Lasa showing me the verb "smile" in English class

September 19

I was thinking today how I would describe each one of my children (and to new readers, I teach 30 Cambodian kids in the 1st grade), to say, my parents or friends far away, so if I talked about them later and mentioned their names in casual conversation, you would have an idea what they were like.

Ly Chard – is probably the boy I feel closest to. He lives next door to me actually, and I see him across the street on the balcony, where he yells: “Teacher Trina, I am spiderman, watch me!” (as he attempts dangerous things like climbing on the railing of the balcony from the second story, and I yell at him to “be careful”, which of course he doesn’t understand) and I have worship with him and his housemates (4 teachers, several Laos students, Rithy, and others) most every night. He has this wonderful positive curious spirit about him, and he always has the biggest smile on his face, with his mouth wide open. It's children like him that make me want to adopt a child from Cambodia some day (like Angelina Jolie. ha), and I grab him and kiss him (and i'm not sure if i'm supposed/allowed to do that to my students, but I do anyways) at least 10 times a day, because his smile is just so sweet.

Lasa – he’s a small boy, he looks about 4 years old, but he’s probably 6 or 7, and from the moment he lined up for morning flag raising (he’s 1st in line, they line up by size), I whispered to Liz “I know I shouldn’t pick favorites, but he’s it”, he’s absolutely adorable, he has the funniest biggest grin, as wide as a jack-o-lantern, small sharp teeth like a lynx, and the sweetest, darkest, warm, round eyes.

Aliza – first year student, her English is close to the poorest in the class, but she’s just beautiful in this unconventional way, her smile is sort of nervous and apologetic, but she has a very sweet nature about her, and a generous spirit, and I sense creativity and copious amounts of potential in her

Veasna – oh man, he’s a handful, and more than that, he’s completely uncivilized, and out of control. The way he moves, runs, crawls, even eats looks savage, and he has a wild intense look in his eyes, like something you’d expect to see in National Geographic. I find myself losing my voice over calling his name, chasing him around campus, and yet sometimes he grabs my arms and wraps them around him, and I wonder what is family and background could possibly be like, because he’s unpredictable, wonderful, and horrible