evelyn tea

drawing with light and shadows.
pencil on a piece of paper.
these, my photographs.
Here’s a little girl from the Sapa mountains. I don’t know her name, nor her age, nor where she is going when she grows up. Those are the constant questions in my mind as I visited Sapa (Hanoi) in 2009. There were children wandering at every corner of the hilly terrain, green with corn and paddy as the summer shines at its peak. Barefoot and with tattered and soiled clothes, some were selling trinkets and handmade bracelets (..”buy from me?”), while some were tending to the cows and some just walking about to somewhere only they know. Most of them are not accompanied by their parents but I guess this is their village and it is safe to go about like that.  It’s definitely a very different environment from where I come from. Back home, kids are ever-so-protected (for a good reason) and they have their lives all planned out, starting from education, career, marriage, etc and the rest goes. But the children in Sapa had me thinking about their future. When the world outside these hills are evolving so swiftly, how will they ever catch up? Or there is no intention to catch up even? I left the mountains never knowing if globalization will reach their doorsteps but I hope for better future for these children.

Here’s a little girl from the Sapa mountains. I don’t know her name, nor her age, nor where she is going when she grows up. Those are the constant questions in my mind as I visited Sapa (Hanoi) in 2009. There were children wandering at every corner of the hilly terrain, green with corn and paddy as the summer shines at its peak. Barefoot and with tattered and soiled clothes, some were selling trinkets and handmade bracelets (..”buy from me?”), while some were tending to the cows and some just walking about to somewhere only they know. Most of them are not accompanied by their parents but I guess this is their village and it is safe to go about like that. 

It’s definitely a very different environment from where I come from. Back home, kids are ever-so-protected (for a good reason) and they have their lives all planned out, starting from education, career, marriage, etc and the rest goes. But the children in Sapa had me thinking about their future. When the world outside these hills are evolving so swiftly, how will they ever catch up? Or there is no intention to catch up even? I left the mountains never knowing if globalization will reach their doorsteps but I hope for better future for these children.