Liza

As we entered our fourth week in South East Asia, we arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. After spending three days here we headed to a province to the north, Kampong Cham.

Kampong Cham is the sixth largest city in Cambodia with a population of almost 120,000. Nestled on the beautiful Mekong River, this comes as no surprise. The city is made up of rows of shops along the riverside and eye-catching monuments that dot the banks. At night the place comes to life; thousands of colorful lights illuminate the city. Driving through you can’t help but smile.

However, a 5-minute drive in any direction reveals small homes and rice fields for miles and miles. Here is where we came to work.

After a two-hour drive from Phnom Penh and a quick lunch break we arrived at a traditional Khmer style house in a local neighborhood. The outside of the house was painted a light green and the inside was adorned with family photographs. We were told the people we were renting it from lived in a similar house right behind ours. The place felt homey - looking back on it I miss our cold bucket showers, home cooked Khmer meals, and mats on the floor draped in mosquito nets.

The first few days we didn't really talk with any of the locals; we left early in the morning and when we returned we spent our time indoors planning lessons or napping after a day of hard work. A few times kids would ride by our house on bikes and we would wave, but our interactions were limited to the school we were working in.

On the third day during lunch some of us were playing sai, a traditional Khmer game where a shuttlecock is kicked around, and heard a high pitched laugh. We turned to find a small, smiling girl. As we made eye contact she ran away screaming and laughing, but kept coming back for more. We chased her for hours. She would hide under our ping-pong table where no one could get to her and throw ping-pong balls at us. Eventually her grandpa called and she had to go home. We found out her name was Liza. Her grandparents owned the house we were renting.

Throughout the rest of our time in Kampong Cham she showed up daily whenever we were home and we spent hours with her. We had our own little language since she didn't speak much khmer and neither did we. One of her favorite things to do was climb to the top of the outdoor stairs leading to the second floor and throw stuff at Sam. She would also yell at Sam and make funny noises until he looked and then quickly turned away laughing.

One of my favorite memories with Liza was being under the cramped ping-pong table where we covered each other in stickers. I’d put one on her and she’d put two on me hysterically laughing. I tried to take a video of her as I put the stickers on her, but she repeatedly took them off and put them on my phone camera lens covering it completely.

Another one of my favorite memories with her was sitting inside on the tile floor as Liza quietly (those two words together almost seem like an oxymoron) drew. She outlined a little face with two lines for hair, tapped the paper looked up then pointed at me. She then drew another face tapped the paper and pointed at Sam. She then proceeded to scribble over his face and laugh - she loved to mess with Sam.

After going on long trips I always come to the same realization: It’s the small things that make the trip so much better and worthwhile. I honestly cherish all the hours spent in between work laughing with Liza. It was one of the highlights of my trip.
~Kat