” Hello madame, what is your name?” a young girl asks as we make our way to a hut serving banana pancakes for breakfast. The temperature is 30 degrees celsius and it is still early in the morning. We have been up since 4am to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

“My name is Lisa,” I respond as my husband, our guide and myself make our way across the parking lot.

“Where are you from?” she asks as she falls into step with us.

” Canada,” I reply , feeling anxiety building in the pit of my stomach. Other children are starting to gather around and close us in. They are all carrying rows of postcards in plastic sleeves. They have 30 bracelets wrapped around each wrist and 20 necklaces hanging from their necks.

The little girl remains composed and exclaims ” Oh, Canada, I know Canada!”

Here we go, I think, she’ll bug us for hours now to buy some postcards. Why did I ever respond to her? I knew what she was up to. She’ll use my name and say Canada a few times to get me to buy something from her.

” Canada has 10 provinces, the capital is Ottawa,” she continues, and now I’m intrigued. There are many Canadians that think our capital is Toronto, yet here in Cambodia, a 7-year-old girl knows that it is actually Ottawa.

” You have 4 seasons in Canada. In the winter it snows. In the summer it is warm”.

Now I’m really impressed. I’ve traveled in the United States and had children ask me if we have houses in Canada (thinking that perhaps there were only igloos). The girl continues.

“The Rocky mountains are in Canada. There is snow on the peaks all year long.” She continues to reel off more facts about Canada as we sit down at our table.

Eventually she did ask us to buy a postcard, a necklace, a bracelet or some film. We ate our breakfast surrounded by about 20 children showing us postcard after postcard even though we repeatedly said no thank you. I regret that now.

At the time it was too overwhelming to even think about pulling out money in that situation, knowing we couldn’t buy from all of the kids. These children spend their days working the streets, trying to make a buck. A buck would probably go a long way for their families. It is unfortunate that they are not going to school, but they are definitely getting an education on the streets of this tourist town.

Next time, I think I’ll buy the postcard, and enjoy the little bit of hassling that comes with it.

We’re participating in Delicious Baby’s Photo Friday series with this post. Head on over there and check it out.

Photo of children courtesy of jenniferphoon.

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