My experience in Cambodia #1

On the 21st of March 2016, I found this beautiful picture of my mom and the children who live in the neighborhood where my mom used to live as a child. It's a small village in the province Kampong Thom, Cambodia. Some of these kids are my family. My dad took this picture in 1998. I asked my mom what she gave the children at that moment. She told me she gave a small airplane toy to my little nephew, but when she gave it to him, the rest of the children were curious what it was and ran as fast as they could to get something too.

Unfortunately, my mom didn't have anything but the airplane toy. She felt so much pain inside because she didn't expect a lot of children would come to her. She decided to gather all these children to make the picture above as a memory. It was hard for me to get the information from my mom, because she didn't want to talk with me about this memory. I asked her why. She told me:"It's just too painful to talk about it." I told her:"Mom, I understand you but maybe it is better to talk about it, so we can also learn from it." She replied:"Yeah", with a sigh.

December 2015 - 17 years later from the picture above - I went back to Cambodia after 8 years for only a few days with my bf just to visit my family from both of my parents' sides. On the 18th of December, I decided to visit my mom's neighborhood. When I arrived at my grandmother's home, which is now my auntie and uncle's place, I felt a lot of emotions. First of all, it didn't feel like it was before. My grandmother passed away 4,5 years ago on the 7th of March 2012. The last time I saw her was in 2007. I imagined her sitting upstairs in the house looking outside to me. It made me want to cry, but I couldn't cry. I just couldn't. Because I couldn't believe she wasn't there anymore. I switched my mindset and greeted my family. When I was sitting in the living room with my bf, a few children came in the house just to have a look at us. It was strange, but I'm used to it though. To them, we are foreigners. Foreigners are strangers.

We only stayed there for a few hours. During the time, we visited a cousin who lives in front of my aunt (I actually thought she was just her neighbor, but found out she is my cousin! Lol..). We were relaxing in the hammock, eating young mangos, other tropical fruits, and making pictures. I noticed a few kiddos were very curious and they were trying to get our attention! Later, I said to them in Khmer language: "Ok, little ones! Let's go get some snacks!!! :D Are you coming with me?!" aaaaaand.. nobody was responding...-_- I used to have kiddos around me who jump and scream 'Yesyesyes!' when I ask them to get ice-cream or something.. But these kiddos were very shy and didn't say a word. However, when I went to get my purse at my aunt's place, they slowly followed me. I asked them:"Ok, where can we buy snacks?" And they were walking around me and leading me to the little 'store', which was like 20 meters away from where we were. While I was walking, more children came to me and followed the rest. First, I counted like 5 children.. later it was 13 children! I bought snacks for these 13 kiddos and took a picture with them. They were so happy!!

After this picture, I saw other children coming out of nowhere to these little ones, and what I've seen was amazing!! The ones who got snacks, shared it with the others who came later. I actually didn't have a lot of money in my purse so I couldn't buy more for the rest of the kids. They weren't even fighting. The older ones cared for the youngest ones. It touched my heart to see this. The fact that they were sharing things together, even when they have nothing, is an eye-opener for all of us. Also, the smile upon their face made my heart melt. I've always known there are many differences between our world and their world. But to be honest, I wasn't really aware of it when I was younger.

We should be happy to be able to work, to earn money, save money and buy our own needs. Compared to these poor people in countries like Cambodia, we should be blessed to have our freedom to be able to do (almost) anything we want. Some of these kids on this picture won't be able to go to school because their parents can't afford it. There are lots of families in the West who have difficulties to pay for their child's education. But to be honest, we can find a way to make things happen. We have chances that they nearly have.

This picture of my mom made me feel like I was experiencing the same thing as my mom did, 17 years ago.. I'm very thankful to have found this picture.

Our world is getting crazier and the only way to stop being from crazy is to connect with each other, help each other and be united. With the love that lives inside of us, we can make a change. A change that will not only change you, but the entire world! Hoping someday we can make a change through Steemit, connect with people who are struggling with life, help them as far as we can to become a better world <3