Tots doing trade

By DEBBITA TAN

The streets of Cambodia are a world where street children trade and are sometimes traded.

One dollar, one dollar!” It is rather impossible really, to put on a poker face and ignore these unrelenting three-syllable cries.

What more when they emanate from enterprising tots no more than three feet tall, whose first words were most probably “one dollar”, quickly followed by “You buy?”

And that is just English; Cambodian street children generally speak whatever language it takes to make another dollar for the day. And just like any self-respecting trader worth his salt, these industrious little tykes know that variety is key.

It is no wonder then that the list of goods sold for a single American dollar runs longer than the mighty Mekong itself.

A family living on the street.

Some tourists who trot around clutching their Lonely Planet guidebooks actually end up clutching even more copies after being ambushed by groups of these little traders. Others simply emerge with everything else, from postcards and bracelets to foot-long flutes and statues of the Buddha of all sizes.

“I just could not say no!” most of them shrug.

To some degree, I could not say no, either. After all, these kids are not pestering tourists because they want to, but because they have to. Cambodia’s street children are the tragic outcome of the country’s history of chaos and isolation, uneven development and the rugged nature of its new economy.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), thousands of Cambodian children work and live on the streets, returning home to their families only irregularly. Sadly, home €” to a good number of the families €” is also out on the streets.

A street child trying to sell a handmade flute.

Different people are affected by Cambodia in different ways. Some are awed into silence €” sometimes into tears €” by the sight of the magnificent Angkor Wat, while some blindly ask, “Angkor what?”

Others feel a desperate need to bite into fried tarantulas so they can horrify friends back home, and the rest just want to live on Siem Reap’s Pub Street forever.

But the essence of Cambodia that affects most visitors, if not all, must surely be the resilience of its street children.

They teach you that survival means taking a step forward each time you are about to be shoved a step back.

In short, if you are a street kid in Cambodia, it is all about survival. Earning another dollar means buying a bit more time and a bit more of life. A dollar can go a long way here.

If you can just get over your attachment to international fast food chains for a while and dive headfirst €” or at least dip a toe €” into the local cuisine, you will most likely find yourself pleasantly surprised.

The children will do anything for a dollar, even coil a snake around their necks.

It is all about being a good sport, really. Discovering where the locals eat entails research and taking time to talk to the locals. Once you find yourself in the right place, chances are you will walk away hours later feeling utterly guilty for having wolfed down platters of great Khmer food for less than US$2 (RM7).

Some find it necessary to shell out a few more dollars for some very decent Angkor beers and Tomb Raider cocktails.

Guilty pleasures aside, what I find distressing is that in the face of so much affordable food available to the tourists, many Cambodians still do not have enough to eat. As for the street children, despite their best efforts to earn money and fend for themselves, many are malnourished.

It is even more heartbreaking to see these children with hungry bellies skirting the sidewalks of restaurants that seem glitzy enough to attract bad-boy celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay to come over and shout out orders and obscenities in their kitchens.

How do you even begin to comfort a hungry child who is staring at this extreme abundance out of his reach?

The World Food Programme (WFP) in Cambodia estimates that hundreds of thousands of Cambodian children depend on the meals provided by the WFP for sustenance and nutrition. But donor support for the agency’s relief programme has diminished alarmingly since 2005, and the agency is anxious to fully restore this much-needed food assistance for the children, as well as for the very sick and the critically poor.

According to the 2006 Global Hunger Index, Cambodia is one of the 12 “hunger hot spot” countries listed as “extremely alarming”. With nearly 35% of Cambodians living below the poverty line, Cambodia is classified as a least developed, low-income and food-deficit country.

Poverty looms over Cambodia like a bad bet that has gone terribly wrong. Some blame it on the nation’s dark past while others fault its erratic progress. What is clear, however, is that Cambodians have become more aware of what tourism can do, and reliance on tourism does seem to be the one key hope that they are clinging on to.

Today, the major draw card of this tiny pocket of Indochina is undoubtedly the Angkor temples, and the locals are banking on it like there is no tomorrow.

