Man and Girl

This shot looks like a scene from South East Asia, and I would love to know more about the place/story for this shot.  Some parts of Asia, people are so poor that they don't have enough clothing, this could be the reason the girl is covering her chest with her arms.  An indication of extreme poverty is the material used for the girl pants, which looks similar to the man scarf wrapping around his waist.  This material for scarf (aka krama in Cambodian language) is not used normally for pants or shirts.  A very good thought provoking shot that would be even better with a short description IMO.

Kavin

OK some details of the situation. I have shot (volunteered) for the same Cambodia based NGO in 2007 and 2010. I spent a month with them on the first trip and I believe 10 days on the second. The NGO is located in the Mesang District about 100 km of bad road SE of Phnom Penh near the Vietnam border. The village is Chi Phut. You won’t likely find it on a map. There is no running water or electricity here nor hotels or restaurants, although it looked like some makeshift power lines were crawling their way to Chi Phut on my last trip. I lived in a local family’s bamboo and wood hut and all meals were cooked over an open fire. 

The Assistant Director of the NGO spoke enough English for him and me to communicate. He took me around the Mesang on the back of his motor bike to show me their projects. The projects were mainly designed to improve the standard of living though better farming practices and building community all ultimately to try to keep the children from going to Phnom Penh in search of work. Sixty percent of all street children in PP come from this district. 

Travel was mainly over dirt paths to smaller villages. In most places the villagers had never seen a Caucasian before. This is one of those situations. I think the young girl was in protective position (arms crossed) because she did not know what to make of me and might have been frightened. The man just stared at me…couldn’t help himself. Unfortunately I think many people that look at this image think that the girl is afraid of the man, but I don’t think that was the case.

Yes, these are very poor people.  Khmer people are some of the nicest and warmest people I have met in all of my travels. I love Cambodia and hope to return again this year.

Thank you Paul for providing the story and  a special appreciation for volunteering to help one of the poorest region of Cambodia.