Beggar Boy

Hi! I thought I would just quickly give you a play by play of our saturday yesterday.

Every Saturday we make our way after our breakfast to Hotel Cambodiana, aka HC, to go to the Physique Club to work our physiques into wonderment! Saturdays are a bit more relaxed at the gym in terms of gym worker boys staring at E. and I the ENTIRE time we work out. No word of a lie; they actually stand right behind our treadmills or behind our bicycles and listen to everything we are saying!! Or as in my case on thursday night; they stand behind you as you lift your measley 3 kg weights and tell you you are pretty while you sweat buckets! I find it gives me a bit more energy to finish my workout;), but E. on the other hand can't wait for Saturdays cause Ronnie and Nuan won't be there (the hot gym boys)...

Okay, so we work out (I've tried doing some chin-ups...yeah, my goal; to actually do a chin up by the end of my life!), then we head to the pool for some rays and some dips. I've gotten used to the birds that flutter around the pool, I'm am quite proud of myself. Word must have gotten around that the Canadian girls LIVE in Phnom Penh because twice we've had the pool side worker boys come up to us while we are IN the pool and try to have a convo with us. Like one boy; he actually said he wanted to put his application form in to be our boyfriends! He asked what our families look for in a husband for us!! Ahhhhh!!! We stay clear of Mr. Application now.

After the pool we had lunch, Khmer style at a store nearby and then we walked till our legs fell off down to St.240. While we were walking a little street/begger boy (around 7 years) came up to us. This is no new event! There are constantly little kids with smaller siblings tagging along behind them asking for money. E. knows how badly I want to give to them but she cheers me on to leave them. If I give them money they will not get it: their parents will. Anyways, this one boy had only pants on, if you'd call them that! They were ripped up the seams on all sides so that it looked like a skirt and they were soaking wet! he also had a burn scar on his stomach probably 4 inches in diameter and another scar on the back of his upper arm about the same size. Because E. doesn't pay them any attention due to their annoying requests for money; they ALWAYS make their way to my side and stay there. Oh! It breaks my heart!

He kept by my side for quite a while. I was able to ask him his name, how old he was, if his scars hurt, etc. He just kept mumbling "nam"...which means food. I felt for this poor little soul so I decided to keep him by my side and buy him some food. That way I would know that HE would get the money I gave him. We walked to a food stand with popcorn and drinks and pointed to see if he wanted popcorn (I couldn't see any place to buy him actually food), he pointed beyond the 'candy' to a family eating in their make-shift little shack. I walked over with him and told them I would pay for him to have some food. Surprisingly they agreed. Khmer people are ussually very mean to children. They hit and yell constantly at them.

I paid 2000 riehls (50 cents) for my dear little follower to fill his tummy with rice and meat and vegetables and water! He was shocked. I paid the money to the woman and the little boy turned around and looked at me with his big eyes and hungry tummy with amazement. He put his hands together in a prayer like they do here and said, "akun", thankyou. I said "mi nigh etey", your welcome and tickled his little armpit to get in there and eat his food! He jumped up the stairs into the house and held his little plate while the woman FILLED it with rice. I watched for a bit to make sure that they actually gave him the food.

To be honest, I had a bit of tears in these berly-kim eyes. I was glad I took the time and the money to give. God bless my boy!