Amidst the quaint and rustic feel of rugged Cambodia, one can now see the increasing emergence of tourist-friendly spots, like restaurants that cater to international palates (no such thing as chilli crickets and skewered scorpions here) and other establishments that many Cambodians cannot afford.

Like the rest of South-East Asia, Cambodia is coming into its own, and it will not be very long before this little bump on the map fits in snugly, in terms of tourism outlook, with its immediate neighbours, Thailand and Vietnam.

The street is where they make their home and living.

I will not say Cambodia is an amazing mix of the old and the new. Most places are these days, and tourism billboards the world over use this tagline to death. But Cambodia is an amazing place.

You will find yourself intrigued €” seduced by the charms of its ruins, captivated by the stories you hear, pained by the hardships you witness, and surprised by the resilience of its people.

Visitors often arrive with images of the Angkor temples in their minds and leave with memories of the local folk in their hearts.

Even harder to forget would be the faces of the street children. They don’t have the luxuries of their counterparts in other countries.

They are trying to sell something every other minute just to ensure their survival.

One child told me, “No, no school for me. No play for me. You buy postcards, please? I give good price.”

These kids will do anything to get through the day. They will play you a medley of tunes using the handmade flutes they are hoping to sell.

They will pose with snakes coiled around their little necks in exchange for payment. Their desperate situation also means that they are a prime target for child prostitution and child sex trafficking.

Although Cambodian society is becoming more wary of paedophilia, much needs to be done to protect these children.

In 2005, Dateline NBC went undercover here with a human rights group to expose child sex trafficking and came out shocked by the magnitude of it. This exposé was elaborated upon by Time magazine in 2006 when it reported that Cambodia has been a haven for foreign sexual predators since the United Nations brought peace to the war-ravaged country in 1993, and since its neighbour Thailand started its own crackdown on child sex abuse.

In recent years, international organisations like the Child Safe Network have been working hard to shield the children of Cambodia from exploitation. According to Child Safe, a total of 167 paedophiles were arrested in Cambodia in 2006 for sexually abusing children, and these are just the reported cases.

Organisations like Child Safe train key members of society €” for example, taxi drivers and hotel workers €” to recognise and help children who may be in danger.

There are also local heroes who have taken it upon themselves to protect their country’s children. Take, for instance, the case of one man (who only wished to be known as Hong), who runs a small dilapidated orphanage in Siem Reap that is simply known as “Orphanage”.

An orphanage classroom.

“The place looks run-down, I know. But we keep it clean and comfortable. Also, all the kids here go to school. My mission is to keep them off the streets. The streets are just too dangerous,” said Hong.

The orphanage is dependent on donations, and paintings produced by the children in their spare time are also sold to visiting tourists to help keep the place running. Some travellers insist on seeing both the real Cambodia and the Cambodia made for mass tourism, and a good part of the real deal is often found in the country’s many orphanages.

Sad, but true.

Most taxi or tuk-tuk drivers, as well as hotel staff, are happy to point out the nearest orphanages. However, it is a good idea to trawl through some reliable information first before you start donating cash. Some orphanages are known to be managed in ways that do not put the interests of the children first.

There are many things a visiting traveller can do for the orphans. It is not all about money. In fact, it is perfectly fine to bring along food, books and toys. The kids love it when you play Santa.

At times, they do not even clamour over the gifts. They clamour over you instead! Just like any other kid, all they want sometimes is just a big hug and a kind word.

As you trot around Cambodia pursued by guides who keep reminding you about Angelina Jolie and Tomb Raider, you cannot help but find that everything fades whenever a street child approaches you. If nothing else, the resilience of the street children are to be admired.

Cambodia is a place that does not try very hard to impress anyone. But you will end up not only impressed, but charmed by it. While the majestic Angkor temples are remarkable, I believe the magic of Cambodia lies in the faces of its children €” children who keep taking a step forward each time they are about to be shoved a step back.

In every one of their faces, the message is always crystal clear: I am not giving up on life just yet.