The feeling is a bit like being cast in an erotic Japanese anime. Still I think to myself β who are these girls? I have to wonder. I think back to a story we heard from a friend living in Phnom Penh two nights ago. When I asked her about the dating scene for an expat girl from California, a forlorn look of hopeless desolation came over her face; I recognized it immediately from my own unfulfilled adolescent years and felt a little disoriented seeing such a face worn by a thirty-year old woman that looked significantly younger and would certainly be considered attractive by most reasonable and shallow individuals.
The tradition had been established in previous decades thanks to a strong foreign military presence in the region and now there is a new generation with more liberal sensibilities and even greater consequences.
In a country where ten dollars buys three women in , it is no wonder that Cambodia has the highest rate of HIV infection in Asia. With this harrowing preface already in mind, our friend segued from her own dating drought to an anecdote involving the brutal nature of the Cambodian prostitution machine that left her bed so cold and empty. I could already see a strong moral ending around the corner, but statistically speaking, stories involving prostitution are far more likely to have interesting details worth paying attention to.
She was one of the clean ones just trying to make a living, never got caught up in drugs or any of the super self-destructive stuff. She was popular with all the other girls, too. She paused to take a sip of tea, preparing for the inevitable descent into a brutally sad ending. She called her family to come pick her up and bring her back home.
All the other girls threw a big going-away party. Everyone was sad to see her go but happy for her as well. I was beginning to regret my decision to devote my full attention to the story at this point. It had been apparent where it would end up just by taking a look around the setting in which it was being told. They were all employed by the NGO that ran the restaurant to give local street kids a sustainable alternative to more dangerous and illicit professions.
