"...throwaway kids..."
That is such a heartless attitude to have about a child. One would think that in a country that professes to be predominantly Buddhist, there would be more compassion towards other sentient beings. 😢
"...we had to lie and say Mey-Yii was without guardian..."
The sad thing is, you didn't lie (except perhaps in the eyes of a lawyer/judge). Mei-Yii was abandoned by her nuclear family, and her grandmother is providing her a place to sleep and an occasional $2.50 for a pair of shoes. So, I see no lie, in the grand scheme of things. And the child is so much better with your having said that, because at least she will be getting some semblance of an education — such as that is, in the culture. 😐
"...guiding the youths and living an upright life are of the upmost importance"
Maybe the village will learn this, by your example. It might take a while before they begin to ponder the situation and realize it, but we can only hope & pray that it happens. 🙏
It is ironic, but after traveling in many predominantly Buddhist countries, the view of karma is that if you get away with whatever you do without consequence, it must be because of a good dose of karma in your previous life. This attitude allows corrupt people to stay in power and an elite minority to plunder the country's resources simply because it goes unchallenged. The monks should have a duty to battle the social and moral decay, but instead their days are spent meditating, walking around collecting funds, and using the funds to make the monastery bigger. There are very few community programs or social work the monks do, in fact they don't have to cook because poor people gift them food each day. This is the opposite of Muslim and Sikh, Hindu faiths, where the temples often provide a community kitchen and feed the local homeless and poor each day. Sorry to bash on Buddhism, but it's not the idealistic religion painted by National Geographic and hipsters in the USA.
Haha, you're right about not lying, sometimes words have to carefully be chosen. Kids have a way of remembering positive experiences, and I've already reaped what I've sown here in Cambodia. I taught probably upwards of a 1,000 students in Siem Reap during my years spent there, too many students to remember all their faces and names. However, every time I visit the town, I can't go anywhere without one of my students greeting me and introducing me to the foreign tourists they are guiding around town.
When I see these kids as young adults speaking English and using the skills I taught them to financially support a family, I feel a great sense of satisfaction. The folks in our village will be slow to realize the error of their ways, but hopefully when they see what we do with our land, they will begin to follow suit, hopefully first by not burning heaps of plastic trash every day.