A Frenchman in need [in Sihanoukville]

Above: The rundown house rented by (Jel) Gil and Kumsean for 40,000 riels per month. Below: Morvan 'Jel' Gil with his wife Kumsean and their children.

By A. Rodas

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The news that a Frenchman became a beggar in Sihanoukville called my attention. I read it in Khmerization from an article by Samort ofCambodia Express News as Frenchman became a beggar in Kompong Saom [because he was cheated by his Khmer wife]. I decided to investigate. The article said that ‘cops from the 3rd district confirmed that this Frenchman lives near the train station in Preah Sihanouk city.’

The Train Station of Sihanoukville waits for a better time. The rails are not in their place and the building is a ghostly site. Around it and along the rail, there is a shanty town with several families. We asked in the neighborhood for ‘Jel’, as it was written on the article of Samort and he was real popular in the area. ‘Yes, his name is Sean‘ said to me a woman and pointed out a shanty. Actually he has a Khmer name.

We walked toward the place, passing over the mud let by the recent rains over the port city. Then we met a tall man, thin, sunken face, holding a baby girl. I greeted him in English. He is rather unsmiling, but his eyes are kind and humble. Suddenly, a woman of dark skin came out of the small house. I was invited to go up the stairs and she placed a mat on the wooden floor.

Sean, the Frenchman, wrote to me his correct name. It is Morvan Gil. Two baby girls sat down with him, a nice combination of European and Asian races. At his side was his wife, Saom Kumsean. The article said that she abandoned the family for other man, but the couple denied it. I said to him that it was written like that and he said that she uses to leave just to look for food for the children. It is possible that he said that, that she abandoned the family, to put more drama to his situation and get more alms in the pagoda.

Kumsean, the woman, called a boy, who she introduced as her son, but not the son of Morvan. His name is Vichet and is 15 years old, but seems younger due to his 1,30 centimeters height (4.26 feet) and malnutrition. Vichet never has been into any school.

Morvan told me that he was born in Paris on January 20, 1964. He left his country because his mother was dying of cancer and he could not bear to see her in that way. He finished literature and philosophy in 1984, he said. I asked him to write to me the name of the university. He wroteUniversity Censier – Paris, but Googling such name gives me only a Paris Metro Station, though nearby Censier there is the Natural History Museum, the National Institute of Agronomy and the University of Paris (the Sorbonne Nouvelle.) Searching in the university website, I could not find any related name.

‘I came to Phnom Penh in 2008 to forget the pain to see my mother dying. When it was the time to take the plain back to France, I drove to the Pochentong Airport. Then I saw the sign pointing to Sihanoukville. I changed my mind and I follow that sign,’ he said. ‘In the beginning I did not think in working or keeping money. It came after, when money was going off.

Then he knew Saom Kumsean, who is now 36 years old. She had already a son and gave to Morvan two girls, Mary, 3 years old and Sophy, 18 months.

‘I have not more money, but I got this family,’ he said smiling and proud of his people.

Kumsean said that she comes from Sihanoukville itself, but she does not mention more. She told me that the boy helps in looking money for the family. ‘Everybody does something,’ she said. A bonzi visited them last Monday and donated to the family some sacks of rice from the Pchum Ben festival. The food that is brought to the pagodas for the ancestors, is also a benefit to the poorest.

Now our mission is to look for benefactors to integrate the three children in the Don Bosco Children Fund. Vichet, the boy, must be inscribed in a school as soon as possible and the family should be guaranteed food and health. I promised to send the social worker to start a process of inscription for the children, while looking for their sponsors, who must be ready to send a support for them through Don Bosco.

By A. Rodas (I see Cambodia)