This little boy was playing with a palm frond, home-made ball along the bank of the Tonle Sap River in downtown Phnom Penh as I took a morning walk. Like so many children of poverty, he is without clothes. More often than not, most of these children of poverty, both boys and girls wear only a short tee shirt or dress that doesn’t cover their signs of gender. I feel so helpless in terms of helping them.
The evening before, I watched a mother with at least seven children, manage these children from a discrete distance as the children worked the tourists in cafes. The youngest was no more than five of six years old. I knew that giving the children money would do almost nothing to help them. Just a half block further a father sat with two naked little children about one and two years old, leaning against a post beside a pile of garbage, sniffing from a paper bag. The two little ones stayed close playing with scraps of rags, not in the least sensing life out of the ordinary. Across the road, an expat bar was already open for business and busy with westerners drinking draft beer. On the street, Toyota and Lexus cars talk about others who are in a different world. And behind the wall is a golden Buddhist temple that comprises so many buildings, a symbol of people’s beliefs. A block further along, I came across a family of four children only half dressed with both parents present. All but one were on a stained blanket that served as a bed and as their kitchen. A fifth child, a baby, was sleeping on top of a pile of discards in a small dumpster.
It’s at moments like this that I despair for the lives of little children who live on the street with wasted parents, with hungry parents, or sometimes without parents. The only way to make any sense of any of this is to think that the concept of karma and rebirth. The thought that the soul chooses its next reincarnation, or the idea that the soul is assigned a new life (as in the Buddhist and Hindu religious beliefs) takes some of the weight off my own head and heart. If I gave all away, I would not made much of a difference other than finding myself also on the street. The money would quickly find its way into the hands of those who don’t need it, the wealthy.
The best that I can do is to be myself, to help as I can, where I can and to be open to learning and to teaching.