Be Their Education

by Sonia Richmond (United States of America)

Making a local connection Philippines

We’re eating barbecued chicken breasts from a meat stand off the main tourist strip in Moalboal, Cebu, Philippines, when a young girl about the age of my 4th grade students walks up to us, carrying a basket of keychains, bracelets, and headbands. “Souvenirs?” she asks politely, balancing her merchandise at the edge of our table. She waits patiently, but without eagerness. “No thank you, but shouldn’t you be in bed?” my friend gently replies. “You must go to school?” She did, and had a project due for a class the next day. She’s one of the lucky ones. I’ve had this experience now many times when traveling to third world countries and one might think buying souvenirs from kids doesn’t seem like a big deal. These kids normally are helping their families, and 18-year-old me traveling in Cusco, Peru, might have equated this scenario to a kid working at his family’s vegetable stand at a local farmer’s market. But in a third world country, not only is selling souvenirs more laborious than a weekend gig, but it actually can be detrimental to a child’s education. Kids who make enough money selling souvenirs for their families are less likely to attend school simply because the appeal of their cuteness might be critical to their family’s income. I’ve heard that instead of buying souvenirs from the kids, that one should buy them something they can eat or use, something personal. This way you know where one knows where the money is going. But I believe this doesn’t actually help solve the main issue: these kids aren’t having a proper childhood or education. Instead, teach them something. Later that same night, we’re sitting at a tourist heavy cocktail bar on the pier. We’re trying to make it through overpriced, over syrupy drinks when a different child comes over with a basket. This time as he puts down his basket, we retort his question with one of our own. “Would you like to play a game?” We ask. His yes doesn’t skip a beat. We teach him how to play a popular Korean finger game. In this game, members of the group position their hands in fists, with thumbs ready to be stuck up. One person counts how many thumbs there are total. For us, this number was 8. The first player starts by guessing a number, 0-8. At the same time, every member of the group must decide whether to stick up 0, 1, or 2 thumbs into the air. If the number that is guessed out-loud is the same as the number of thumbs in the air, that player wins! He or she then gets to slap together the hands of all losing players in victory. It wasn’t long after coaching this young boy to be a thumb game champion, that the same girl from earlier in the night ventured by our table. “Hey!” my friend yells, “come over here! Play this game with us!” She seems shy, but there’s a hint of eagerness in her eyes. We have the boy teach the game to his friend and pretty soon the five of us are playing together, guessing numbers between 0-10, laughing, and gently hitting each others hands in victory. I have no reason to believe these particular kids won’t grow up to have happy, healthy, educated lives, as within 30 minutes an adult did come to retrieve them to head home. However one thing I do know for sure is that the curiosity, eagerness, and joy they had when playing this game far surpassed that of when they were working their souvenirs gig. Now, these kids have that game to hold onto forever. But not just that, they have something they can teach to others, passing along skills, and passing along that happiness.