The Box of Bananas

Written By Leora

This week ended on an unfortunate note, due to mostly all of us falling ill. Though, when I could still hang in there, I learned a lot in our initial couple days of arriving in The Kingdom of Cambodia. Particularly, I learned that most of the people I have come across in Cambodia are very kind. On the first day of our travels, we planned to visit the numerous temples, ending with Angkor Wat. I’m just going to be honest, I skipped breakfast that morning, a rarity on this trip. However, daily malaria pills on an empty stomach don’t go hand in hand. While taking our pictures for our tickets at the Angkor Wat ticket office, I saw there was an ice cream freezer and a shelf with some things, hoping it was food, in the corner of the building. I walked to the freezer, touristy “Thailand” hat on head, and started looking at the popsicles and ice creams, debating which dessert to fuel my morning. I asked the seller if she was selling any other food, and she said “No”. I shifted my head back down to my breakfast decision. Then she said, “Food”? And I said “Yes” a little confused. She responded with, “Food – okay”. She started walking, and I followed her past some clothing selling stands expecting to come along some food for sale, though instead I followed her behind one of the clothing selling areas to the back. One of the merchants exclaimed “Hey, ma’am”, concerned by my trespassing. Usually, this is where I would turn around, but for some reason I felt comfortable. The lady guided her hand to a box of bananas, saying I could have some, no pay. A baby was peacefully sleeping next to the box of fruit. I thanked her, taken aback by her generosity, although I ended up paying for a popsicle. In a matter of seconds, a barrier between us, strangers, was broken and I felt like we were friends or family, in a situation I was least accepting to feel that way, the Angkor Wat ticket office. I noticed this was a pattern throughout the next few days, with one of our guides Cho, taking a coconut water stop during the tour of the temples excited for us to meet his mother who sold coconuts, or our other guide, Rattana, trying to save Gabrielle’s emergency asthma medication from a monkey who thought it was food, or the host at Bed and Bedzzz Boutique Hostel helping us in our dorm room when we were sick by bringing fans. Another moment, is when Bill, who gave us the tour of the Landmine Museum, gave all of us his card at the end and told us we can come anytime for an internship, or when we went to the Jesuit Center to meet the Nobel Peace Prize winners for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Sister Denise, over tea and cookies gave us some life advice. The list goes on, but after that one moment at the ticket office as well as through learning about the darkness and hardships Cambodia has gone through and the aftermath, I was keen of noticing the loving kindness that took place around me, and inspired to return it to the world.