[Narrative Essay] "Gift"s for Cambodian Children

   When I was 12, my family went to Cambodia. It was the winter in 2007. Though the weather in Korea was cold, temperature in Cambodia was higher than that in Korea in the middle of the summer. I could even see the heat is waving in the air. I also remember that one little Cambodian boy made me think during the journey.

   On the first day in Cambodia, I was sightseeing a temple in Ankor called Bapuon made of large heavy rocks. I thought that it was wonderful and unbelievable that the ancient people moved those rocks without any electrical device. But soon, the hot weather made me tired. I could not bear the hot temperature and I badly wanted for an air conditioner in the tour bus. My parents were still enjoying the scene of the temple and I was heading to a bus alone to seek cool air.

   

   Suddenly, a little boy approached me and asked me to give him my hand. I didn’t know what he was going to do, so I just showed my hand to him. He put a flower ring on my finger in a sudden. For just a second, I felt happy because the flower and the boy were so cute. However, the next words he said were this; “one dollar!” I was so surprised. At the moment, I took out a dollar from my bag, and other children who were hanging around the temple ran toward me to earn money, holding flower rings. I couldn’t give money to all of them, so I quickly ran into the bus.

    I was little bit mortified and felt really 

confused. I totally didn’t know that the children would use their pure eyes as the way to earn money. I thought that maybe tourists, including me, have made those children into beggars. If it were not for the tourists, the Cambodian government would develop other resources, and the children shouldn't beg for money but instead, prepare for their dreams. I felt sorry for them. I have also realized that the gap between strong and developing countries was getting bigger. At the same time, I felt appreciation for all the things that I had.

   The next day, I prepared some "gifts" for the children. It could not be realistic assistance for them, but there wasn't any other solution that I could think of. I took my pencils, pens, notebooks that I had, and I even took toothbrushes and toothpastes that the hotel provided. Wherever I visited, I gave those gifts to the children. Though I still felt sorry for them, I was happy to see them smiling.