Cambodian "jungle girl" struggles to adapt

GuilewasNK

GuilewasNK

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070119/od_nm/vietnam_woman_odd_dc

A Cambodian woman who went missing in the jungle for 18 years before being found last week is struggling to adapt to life as a human and wants to return to the forest, police said on Friday.

"She prefers to crawl rather than walk like a human," said Mao Sun, a district police chief in the jungle-clad northeastern province of Rattanakiri where the girl's family live.

"Unfortunately, she keeps crying and wants to go back to the jungle," he said. "She is not used to living with humans. We had to clothe her. When she is thirsty or hungry she points at her mouth," he told Reuters by phone.

The girl, called Ro Cham H'pnhieng, went missing as an eight-year-old along with her cousin when they were sent to tend cows near the border with Vietnam.

Villagers believed they had been eaten by wild animals until a girl was caught last week by a logging team as she was trying to steal some food they had left under a tree.

With blackened skin and hair stretching down to her legs, she was unrecognizable apart from a scar across her back that allowed her father to pick her out.

After 18 years in the wilderness, police said she was able to say only three words: father, mother and stomach ache.

Villagers from the Phnong ethnic hilltribe minority believe the girl is still possessed by evil spirits of the forest. They have brought in Buddhist monks to bless her and set up a round-the-clock watch on the family hut.

In December 2004, four families in the same province, which was crisscrossed by the paths of the Ho Chi Minh trail during the Vietnam War, emerged from 25 years in the jungle after fleeing the 1979 Vietnamese invasion that ousted the Khmer Rouge.
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[quote name='GuilewasNK']I wonder if she will ever be able to assimilate into the human world? Fascinating story.[/QUOTE]

I would assume with time she'll adapt back. She adapted to the "forest world" of being animal like. So...
 
[quote name='CitizenB']I would assume with time she'll adapt back. She adapted to the "forest world" of being animal like. So...[/quote]

Yeah.

It's just the conformity of man's world will make it really difficult. She is used to doing anything she wants at anytime.
 
Call this crazy but I had read a story earlier today about the baby embryo that was rescued (Frozen) after Hurricane Katrina went through and how the baby has been born now etc..

I had this thought of what if someone willingly allowed a baby to be raised by say a monkey what would happen...

Then i stumble across this which isn't the same but similar in ways.
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']Yeah.

It's just the conformity of man's world will make it really difficult. She is used to doing anything she wants at anytime.[/QUOTE]

Good point. Really unless the parents try extremely hard she might just spend the rest of her life in the back yard. Its going to take a lot of effort. They'll just have to start from square one. I think teaching her to speak will make getting over other hurdles easier.
 
What i wanted to know is how she survived. She must have had some kind of help. She must have been VERY young because she did not remember much language, but she was old enough to tend after the cows...

Reminds me of Tarzan. If all fails, you let her live in the jungle for a week and see what she is up to. Won't hurt since its been going on for 18years
 
[quote name='xeverex18']What i wanted to know is how she survived. She must have had some kind of help.[/quote]

I don't know about that, but it is a remarkable survival story regardless. For anyone to survive alone in the jungle for 18 years is not common, but knowing this was just a child, it's almost a miracle.
 
Anyone remember that old black and white film about a boy raised in the wild, and a psychologist who tried to correct him?

I forgot what it was called but I remember it being horrendous, yet critically and academically lauded.
 
I believe it is easier for a child to grow up in the jungle than a corperate businessman. Because a child still havent been sustained in the world's environment, the jungle would be her first environment.[quote name='gunm']I don't know about that, but it is a remarkable survival story regardless. For anyone to survive alone in the jungle for 18 years is not common, but knowing this was just a child, it's almost a miracle.[/quote]
 
Start her off with music. First by singing it to her, then by playing it for her. When she gets some semblance of langauge down, you can move her to other stuff.
 
[quote name='strayfoxx']Anyone remember that old black and white film about a boy raised in the wild, and a psychologist who tried to correct him?

I forgot what it was called but I remember it being horrendous, yet critically and academically lauded.[/QUOTE]

Based on a true story: The Wild Child
 
Now the media is questioning the family's story about the girl, citing her physical condition (manicured nails and hair, smooth hands with bruising on her wrists) as inconsistent with the the whole "jungle survival" thing.
 
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