October 1st, 2019:
St. Josephs Church + Lake Union Cafe Wedding in Seattle, Washington.
July 10th, 2018:
I don’t recall ever seeing smiles as massive and as glowing as I did while celebrating Don + Mandy’s wedding; these two just shone for each other. They started off with their ceremony at Our Lady of the Lake followed that up with a super fun reception at Pine Rose Cabins in Lake Arrowhead. A big thanks to Kenny Song for coming along to this one with me.
It was wonderful to see these two wilderness lovers get married in a forest they love and I was proud to document this moment of their lives together. Congrats to you both!
April 1st, 2018:
Time passes WAY too fast, it’s already April and I’m planning for another trip (to Europe!) but I also remembered that I hadn’t even blogged about my time in Myanmar in January. So here is the first of a few posts about my weeks in Southeast Asia doing some work with a few various NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) and social enterprises.
This post is about the days I spent with Behind the Leaf Coffee in the mountains outside Inle Lake. Behind the Leaf is a social enterprise that works to empower local communities by buying their raw coffee beans in small batches and setting up one main facility for processing, drying, roasting and finally overseas sales.
Thanks Melanie for bringing me into your community in the mountains and for the inspiring work you are doing with the communities there.
January 17th, 2017:
Above: Daw Win Tin checks an 18 years old mother-to-be who is 6-7 months pregnant and this was the first time she had any sort of pregnancy check up.
The third project that I documented around Inle Lake is the Global Community Service Foundation’s Women Outreach Program. Here’s a little synopsis of their work from Kaythi’s 2016 year end letter:
“The program has three midwives and one boat driver. Currently they go to the villages every Wednesday to Sunday. This year seems less of a challenge with the mothers as they understand more and listen to the midwives. Once they get referred to the hospital by a midwife, most of the mothers listen and go to the hospital. This year so far the midwives have taken care of 200 pregnant women, 243 children, 435 mothers and necessary care for old people.”
The goal of the program is to attempt to bring some maternity, prenatal and child health care to the 42 underserved villages that surround Inle Lake. In addition the Women Outreach Program also provides feminine hygiene training, prenatal vitamins and supplements, pregnancy tests, baby position checks, child weight/check up, and informational materials.
Midwives Daw Ohn Tin and Daw Kyi Kyi Hnaung check a local child’s weight.
Daw Kyi Kyi Hnaung helps create a written record of maternity care for a 28 year old woman who is pregnant with her first child. (in blue in the background)
Local from Hsee Hsone Village await the various forms of care offered.
January 15th, 2017:
I still have a couple other NGO projects that I worked on in the Inle Lake area to share, but I thought I would break that up with a few of my favorite travel images and stories from the 5 days I spent in the area. Other than the work I was doing there, there was a good amount of time spent on the lake, in the 5 day market (which happens every 5th day), and wandering the town of Nyuangshwe.
During one of the days I spent with Kaythi she took me along to a Novitiation Ceremony in Lae Thit Village. It’s a massive 4 day celebration for a young man who is about to enter the monastery to become a monk. The boy’s family will provide huge amounts of food and the entire village will eat, sing and celebrate for 4 days straight. The villagers will make donations to the family that will help cover some of the costs. When I asked Kaythi if this is like a wedding and she said “No. This is much larger!”
Below is Kyae Sin Lin, the boy who at the end of the 4 days will have his head shaved and will go into the monastery to learn about Buddhism and humility. The minimum time spent in with the monks will be 1 week, but it could last a month or even a year depending on the boys family. Kaythi guessed that Kyae Sin Lin was probably 9 or 10 years old.
Yoon Lei Ya Tee played the role of the Princess (below) for the celebration. I was later told by someone else that most girls acting as the princess would have also have there heads shaved at the end of the celebration and would go into the nunnery, but I can’t confirm this for Yoon Lei Ya Tee because I didn’t ask on the day I was there.
