Experiences with Children

Though I had fun, interesting, and sometimes unnerving experiences with children in Vietnam, I’m going to limit this post just to those in Cambodia and, moreover, primarily at Angkor.

Upon first arriving at Angkor Wat, there are an abundance of places to park a bike – all surrounded with children peddling wares.  If you ask them about school, you get a version of ‘I go in the morning’ or ‘I go in the afternoon’ depending on what time of day it is.  I’m not actually sure if any of them go to school, but I’m fairly certain they are used to tourists asking if they do.  I and my fellow companions managed to park our bikes and maneuver through the onslaught of children with minimal purchasing.  Inside Angkor Wat, a young girl kept following me – smiling sheepishly – and motioning for me to take her picture.  Wise to this scam, and not wanting to subsequently have some random picture of a Cambodian girl cutely posing on my camera, I passed.  She repeatedly called, ‘Mister, mister’ and would smile and make the picture hand signal.  Finally, I just took to saying, ‘Misses, misses’ after she called to me, which made her laugh but eventually flutter off after some other tourists.  After our tour of Angkor Wat, we decided it would be best to go ahead and get the bikes again to travel to another section of Angkor. Previously, as I looked down and saw my newly purchased water, I felt as though I had survived the first assault of war and managed to emerge unbullet ridden and trauma free.  Had I but known.

I only thought I knew what assault was.  Cards were thrust into my face, beaded bracelets paraded in front of me, mister mister mister shouted until my ears simply echoed the sound repeatedly.  I bought one set of post cards.   One girl kept accosting me with bracelets, so I considered buying some.  Immediately, as I asked how much my companion immediately said, ‘Bryan, you don’t want those.’  Strengthened by this support, I changed my mind.  This, lit fury within the girl.  Suddenly, tears showed up.  Crying, she said that I had promised to buy something.  My heart strings twinged, but the chill set on as my mind said, ‘They are good at this.’  I said, ‘Look, I’m sorry.’

‘I don’t want your sorry, I want you to buy.’  This shot back with a little anger toward me.  She kept pushing, as my companions managed to secure final purchases and we unhooked our bikes to move on.  Then, she erupted with anger and tears.  ‘I hope you fucking die.’  Now, that I did not expect.  ‘That’s not very nice,’ I said.  ‘It’s not nice not to buy’ she retorted.  A few more ‘fucking dies’ later and with me being nice, I managed to peddle away as she said something about me being hit on my stupid bike.  Ouch.

Now, that one was rough.  But the next day was fun.  Having traveled to another section of Angkor on the opposite side of Angkor Wat, the selling and bustle is much slower paced.  I ran into a girl who was selling shirts.  This, is how this exchange went: G:  ‘Do you want to buy a shirt?  100% cotton made in Cambodia!  It’s good, you buy?’ Me:  Do grow cotton in Cambodia?  G: [smiling] ‘Noooo….’ Me:  ‘Well, I’ll tell you what.  If you can tell me where they grow cotton, I’ll buy a shirt.’  G: [still smiling] ‘mmmhmhmhmm’ Me:  ‘Um..that’s no place I’ve ever heard of..’  G:  ‘AAAaaaa…I don’t know!’ and she laughed and squirmed, ‘Buy the shirt!’  Me:  But you couldn’t tell me where they grow cotton.  That was the deal.’

Later, she came up with a friend who had scarves.  G2:  ‘Buy 3 scarves mister, special deal for 3 scarves buy them for your family. Special price just for you.’ Me: really, just for me?’  She laughed, ‘buy one for your girlfriend, your mom, and your grandma.’ Me: ‘Uh oh…see that’s no good.’  G2:  ‘No, buy one for your girlfriend mister.’ Me:  ‘Oh…see my girlfriend is meeeaan.  She’ll get onto me for spending money and buying her a present.  And my mom, she’s even meaner!  She’ll pinch me and hit me for buying her something.  They are mean mean mean!’  G2:  Uh uh! Me:  ‘And my grandma…well…’ and here I paused and frowned dramatically, ‘well…my grandma is dead.’  G2: [playfully]  ‘Ummmphh! Your family is so difficult! ‘

Children…

I had a whirlwind tour through the Mekong Delta.  I didn’t get to see some cities I hoped, but that’s ok.  Always leave an area with something left to see so that you have a reason to return, right?  Well, the Delta tour ended with a visit to a ‘minority’ village. 

Children selling stuff is really common in Vietnam and Cambodia.  With the combination of ridiculously low prices and insane cuteness – these little kids are a marketers dream.  It is nearly impossible to say no to them.  But, every now and then you get to have fun with them through the entire process.  At the village, several kids were selling cakes.  Signs and guides warned not to buy or eat the cakes, since they might make you sick.  One friend pointed out that they probably use water from the Mekong to make them.  While the Mekong is mighty impressive to travel upon, I shall not be taking swigs from it anytime soon. 

One little girl [below, the one in blue] talked to me.  When I said I didn’t want a cake, she said, ‘Maybe later.  You promise to only buy from me, ok?‘  So, I promised.  This, was a brilliant strategy.  Every child who came up to me, I could just point to the girl in blue and say, Oh, I’m sorry but I promised that little girl I’d only buy from her.  This made the little girl in blue’s day, she smiled really big.  As she followed me around, we chatted about different things.  I asked her name, how old she was, if she went to school.  She seemed to really like just talking too. 

When I returned to our group, I saw one of my friends had several cakes.  He said, I’m going to go broke here.  I said, ‘ You have to have a heart of stone.’  Then he replied, You can’t spare a dollar dude?  And I realized that this little girl had followed me around the entire time our group arrived, forgoing potiential other sales.  So, I walked back over and I said, ‘I only want two cakes’ [she had offered 4 to 6 at different points of the afternoon].  Suddenly, she looked really sad.  She handed me the two cakes, took the dollar and looked at it.  She offered me more cakes, but I declined.  Still, she looked really sad.  Thankfully, a child’s unhappiness is short lived as I saw her a little while later chatting and laughing with a friend.  She smiled and waved goodbye when I left.   This short introduction was just a preview of my struggles with an  entrepreneurial child.

Chinese school visits

One opportunity that Luzhou offered was to visit two local primary schools, where they requested that we teach a lesson. Children are not my forte, but I agreed [I also had no choice – so that helps to make a decision]. Regardless, a visit to the children of the great People’s Republic should be interesting, right?

Oh my. You can see some pictures in the last post. Our first lesson with the primary students was met with some rough patches as we all underestimated the power of rote repetition. In a typical lesson, the children will chant back phrases, words, and mimic actions of the teacher. So it was impossible to ask the kids a question, since they would repeat the question back to us in pure robotic fashion. Quickly, we realized what was happening and modified. A rousing round of head, shoulders, knees and toes, with motions, remedied our situation. The kids were laughing, no longer confused and robotic, and seemed to be learning too. We played some vocabulary building games with the older students, and they seemed to love the competition.

Our second visit was to a more rural school that served students from the surrounding areas. The conditions of the school were a little rougher than the previous and the skills of the students a little lower. But, by far, they were sweeter and more personable.

All in all a very interesting school visit. They also do morning exercises which we got to see [see the pictures below]. There is nothing like seeing hundreds of children doing the exact same motions while a loudspeaker blares music. Creepy and inspiring, it was an amazing experience. The rural school also did the same dances, though with less timed motion and accuracy. Regardless, being a kid in China must be really interesting.