Day 8: Kids at the Beach

“Kids at the beach.” This title would conjure up images of children running, laughing, and playing at the beach. An image of innocence and happiness.
This however, was not the case when we went to the beach. The moment we arrived, we were crowded by a mass of children, all asking us to buy some snacks and drinks. As they followed me, I did not see the innocence one would expect in their eyes. Instead, I saw the premature signs of a child learning the rules of the cut-throat world they were thrust into: a cold glare of competition and loneliness. The children were herded around the beach by a five foot woman with a large bamboo stick, yelling insults and threatening orders to go here, to move there, to sell this, to sell that.
What I saw was not innocence, what I saw was… the reality of child labor.
That is what MEMO is about, we send scholarships every year to schools and orphanages to promote education. The thing that kept me from the streets, the thing that kept me from being condemned to a life of petty competition was the option of moving to America for a full education.
What I saw in those kids was me, one step away from a life of poverty, one opportunity away from begging at the beach. I bought a few bags of snacks because I felt that was the best way to help. Maybe I saw a little of myself in them.
Spoken by Tuan, interpreted into text by Steven Pham
Over and out.