Thursday, December 07, 2006

55) A little girl at a temple

Here is the background to these three pictures (I can only seem to get two of them to work right now). One of my first days in Cambodia I took a trip out to the middle on no-where on the back of a moto. It took us about two hours to get to our destination from Phnom Penh. The second I stepped off the moto at the temple these pics were taken at, I was swarmed by children. They were apparently just hanging out at the temple before the went to school that day. The first thing they did was try to sell me flowers and incense. After I declined several times they just tried to give it all to me. It was pretty clear these kids did not see many Westerners, and I confirmed that with my driver.

So after a little while I started taking pictures of the kids, and then giving them money. It was pretty cool how they would share- I gave about 50 cents to a group of kids, and they all agreed to share it, and then left me alone. And I kept doing the same to other groups of kids who all agreed to share the money. My driver said just give the money to the oldest kid, and he will share it with the rest. Apparently 50 cents split among 5 to 10 kids can go a long enough way in the country side of Cambodia. After a while I noticed an adorible little girl. She was by herself, and never asked for any money, even after I took her picture. Then before I left I saw her again, but this time with her family. I took another picture of her and her family, and then the girl asked for some money (according to my driver- she only spoke Khmer). When I gave her the money she put her hands together at her forehead, and bowed, then walked back to her family. There was something about this girl that was striking to me- she always had the same expression on her face- and it was very different from the other children I saw at this place. You may be able to get the idea of what I am talking about by looking at the pictures below.



4 comments:

mom01 said...

Kyle ~ this is a GREAT story!! You had this little girl's picture posted earlier and I loved it ~ it is even more precious knowing something about her personality!

tonight at noon said...

great shots, great story, lovely little munchkin... the girl has the look of someone about to say, "Is that the SOB who owes me money?"

Eric Habermeyer said...

I would agree that the kids are so dang cute. I was just playing with a bunch of village kids the other day. They really like songs with hand motions. They were all over "Head, shoulders, knees and toes"

Teri said...

Wow Kyle, her eyes. What are those eyes saying? She is so pretty. Teri