Need a little inspiration? Need a little faith in humanity to get your New Year’s started off right? Need a reminder why we always try to make this world a better place? For me, it never takes any more than looking to children to help me see with a simpler, kinder set of eyes. Welcome to this week’s Wednesday Gallery (on Friday!).
It’s a pretty simple theory: anything that whittles the world down into a smaller, more intimate and manageable size does the soul good. We regain our balance from anything that forces us to slow down and focus our awareness on the little things in life. These are my little things: my photos from my 2-year Peace Corps experience. Each week I choose a small sample of photos and share them with you. I just choose the gems and you take what you can from them.
This week, I focus on one of life’s most precious things: children. If it weren’t for them, my Peace Corps service and the love I’ve learned of would have been entirely incomplete. Without further adieu…meet my children.
**CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO VIEW IN ENLARGED GALLERY MODE WITH CAPTION DESCRIPTIONS (trust me, it’s worth it)**
Nong Euw and Friends Hang Out on Sports Day in December 2013
Hmong Tribe Village Children in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Me and Nong Euw Hanging Out and Chatting with My Mother Online
Just Saying Hello
Me and my Niece Pissa Brushing Up on Our Angry Birds Game Skills
Me and My Host Cousin’s New Baby, Dton Yaw, Getting Acquainted With Each Other
My First Time Meeting Dton Yaw and Welcoming Him into This Big World
I Pay Respect by Wai-ing to the Elderly Woman Who Walked In While My Niece, Pissa, Plays With my iPod
One of the Female Students Had to Cut All Her Hair Off as Part of a Buddhist Ritual When People Become Ill
Best Friends
Color Guard and the Marching Team Practice Their Cheer for Sports Day
An Elementary School Student Intently Blows Up a Balloon on the Playground
Second Grade Student, Sara, Giggles During Our English Lesson
Nong Euw Can’t Reign in Her Excitement with Her New Balloons
My Niece, Pissa, Posing as We Stopped to Look at the Sugar Cane and Rice Fields
Third Grade Students Pause for a Milk Break Before English Class
I Spend Some Time Speaking English and Thai with the Hmong Tribe Village Girls at the Mountaintop While My Parents Take Photos
Nong Jane Pauses to Reflect on a Question During Gender and Development Camp’s Drug and Alcohol Awareness Rotation
A Burmese Boy Along the Thailand-Burma Border, Stops to Take a Family Photo When I’m on Vacation With my Thai Family
My Niece, Pissa, Waits Outside Our House Near the Flowers for the Morning School Bus to Pick Her Up
Me, Pissa, and Pipi Watch the Sun Set Over the Newly Harvested Sugar Cane Fields in Singburi, Thailand
My Sixth Grade Students During English Teacher Training Practicum in February 2012
Ny Niece, Pissa, Holds up a Flower at the Ancient Lopburi Temple Ruins in Thailand
A Young Hmong Tribe Girl Plays House Atop Doi Pui Mountain in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She Was Imaginative and Quite the Dreamer.
A Brand New Extended Family Member Rocks a Flowered Shirt and Joins the Songkran Festivities
One of My 10th Grade Students, Nanae, With Me and Sara, Visiting From America, After Our Daily English Lesson
Sara, the Students, and I Gather Around to Learn Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” for a Christmas Day Performance
Enjoy. Happy traveling to all the wanderers out there. And for those who’ve found that their heart lies at home, like myself, try to look at your world with a new set of eyes each day. It’s never the same as it was and it will never be the same again.
Check Out My Past Weekly Wednesday Galleries for More Photos, Less Words:
Light Enough to Travel 