Last April, I met some very friendly kids in front of the Baphoun temple in Siem Reap. It was drizzling and Meg and I have been walking all day, checking out the many temples of Siem Reap. So we decided to give our tired feet some rest for a little while. We found a nice little spot in front of Baphoun. There weren’t too many tourists and the peddling kids weren’t too active in their trade. Until the drizzle turned to a downpour so we ran for cover and the kids selling in front of the temple were nice enough to offer us their umbrella. So Meg and I and a host of nine Cambodian kids sat under the big blue umbrella and waited for the rain to stop. While we were all seated cozily with all their scarves, Coca-Cola in cans, Cambodia guides and a lot of other stuff they sell, we started to chat and talk about their life in Cambodia. We found out that only three of them go to school and only for an hour a day with a tuition of $200 for three months. After selling in Baphoun the whole day, the three girls rush to bring their goods home then they would go to school from 6pm to 7pm everyday. At that moment, I realized how blessed we Filipinos are. Despite the many bad things we hear about our education system, we still have a system that is able to provide free education to the public at least four hours a day.
Although only three of them know how to speak English, the other kids still flocked around us not because we were buying all their stuff (I didn’t buy anything actually) but because we are actually chatting with them and exchanging smiles with those who can’t understand a word of English. The kids gave Meg and I, a scarf each. A scarf which they’ve been trying to sell us for $3 a few minutes ago, they’re offering to give it to us for free. We tried to pay for it but they won’t accept our payment. They said it was their way of saying thank you for the attention we gave them. They just don’t know how much I learned from our encounter. A smile is truly the universal language, my Esperanto.
We got their email addresses and phone numbers and I was planning to keep in touch with them as soon I get back.
It turned out that they gave us the wrong phone numbers and email address. I thought I won’t be able to contact them ever again. Until I decided to post a shout out for help in the couchsurfing website in June, two guys traveling to Cambodia in July replied to my request.
A month later, I got an email with the subject “News from Baphoun”. My heart skipped a beat. I was thinking it could be good or bad news. The first line of his email is …..”I’ve found them!” He actually found the kids!
A person whom I’ve never set eyes on found the kids using a picture that I just emailed him. Small flat world. That’s miniaturization.
2 comments:
I'm all for smiles, but they are not an international language in the sense that they cannot say, "Shall we meet here at eight o'clock?" or "I don't feel very well", or "You can take bus number eleven or bus number thirty-nine". For messages like these you need a real language - such as Esperanto.
Take a look at www.esperanto.net
Bill
they say great things happen in the most trivial of experiences. i'm touched by this story, niks. didn't know you had that sensible part in you:)
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