Last year during my trip to the Middle East I visited one of the New 7 Wonders of the World – Petra.

But it is not the beauty of the ancient architecture, nor the feeling of being like Indiana Jones what I remember the most.

The famous treasury from the top – regards additional 3 hours of hike but the view is totally worth it!

I was walking along the main street, looking around, taking pictures. All of the sudden I saw these huge eyes, right in front of me, begging for something. Exactly like the cat from Shrek ( I assume everyone has seen it, if not – below a small reminder).

It was a girl. One of a hundreds kids you can find there, selling jewelry, post cards, offering a donkey ride etc. They all are illiterate. Since the early childhood, all they are taught is how to bargain. And English – to be able to do so. How do I know? Accidentally, our tour guide was an 8 years old boy who was born there. Everything he told us (in very simple English and with a bit of a childish exaggeration) is a topic for a separate article.

Me with Maruan – one of the kids for whom Petra is a playground

Coming back to the girl – she was maybe 12 years old, selling necklaces. She stood in front of me and faltered

Ssseeelfieee sssticccck.... I looove ssselfies!

It was definitely not what I would have expect to hear. But I didn’t have time to process it because she flooded me with whining

I really, reeeaaally love selfies. My phone is thaaaat big

(she spread her hands showing at least 30’’)

I bought it in Amman for 100$! But selfie sticks are very expensive here! Like 20$. And I can’t go to the city because I have to work every day. But when I am back home I love selfies!

Second girl jumped right from behind the first one.

Me too

I knew there is no way out. I knew I can’t resist their charm and enthusiasm. I knew my selfie stick is going to stay in Jordan. They knew it as well. And I didn’t want to be remembered as a typical tourist who is paying just because they are pushy. I also think that money (or goods) is not helping the ones in need. So I started bargaining. It took a longer while during which she tried to give me a very very nice stone, a beautiful piece of rope and my-mum-made-it stone on a rope – obviously hiding the proper jewelry she had for sale.

Eventually, I exchanged my selfie stick for two necklaces – one for me and one for my boyfriend who few week before paid for the selfie stick.

Farewell picture made with my stick. From the left – the second girl, new SS owner, me, random boy and my friend – Jef.

We walked away leaving the girls with their new toy. At the beginning I was a little bit sad and concerned. I was thinking about how bad their life is, how their childhood is taken away from them and how much they suffer from not living like we do.

But then, the second wave of thoughts came to me. Is it really that bad? Why do we assume that our definition of childhood is the only good one? Are they unhappy and sad because they don’t go to school? Or maybe overall they have much more freedom than we could ever imagine in our capitalistic world?

I still didn’t find an answer and I think I will never do so. I am just hoping that they are happy and that selfie stick works with her huge 100$ phone.

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Thank you for checking out that short story.

If you like it, I would love to share more adventures, tips about traveling and everything interesting which will come to my mind!

bye-everyone!