I would like to introduce you to my friend Kim. I can say she is my friend because she spent 3 hours threading my leg hair after I lost a game of rock, paper, scissors. If you know anything about threading, you would know that it is not a pleasant experience.
I first met Kim when we went to the beach our first weekend in Cambodia. We were so excited to go to the beach and get some good sun and relax. We found a cute little restaurant with beach chairs that had grass umbrellas you could sit under. I was extremely burnt from our activities the day before, so I decided to camp out on one of these cute chairs for the day. We soon realized this day was not going to be relaxing by any means! Women and children were constantly coming up to us ask us to buy things or give us pedicures, or even thread our hair. They didn't stop asking with a polite "No thanks". Some would sit on you until you said yes, or just starting threading your legs even after you said, "no" ten times. The little girls would say "oh girl, look into your heart, buy something from me".
So my friend Kim kept telling me that she could thread my leg hair and it wouldn't grow back for two months and I would get a boyfriend because of my smooth legs. Well, that was not true. It's starting to grow back after three weeks and I didn't get a boyfriend. She challenged me to a rock, paper, scissors games and well, you know the ending to that game. Once her friends saw that I lost in this little challenge, they all wanted to play. I thought I could win them but lost many times. In the end I came out with 4 bracelets and my legs threaded, but lost 25 bucks. When I left the beach that day, I was mad that I had be haggled by these little girls and lost money that could have lasted me a long while. That is a lot of iced coffees! I talked many times about how these woman and girls have the system down pat, and knew exactly what to say to get you to buy things. I found it more as an annoyance, I just wanted a nice relaxing day at the beach where I wasn't pressured to do anything but drink more fruit smoothies. Needless to say, I was bitter about losing my money.
Well this past weekend we went back to the beach to celebrate one of my teammate's birthday by renting a bungalow for the night and hanging out at the beach all day. The next morning, when I went out to find my chair to relax in for the day I ran into Kim. She of course noticed that I still hadn't painted my toenails and kept saying she had many many colors for me to choose from. We joked around for a while about leg hair, fingernail polish, and rock, paper, scissors. Then I started asking her questions about her life. I asked her if she could be any thing in the entire world what would she be. She told me right of the bat, she wants to be a tour guide around the islands. My teammate Angela and I started encouraging her to complete that dream. We spent time speaking life into this beautiful girl.
I wanted to know more about this girl, so I started asking questions about her family, friends, school, and her work on the beach. Here is what she told me. Her family is a family of 7. Her dad is sick and can't work anymore, her mom stays at home to take care of her dad and her other siblings. She has four brothers and sisters and Kim is the oldest in her family. Kim is the only one in her family that works. She spends all her time on the weekends walking down the beach selling things or pampering tourist. Kim goes to school in the morning and English school at night and pays for it herself. She has never been to her country's capital, which is a 5 dollar bus ride and 5 hours away. On a good day at the beach she will earn 30 dollars. She will give 20 to her family to eat that week and use the rest to pay for her schooling. Kim likes to listen to music with her friends and play with make-up. She really like Carly Rae Jepson. Kim says that people look down at her, because she sells things on the beach. Tourist are not nice to her and treat her unfairly. We talked with Kim for a while, when we starting to talk about church, things became very active on the beach and we weren't able to finish our conversation. We told Kim to come and talk with us later. I prayed that Kim would come find us.
Kim did come back to us. We joked around again for a while, she even taught me how to thread my legs on my own. Luckily, I had my bible on my lap when Kim came back. We got to share with Kim how much God loves her and how much he cares for her. We told her how God will help her in her times of need and how he will help her provide for her family. We got to share with Kim about how God will be her fighter and protector. I loved spending time with this young girl. She is so full of life, love, laughter, beauty, and dreams. I began to think back about how I lost money a few weeks ago from this very girl and how I looked at it as an annoyance. Then I became annoyed with myself for these ugly thoughts. Yes, I lost in a rock, paper, scissors game but Kim had a good day at the beach because of me and was able to feed and take care of her family. Sometimes I lose track of what is going on around me. I forget to listen and ask the stories of girls selling things at the beach. Kim brought me back to reality.
