Thursday, May 5, 2016

Invited To A Birthday

Today in the dump I was given a card and invited to a birthday party for a young dump boy, aged around 7 (soon to be 8). The whole birthday invite was rather confusing, I got asked to attend by the grandfather of the group, at first I did not understand that the party was the next day. Later on while photographing in another part of the dump, inside a home with 5 children and 2 mothers I was told (they spoke Thai) that the birthday party was at 6am, later I heard 7am then 8am, then 730am. I think it is going to be at 730am so will show up to photography at about 545am and hopefully make the party later in the morning.

Back in 2013 I attended a wedding in the dump, this will be my first birthday party. When I was leaving to come back to my hotel today I spoke to the grand father again (found out he spoke some Thai) and he invited me all over again. He asked me if I was going to eat, pointing at the bowl of meat he was working on. I asked him if it was chicken, he said yes. I told him sure I would eat. The sliced raw chicken he was preparing had many flies around and on the meat. Hopefully after it is cooked it will be fine to eat. Following my rule of thumb here, when poor people offer you food you accept no matter what. It is the only polite thing to do.

It should be fun to share this birthday celebration with the families tomorrow.