Schooling in Cambodia...

Today I stood on our balcony and watched the kids who attend school at the Wat down the road walking home for lunch.  Everyday at 11am a stream of kids between the ages of 4 and maybe 14 head home for lunch.  Those lucky few with a bike whiz past the poor majority who have to walk down the hot dusty road.  I watched a boy, most likely 10 or 11 following a girl who zig-zagged away from him down the road.  She held her notebook up to block whichever side of her face the boy raced to.  He was taunting her in some way, and although I couldn’t understand what he said, she was clearly not happy about it.  I wished there was something I could yell that would get him to leave her alone, but there was not.  It dawned on me, after all this time here, feeling like I was in such a different world, that people face mostly the same stuff no matter where they are.  Middle school is a hard age for anyone, and we are always faced with standing up for ourselves and what we believe in, or tucking our tails and running, this little girl was trying so hard to be brave and ignore the boy.  Life sometimes doesn't feel that different here.