It's been an exceptionally long afternoon so you'll forgive me if I narrow it down to the more important milestones of the day.
Today we treated the children of the SFODA orphanage to an afternoon at the
Dreamland Funfair thanks to a Maltese benefactor who generously gave us a sum of money to "give the children something special".
Because we're an NGO made up of absolute and utter softies when it comes to children we decided to add another dozen kids from LRDE to the mix - mostly children who have been sponsored by us, and their siblings. That means we were to be responsible, together with a team of helpers, for 65 Cambodian children who were bouncing off the walls with excitement.
Looking exceptionally smart in our spanking new multi coloured t-shirts we were corralled into groups according to height and off we went to try out the rides. I only set one rule for the day: I will happily nurse cuts and bruises as necessary, I will even carry young ones and endure the risk of contracting head lice, however, vomit is one thing I do NOT do.
The first ride was a roller-coaster. Not the highest I've ever been on, but I couldn't ignore the amount of rust around the nuts and bolts, but I'm looked up to by the children so screaming hysterically for help wasn't an option.
The second ride we attempted is known as "The Pirate Ship", but being the last ones to board means that my posse and I were relegated to the back row. Not a good place if you've got a queasy stomach.
The girl to my left screamed and squealed with delight, so she was ok, but the boy to my right was unnaturally quiet and buried his head in my t-shirt. Of course you know where this is heading: the poor kid actually puked ON my shirt while we were heading for a downward drop without even lifting his head. I didn't want to look down because I would have vomited on his head, but I just knew there were semi-digested noodles in my armpits. Thank heaven for medicated wet-wipes, and the extra t-shirt.
It was while I was wiping myself down that I heard some calling out to me from behind the railings of Dreamland. You may recall in a previous blog I had mentioned a street boy with big eyes who'd taken a massive shine to me. He'd heard that we were going to Dreamland and came together with another boy, Samrath who we'd met last year.
Together they live under a bridge with a gang of other kids and a woman who is the mother of some of them, but is a glue sniffer and probably only keeps her children because they are a source of income, but I will avoid speculating too much.
Samrath paid his own entrance fee (we reimbursed him, of course!) but the boy with big eyes had no money so he couldn't get in. But he spotted me because I was now wearing a bright orange t-shirt and looked like a giraffe, so he followed me from the outside until I finally spotted him,
My reaction must have confused him because I went from surprised to pleased to profoundly sad and back to pleased, so he went from happy to uncertainty and started to shuffle away with his head down. I called him back and paid his entrance into the fair and, I tell you, this boy flung his arms around my neck, ruffled my hair and then... he kissed me on my cheek. It was a spontaneous reaction on his part and he smiled shyly when I told him "akun", which means “thank you” in Khmer.
Hand on heart I say that I suspect today was the happiest day in this street boy's miserable life. He joined me on every ride, and when I couldn't take another stomach churner, he went on his own and called out to me and waved to make sure I saw and acknowledged how brave he was.
While he was being flung around in a spinning tea-cup, I asked Sreymom, the remarkable woman who is the spinal cord of LRDE, for information about him but she has none - he just turned up last week out of nowhere.
He has no idea when his birthday is or where his parents are. When asked where he lives he says he doesn't know. She described the boy with the big eyes as being "very reserved" and doesn't talk much. I informed her right there and then that if he can be accepted into the SFODA orphanage, I would like to sponsor him.
I am going to speculate that today he ate his first ever hamburger and fries. He also had ice cream and a milkshake. Because you can't ride on the Dodgems without shoes, we got him a pair of flip-flops and he'd also won a small prize at a stall.
The boy with the big eyes was a happy, happy boy.
As the afternoon progressed, I discovered his name is Sokham, and in the four hours we spent together he really came out of his shell and tried to communicate with me but didn't get very far. So he hugged me again. Really tightly.
Ok, I'm a bit of an emotional mess at the moment, but I've just had a really good meal and treated myself to a second Margarita and I'm finding it difficult to shake the thought that the boy with the big eyes will be spending the night under a bridge.
Alan Montanaro