The little girl in the front is Lin, 8. The other two are both named Srey Oun and 10 years old. They sell bracelets on the beach. You can see Lin's rig hanging from her shoulder. It's a strategically bent coat hanger with bracelets hanging from it. There are dozens of kids their age on the beach, all selling exactly the same bracelets hanging from coat hangers bent in exactly the same way.
Some go to school. Some don't. Either way, they're there every day and every night. You'll see kids working on the beach when you arrive at 8 a.m. You'll see them when you go down to the beach for dinner at 6 p.m. You'll see them when you go back to your hotel at 10 p.m. You'll see them the next day.
These three always sit and talk with me. They ask me to go swimming but I don't. Cambodia is famous, unfortunately, for being a hotspot for child prostitution. If you're a western man playing in the ocean with Cambodian children people will assume you're a pedophile. No way around it.
Dealing with the kids on the beach is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" proposition. If you give them money it encourages the continuation of the system. If you don't give them money they get in trouble. Some have told me they can't go home unless they've made a certain amount of money or sold all of their fruit, lobsters, or whatever. They might be lying for sympathy, but I doubt it, since they are still working when I go home for the night.
I give my "girlfriends" a few dollars to buy food, Coke, whatever. I know they spend it on food because they always offer to share. They are always glad to see me but I wondered how much of it was genuine and how much of it was salesmanship.
One morning Lin wasn't on the beach but the two Srey Ouns gave me a Christmas present. In a box, wrapped, with a bow.
It was all I could do to keep from crying. Heck, I'm watering up now. It was a few trinkets: a bracelet, a necklace, a keyring and a snowglobe. Who knows if they even paid for it. God knows I don't want them spending their money on me! But that they took the time to put it together, box it and wrap it ... I just don't know what to say.
They knew I was going home for Christmas. I had shown them pictures from home. They especially liked pix of my neice and nephew in the snow. They said they wanted to give them presents too. I asked them to make bracelets with Christopher's and Sarah's initials.
Lin got word that and wanted to make one too. I asked her to make one for my little cousin Erin. Let's just say I paid substantially more than the market rate for these bracelets...
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