For the first time in the dump I have noticed cell phones. I saw a lady stop working to answer a call yesterday and today I was using the cell of another families mother. It happened like this. I was standing around looking for portraits near the shantytown lean-to area of the dump. When one of the ladies handed me her cell. To talk to someone? I guess so! I take the phone and start out in English, nothing much happens on the other end so I switch to Thai (speaking Thai on a cellphone is a bugger!). After a bit of stammering about trying to figure things out I ask "Who are you? Why are you calling me?, He laughs at his end. Then the lady who gave me the phone shows me a photo (she understood my confusion). The photo is nicely framed and is one of my color shots from December 2015. Now I get it, I am talking to a man I photographed many times before, the woman is his wife. I gave them some boots last trip. We then have a nice friendly short chat, he thanks me and I wish him good luck. Not sure exactly where he was, off working somewhere I guess. I will give his wife and child a food bag tomorrow.
A rather weird experience to be standing in a garbage dump next to a dozen Burmese woman and children while speaking in Thai on one of their cellphones to a Burmese man in another Thai town. Everyday in the dump brings on new surreal moments.
A rather weird experience to be standing in a garbage dump next to a dozen Burmese woman and children while speaking in Thai on one of their cellphones to a Burmese man in another Thai town. Everyday in the dump brings on new surreal moments.