I woke up at 6am on market day to catch the early morning light and the crowded market while it was only locals doing their shopping and selling. If you have ever traveled you know many markets around the world become stops on a tourist checklist that end up swarming with other travelers. Not true here, I spent a solid two hours here without seeing another white face, just the inquisitive looks and smiles from the locals. It was the most colorful, alive, authentic and real market I have been to anywhere in the world, and I questioned even writing about it because now others will read this and seek it out.
Afternoon wanderings in Nyuangshwe.
One of my favorite mundane travel chores is to get a local haircut. Really, I never know exactly what my head will end up looking like, but I usually gesture to my scalp and ask for less hair. This one was complete with a scalp massage and a straight razor shave around my neck and ears. I have found Myanmar to have some of the most honest people of any country I have ever traveled in, but after the haircut when I asked how much I owed, the barber said “3000 Kyat. Regular price.” ($2.20)
Now I know that when someone feels like they need to clarify that what they are charging me is the “Regular price” it usually isn’t, but I didn’t feel overly scammed and I paid. The barber was still super friendly and at the end of the haircut I realized that he cut me in line in front of the two guys sitting behind me who I originally thought were just his friends hanging out.
A few days later I asked an American who has lived in Myanmar for 15 years how much a haircut should cost and he said about 1000 kyat ($0.75). Meh. I guess I should ask the price in advance next time.
One of the days I was there I heard that they city and Ministry of Tourism had decided to open a daily night market in Nyuangshwe so there would be some sort of evening activities (the city goes pretty much dead by 7:30pm). They kicked off the inaugural night with music, dancing and a Fire Balloon.
A Fire Balloon is a massive paper balloon, which is then filled with hot air using flaming bamboo torches before finally having a massive rack of fireworks attached to the bottom. The fireworks are lit and the balloon is release and it then proceeds to rain a fiery death from the sky. Seriously. A fire truck was present, but safety and burns didn’t seem high on the list of priorities as everyone scattered from the incoming fireballs.
I also learned that each November in Taunggyi fire balloon teams gather and compete with each other to see who can create the best balloon/fireworks display. I can only imagine the number of burn victims on that night.
January 13, 2017:
The second project I set out to document for Kaythi and the Global Community Service Foundation was their new Mobile Library which was set up in January 2016. Since Inle Lake is comprised of about 42 villages on or around the 45 square mile lake, many of the village children have limited access to books or other reading materials. The goal of the library is encourage reading, create an excitement for books and to help the children gain otherwise inaccessible knowledge.
The day I spent with Mobile Library (in its donated, brightly colored boat named Sylvia) we stopped in the village of Hsee Hsone where 22 students had gathered for the 3-5 hour program. The day included checking out books, story time with the librarian Ma Than Shwe Aye, as well as teaching proper book maintenance and making sure the books stay clean, dry and undamaged. The library currently spends every Saturday and Sunday at a different village in 4 week cycles. This allows them to serve 8 villages and each child will get to see the library once a month – if they read both their books before the month is up, they are encouraged to swap with other students so they always have something new to read.
The library currently owns about 1000 books and serves roughly 400 students, usually meeting in a communal space or a monastery. In addition the basic library functions, whenever they start in a new village they take time to teach the children proper hygiene practices like washing their hands and brushing their teeth. Finally, the library also brings along current weekly and monthly news journals and newspapers for the adults in the community so there is something to encourage some parents to come along as well.
For the future of the program, Kaythi hope to expand the book selection as well as trying to bring an art program to the communities along with the library.
January 11th, 2017:
The main reason for my trip to Myanmar (other than the fact I love going anywhere new), was to work with some NGOs to create new visuals for them to tell their stories of the work they are accomplishing here. The first project was to document homes being built in the various villages on Inle Lake by the Global Community Service Foundation.
The day I arrived in Nyuangshwe I met up with Kaythi Win Aung, a local and the GCSF representative for Inle Lake, and she gave me the run down of all the projects she coordinates here – Home building, a mobile library, a mobile midwife service and the running of 5 different schools. She gave me the timeline she was thinking to try to get images of all this and told me she would pick me up the following morning to head out on the lake.
