2 more. The first picture is a man who only had one eye. He and his wife worked very hard, they had 3 younger children. In 2013 every day I visited the workers he was out in the field at one point or another working. Here is he is waiting for the next garbage truck to arrive. On my last day in the dump that first series of trips (2013). I remember how surprised he was when I gave him 50 baht ($1.88 CAD). He seemed to seem it was a mistake of some kind. When I returned in 2014 him and his family were gone.
The second is a photo of a man in his dump shack home, this was a ways off the garbage in an older part the the dump. After photographing all over the dump for 3+ years and doing lots of donation work, giving out boots, headlamps, food, hats, toys, pictures and a bit of money I am pretty well known and accepted by most people there. At the time this photo was made thou I was new to their world and viewed with some suspicion and apprehension. Most everyone was friendly but there was not the same level of trust as later on. I have been away for over 1 year now, around 1 year 6 months. There will no doubt be many new people working the garbage, I will need to build up new relationships and reinforce the old ones Wonder how long it will take for people to start asking me for rubber boots again. I would not be surprised if it happened the first day.
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| Mae Sot Garbage Dump, Thailand 2013 |
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| Mae Sot Garbage Dump, Thailand 2013 |
