I love you!?!

So on Wednesday when I was walking back from the tribal handicraft stall on the way back from Sen Monorom waterfall I was passing several houses. The young children here love to yell "hello" and sometimes "What is your name?" as you walk by. Others will just wave. This is a daily ritual for many of them - a chance to be kids and yell to the foreign tourists. So I'm walking along passing some houses and the little stalls that are in front of so many houses here in town selling drinks, snacks, gasoline sold by the liter, etc...


 I hear the voice of a little girl of maybe 5 or 6 yell "hello". I look around at the three stalls on the left of the road and see a little girl in sitting in one of the booths waving frantically at me. I walk by and say hello and wave back to her. I get another 20 feet down the road and hear her again yell, "hello". I turnaround and wave again and say hello then keep walking... I play this game dozens of times everyday here in town - sometimes they will yell until I can't hear them but this is a road not walked down by many tourists - most people take motos to save the hour long walk.


 I get another 10 - 15 feet steps further than hear "I love you". What?!? Where did this little girl actually learn this saying? The only thing I can think of is she heard it from another foreigner who thought it was cute. The Cambodians are well known to not show any emotions other than happiness and never show any signs of affection in public with one another. You never see a couple (husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend) holding hands, hugging or kissing, especially here in a very traditional province of Cambodia. Hearing a child say this and knowing the culture somewhat - it just makes me do a stutter step. What do you say? So I yell back, "I love you too!" And with that I continue back to my guesthouse.


 The following Friday I tell Sochea and Sopheap this story and they both burst out laughing. Sopheap insists it probably wasn't a child but really a woman who wanted to be my girlfriend - she is kidding of course but for days asks me how my girlfriend is. Sochea laughs and thinks I made the whole thing up - he says he has never heard of a child yelling such a thing. They are both kidding (I think) and continue to this day to ask about my "girlfriend" down by the waterfall.