Hoàng Liên Son Mountains, Sa Pa, Vietnam
the children of the village, moving splotches of saturated colors against the green and gray scale of the rice fields. They roam the steep roads in packs without watch, barefoot, their toes callused and ringed with dirt, clothes that have seen several days wear. They show incredible tenderness with one another, a girl of four guiding her younger sister by the hand, babies carrying even smaller babies, a crying toddler in the rear being gently herded every so often by the pack, all processing home from school with a sense of duty and a wide smile that shrinks in caution when they catch my eye. In their presence I shrink too, my privilege seems to echo in every part of my physicality--I am a strange emblem of a world they've never known and don't need and a humbled, wide-eyed visitor in theirs.