Have Comic, Will Travel
Jan 19th, 2009 by Jinja
Traffic in Cambodia can be pretty complicated. The new traffic lights have a great ‘hurry up’ feature that speeds up the little green man to a run before it turns red. Slowly but surely, people are starting to watch the lights, even when the cops aren’t around.
But I wasn’t driving a motorcycle anywhere this particular morning. I’d lost one of my contact lenses, so I got a ride to the optometrist. And walked out with 20-20 vision.
I was pleased to immediately clap eyes on this -
- a comics reading motodop! Unlike other countries, moto-taxis in Cambodia tend to chat, doze, play cards, do anything but read, as most never learned beyond a basic level.
He was perusing an issue of Archie Comics he’d found to improve his English.
I made a return visit to give him a copy of Bopha Battambang.
Regardless of what statistics say and what pundits think, I keep running into people working towards literacy: from the individual to the institutional scale. A good start to the day.
More info on literacy in Cambodia? Try Our Books, the Book Federation, The Nou Hach Literary Journal or the Khmer Writers’ Association.
