Where Are They Now? - II
Pokhara, Nepal.
There are burdens we cannot share.
Around the world I met people doing the most back-breaking work as a matter of routine. Balancing large, sometimes dangerous loads; on their heads, backs, and shoulders, because it was the most efficient way to get things done.
The women in the first photo of this series were helping to build an addition on their cinder block house at the top of a steep hill. It would have taken a very long time to carry all the blocks they needed up this hill, three blocks at a time. I estimate the woman leading the way was in her 60s. The only thing between the blocks and the skin on her back was her shirt and a piece of burlap.
Down the road, in the same town, I came across this man hauling rice on a dirt road and then off the road onto a single track path that carried him somewhere into the hills. His concentration was so intense, he didn’t notice me standing in the road taking his photograph. He had a job to do.
Pokhara.
In Darjeeling, in northern India, where the tea comes from, the crowds paid little attention to the man carrying a load at least twice his size through the town center. As he passed by I thought to myself, there must be a better way. Perhaps not.
Darjeeling.
Throughout Saigon(Ho Chi Minh City) there are vendors on every street corner. The inventory is varied and moveable. When the customer base disappears, or the sun is too hot, the vendor hoists his or her store onto her shoulders and moves to the next location. This merchant was just settling in.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
It has become fashionable in western cultures to say, “always be kind, because you never know the burdens others are carrying.”
When I ask myself where the subjects of these photographs are today, nearly three years after I met them the answer is simple. They are probably right where I left them. These are the burdens of their daily routines.
Darjeeling tea plantation.