The Simple Life

Tuesday, February 16

I am surrounding with cheerful children (6 to 15 years old) on each side watching the screen of what I am typing. My 6 years old cousin watches my fingers as I quickly typing away. To them is magic that I am able to type so quick on this funny looking like TV but it is very small and you can carry it with you. My 10 years old cousin don’t know what laptop is but she know is for school. She said, “Is like all of my homework can fit in this small thing.” All eyes on it as the blinking on the white screen stop where I last type.

Children here don’t wear their sandal. I didn’t say shoes because most people here can’t afford one. The children let their feet free and seem to enjoy the feeling of dirt under their feet. I am not sure if the reason is that they are too poor to afford one but I think they are just being normal children playing in the dirt, “When I am playing and running in front of grandma house, I don’t like wearing my sandal, I like that it is cold feeling” said my 6 years old cousin.

It is 5:00pm the sun is hiding behind the banana and leeches trees. We are waiting until it is cool so we can go for a run to my great uncle house which is about half a km. They have on their sandal now as I am asking how far my great uncle house is so they could go with me. The youngest cousin who like to have her feet free just got her sandal and setting on my right side staring at the computer screen as I am typing. She just asked, “When is the computer stop working?” I told her when I am done, it will stop working.

I asked them what they like to play or do for fun. The little one told me she likes to play with rocks. They just brought their rocks over and demonstrating it to me. The 7 years old just throw one rock up while trying to catch the other one on the floor with one hand. The other rock is up in the air. She seems to enjoy it. Her other two cousins watch carefully to make sure she doesn’t make any mistakes or cheated. Another thing they like to play is jumping on robber ban. I asked that I haven’t seen them playing with it. They told me it is at home.

Yesterday we went for a jogged and some of them don’t have sandals on. They ran on rocks and dirt. One of them asked if my Nike shoes hurt me and if so that I can just run without it. How cute and innocent these children are with such curious questions about the different worlds were from.

The T.V my grandmother has only come with three channels. I think two of them are the same channel. I think not having too many channel helps me to have time to do other stuff just like my grandmother and aunts has all day. This morning I asked to watch Khmer shows. They said it only show after 11am to 2:00pm and again from 6:00pm to 10pm. Although the Vietnamese government control what is on the television, it is great that they allow ethnic Khmer to have their own shows. The station in South Vietnam, therefore, the show is produce by Khmer Krom people like my grandmother and the rest of the relatives here.

Children recycle cans, plastics and leaves anything that they can play with. They are very poor children but the littlest thing in life makes them so happy. For flying or making a kite, they use dry coconut leave and tired it with a stick so they could fly it. Even though it didn’t end up flying, the process of finding the dry coconuts and putting it together with their friends was enough to stratify them. Their parents can’t afford to buy them one. I think is great that these kids are using their imagination and being outdoors instead of inside watching TV and playing games all day. Mentally and physically is healthy for their growth development.

People here are so poor those outsiders give them books, notebooks and bikes for their children to go to school. These people are my relatives. I am embarrassed that I can’t help them at the moment. This only makes me want to work even harder so I can financially help them at least with education.