SOUTHERN LAOS VILLAGE ELDERS

February 8, 2013

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are the core character of rural village life.  Every line in these proud men’s distinctive aging faces convey their heroic life stories.  They are the rocks that bind the community’s past, present and future.  I had the privilege of meeting these elder ‘statesmen’ at their remote village; all about 70-year old.  Their respected humble dignity is exuded in these photos.  I feel their determined strength; do you?  These are the salt of the earth’ rural Laotian villagers I take pleasure in introducing you to.

Mr. Mout (red shirt) struggles with a drastic foot deformity, either an accident or a radical club foot birth defect.  I felt it impolite to ask and even more uncomfortable being it may have been an unexposed ordinance accident.

This remote village is located deep into a once virgin forested region with washed out treacherous rutted dirt roads to reach.  Established on a high hill, it is necessary to forge the river below to access the village during the monsoon season.  Difficult as life can be, it is their ancestral ground once influenced by the French.

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