As soon as she picked me up, I asked tons of questions and Kaythi had responses for everything. Here are some answers:
We started off in Hsee Hsone village (population 500) to spend some time at the construction site of a house for Ko Tan Aye, Ma Tin Aye and their two children. It really is quite amazing what people can do with bamboo, nails, and wire.
Tea, local cigarettes, tools and betel nut.
House walls are built offsite at a nearby monastery where once assembled they are coated with a mixture of tar and oil to preserve the building materials. To properly maintain the walls, they should be recoated with this wash each year or the homes will begin to degrade. Ko Tan Aye (the man whose house is being built), is the fellow above on the right.
One of the things that is a big deal to the locals is that the new homes have aluminum roofs, which don’t fill with bugs and vermin and don’t require replacement every couple of years like the traditional thatch does. The other feature is solid plank floors, as opposed to bamboo, which are flat at will last exponentially longer. They seem like small things, but they make a world of difference out here on the lake.
Once we wrapped up at the construction site, Kaythi wanted to show me one of the finished homes and let me meet the family that lives there. That’s how I was welcomed into the home of Ko Htay Yee and Ma Tin Htwe and their two sons, 12 years old and almost 2 years old. Ko Htay Yee is a day laborer and Ma Tin Htwe is a weaver and a day laborer.
Upon moving into the new home, GCSF and Kaythi give the family gifts of:
After visiting Ko Htay Yee and Ma Tin Htwe, Kaythi took me along as she boated around nearby Kan Khaung Village to interview other families in need to find someone who qualifies for the next home to be built. She takes advice from local village chiefs as to who in the town is most in need, but still personally visits the families to assess the house they are currently in and if it needs badly rebuilt. Sometimes we went into their homes and sat with them and spoke about their lives, other times Kaythi spoke with them from the boat. She also has a very strict, self imposed rule, to not build homes for people with drinking problems because it would only enable the problems further.
One of the homes we visited was of Daw Mya May, an older lady who seemed mostly deaf, and who shares a small house with her daughter, son-in-law and one school aged boy. Her daughter hasn’t recently lived with her since she was hospitalized with stomach problems and the son-in-law wasn’t around much. Leaving just Daw May May and a the young boy to fend for themselves.
After leaving Daw Mya May, Kaythi remarked that she would most likely select this home because the old woman and child need the assistance more than many of the other families we visited, and it would do the most good. I really don’t envy Kaythi having to sort though people in and have to pick.
Daw Mya May with a local village who was introducing us to some of the families.
After speaking with Daw Mya May, we went and sat with one other family Kan Khaung Village who currently had multiple generations living in one small space. Everywhere I went in these small villages I was stared at with curiosity and greeted with warm smiles and cups of tea.
July 2nd, 2015:
I love getting to photograph in the mountains and I adore Pine Rose Cabins! These changes in scenery, mixed with the absolute, fun loving, epicness that is Eileen and Adam made for a fantastic way for Kenny and I to spend a Saturday.
Congrats again to you both and I trust your are having an amazing time in the Philippines!
March 14th, 2013:
Last week, as part of our whirlwind tour of Northern California (where we visited my brother and had some photos done for ourselves), I met up with my Dad in Lake Tahoe for some epic spring-like boarding, a little afternoon drinking and evening gambling. We spent two days on the slopes together trying to out do each other, even using a iPhone app that tracks our distance traveled, elevation and speed. I topped out at just under 55MPH as I straight lined it down some black diamond runs, and Dad came in at a top speed of 52 MPH, which isn’t too shabby considering he has got a couple decades on me. It was a couple of spectacular days of father/son bonding on the slope.
While sitting on the lift on the second day, I got to thinking how I would love to shoot a snowboarding engagement session and/or wedding – so if any of our clients out there would ever be up for it, I am all game.
The morning Felicia and I had to drive home, the spring-like conditions abandoned us and winter made its return. We had to chain up the Prius and spent the next 2 hours driving through the snow to make our way off the mountain.