Kampong Kleang Fisherman

This man, not surprisingly, is a fisherman.  His is 40, and his wife is 39.  They have 9 children, and these two are the youngest ones.  I like children.  So I picked up this boy and held him.  He didn’t cry - he was too young to be afraid of strangers.  But then I realized that he had neither pants, nor diapers.

During the dry season, they cannot fish on the lake.  They can only set traps in the muddy river to catch small fish, which is basically all that they eat.  There were many elaborate traps set in the little river, and traps of many different sizes and shapes.


There were about 7 of us for lunch that afternoon.  We shared a small plate of small fried fish.  There were more than 10 of them, most no more than 5 inches long.  Each of us had a dish of rice.  We would tear off a small slice of fish and eat it together with a lump of rice.  The fish, even though they were quite small, were actually quite tasty.  Or perhaps I was just hungry. 

After taking several bites, I noticed that the slice of fish that I tore off was quite a bit bigger than what they were taking.  I was embarrassed, and tried sheepishly to adjust quickly.