Temple Tots

The kids that sell souvenirs gravitate to the tourists at the refreshment areas near the temples and are remarkably good at getting the potential buyers attention. As I had a cold drink and waited with my tuk tuk driver a cute young girl approached my table. She must have been about 6-7 years old and had a box of bracelets and postcards. Sizing me up as one that may prefer postcards she began her routine. “Hello, what’s your name?”, “Buy some postcards? Only one dollar”, “Look, there’s 10…”(as she flips through reach one stating which temple site it was of), “Where are you from?”
“Canada”, I said.
Then, in unison with another young girl now standing beside her, they quickly replied, “Canada, the capital is Ottawa, there is a population of over 32 million, you have a nickel, a dime, a quarter, a loony, a toonie (and so on)…These postcards will only cost you one looney or 4000 reil (Cambodian currency)!”.

As I sat there with a flabbergasted look on my face I could hear other kids at other tables:
“Where you from?”… “Chile”, “Chile, the capital of Chile is Santiago…”
“You are from Japan? Kon'nichiwa!”
Again, the little girl attempted to pull on the heartstrings… “Please buy post cards for my school.”

Huh?-Did?-What?-School? Kid, I thought to myself, you've pretty much beat most children I've met twice your age with your knowledge of geography, math, currency exchange, second (at least) language skills, demographics… and you did it as a hard sell, establishing a relationship, getting my name and where I am from so you could optimize the relationship between buyer and seller! The look on my face shifted from flabbergasted to WTF!

Now, this story aside, I don’t want anybody reading this to feel that these kids are at a level that is even close to what it should be. Their routines are to make money and they memorize this data with the same ability that kids back home know endless cartoon characters and their story-lines. The education system in Cambodia, from what I gathered from a group of Italians I met that were volunteering in the schools, does needs a ton of work.