When Your Play Pen is a Pit

(Reprised from September, 2011)

She looks engrossed, doesn't she?

Which is just as well as there isn't a lot else around to keep this little girl entertained.


She's on a bridge that spans a fetid canal. Rubbish blows around her little, black-stained feet.

And the road she's on is a typical chaotic scene; should she stray a few feet, likely she'll be bowled over by one of the many motorbikes, tuk-tuks, trucks, food-carts or SUV's.




Mum's around. Problem is though, she's almost buried as she shovels filth from her cart into a larger bin.

And that's how she attempts to make her living; just one of the thousands of city-dwellers who attempt to earn a crust from collecting the city's trash.

And what are the chances the little one keeps up her reading habit?

 Almost nil, I guess.

It's unlikely she'll see much of the inside of a school- the cost of uniforms, travel and books and bribes for the teacher will price that out of her reach.

That's a Bit Rubbish

Chuck it in a plastic bag and pile it up in the street. That's what most Cambodians do with their rubbish. What is not scavenged is taken away, eventually, by council workers.

With the heat comes the flies, though and it is unsightly. Buying a plastic bin and placing it on the road for the neigbours and us to use seemed the simple solution.

So we did. And it was gone in less than two hours. Two hours!

Stolen? Maybe.

Considered fair game and not wanted because it was out on the street? Probably; the bin cost just $7 but if who ever took it gets a fiver for it, that's two days wages.