kibbutz account. The kibbutz gives you a home to live in and serves three free meals a day from the cafeteria. Everybody receives a monthly allowance from the kibbutz. How much money you receive depends on how many people are in your family and other things.

The kibbutz offers chicken eggs from their hatchery, milk from their cows, cotton, and plastic from their factory. My family actually witnessed a calf being born! That was amazing but a little disgusting.. You get at least one job to work when you reach 6^th grade as well as going to school, and the jobs get progressively harder until you reach adult age.

While in the kibbutz I learned how to juggle, with my brother, which made me very proud. We also saw a unique puppeteer perform and enjoyed several other activities in the kibbutz. Overall, I think staying in the kibbutz was a good experience and was lots of fun. In daily life most people live very independently but in the kibbutz you can make a lot of close friends and it’s easy to be entertained.

Jerusalem and Yad Vashem

Jerusalem is located at the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe. A long time ago, you had to go through Jerusalem, if you wanted to go from any of those continents to another. This led to Jerusalem, and whoever ruled Jerusalem, to become quite wealthy because of all the trade that came through.  The Knesset, Israel’s legislative body is in the new part of the city.

The other part of Jerusalem is the Old City. The Old City is a warren of tight, winding streets. Walking around in it you can really understand how ancient it really is. It is divided into four sections, or quarters: the Jewish Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, and the Armenian Quarter. The Muslim Quarter has the largest population, with over 22,000 permanent residents. There are approximately 33,000 people living in the entire Old City. It contains many special religious sites, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus Christ was laid to rest and the Dome of the Rock, which contains a rock that Muhammad leaped off of to ascend to heaven. This is also the same rock that Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac on. It also contains the Western Wall, the last standing part of the magnificent Solomon’s Temple. It is seen as the holiest site of Judaism. It was amazing to visit the wall and feel my connection to my ancient Jewish ancestors. It was also sad to see that the once magnificent structure only had one standing wall left.

Another important site in Jerusalem is the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum complex. It is comprised of a gigantic museum and many memorials. The museum is a 150-yard long triangular prism. It is cordoned off by little barriers that lead you through rooms off of a main area that runs through the center of the structure. In the first part of the museum they talk about the rise of the Nazi party and the beginning of the discrimination against the Jewish people. The museum shows some anti-Jew propaganda that is pretty much just some pictures of people with really big noses, which reminded me of how a third-grader would make fun of someone. Next they showed how the discrimination was taken to the next level, with the ghettos. The ghettos were effectively a prison to contain the Jews in the city. They were full of starvation and disease. The rest of the exhibits were about the concentration camps and the implementation of the “Final Solution”. There were many powerful things in the museum, such as the ash hatch of a crematorium, and dozens of video interviews with Holocaust survivors. I felt very sad throughout my time there, and shocked and ashamed that humans are capable of doing these things to each other. Although it made me feel sad, I’m glad I went because it was a good experience and it helped me better understand why something like the Holocaust should never happen again.