We lost our hearts to the children of Vietnam. Their
beauty, joy, spirit and purity cannot be captured by the lens and our camera was not the
best. The few pictures that follow are an attempt on our part to help keep our
images of the children fresh in our minds.
This minority girl was working the
cornfields in her poor village. She gave us this pure smile as she paused for us to
take her picture. Everywhere we traveled we saw children working alongside other
members of their families. Although we were told that children are supposed to go to
school every day at least for grades one through six, it is very difficult to enforce that
policy. In addition, we are not certain that the regulations apply to minority
children.
These children were on the grounds of a site in Vietnam that is
similar to the Temple of Heaven in China. It was a place where the emperor came to
pray for abundant crops and was a most sacred area.
Unlike many children who we saw throughout the country, these
children were not begging. They were enjoying the simple pleasures of children all
over the world.
This sweet little girl was sitting by the
roadside at a restaurant where we stopped to eat on our journey from Da Nang to Hue.
We wanted to bring her home with us.
This
little boy was sitting on the wall outside his home in Tri-Met Village. We don't
know if you can see the squalor of his home from the photograph. We gave him a
ball-point pen to thank him for allowing us to take his picture. When he saw it, he
jumped with excitement and ran to show it to his family members. We often gave pens
to people to show gratitude. We had been warned not to give children candy because it was
too reminiscent of GIs during the war. Before going to Vietnam it was hard to
imagine a country so poor that a simple ball point pen could be such an exciting gift,
although Tom had found the same to be true in India.
We left Vietnam with the image of these and many other
children. They would live in our memories for a long time. Besides their
incredible beauty, to us they represent the hope of the country, where a majority of the
population was under the age of 20 at the time of our visit.
Japanese Children
