Cambodian children usually don’t play role play games. It is absolutely fabulous to see that they start to do so now, encouraged by our staff Nain’s creative ideas. One day, they play acted a wedding with every little detail there is in a traditional Cambodian wedding. This included;the morning procession to the bride’s house; the bride receiving the groom and all the traditional ceremonies with food offerings (wooden bricks, Lego, and rubber band were serving as food, nicely decorated on the spinning plates that we got from the circus); the evening reception party for guests and finally, at the end, the communual dance around a table laden with fruit. If you have ever participated in a Khmer wedding, you will recognize it all on the photos!
At other times, the children have recreated a general market, with all the different stalls a Cambodian market would usually have. There are vegetable stalls where leaves represent vegetables; small restaurants, again, with Lego, wooden bricks and rubber bands representing food items. One can also find money changers, coffee shops, hair dressers, and even a thief and a policeman were there too.
The children also started to creatively use the everyday items they find inside the school including books to build their little houses and play with soft toys as though they were babies.
From time to time, we receive a big bag of clothes that guests have forgotten in their rooms from a local guesthouse. The children always find something for themselves or their parents to wear, the rest being used for playful disguises.
