Just a few weeks ago, I posted a blog all about how strange
it is that Koreans like to stop and take pictures of my children. I scoffed at
them and deemed them odd for this phenomenon. Mind you, this blog was a year in
the making. It was not a one-time event that had me scratching my head but 15
months of our BOGOs’ lives where I passed judgment on our hosts for documenting
the lives of children they had never met. I remarked in wonder why they would
want those shots and how I wasn’t sure how one would present those photos to
family and friends. And then, in a not-so-bizarre turn of events, I became
guilty of the same peculiar attraction to strangers’ children.
Last week, the high school took a week break before finals
to celebrate their annual “Discovery Week”. This is a week where student groups
are sent to every corner of the globe to “discover” their world. Trips range
from seeing theater in London, to scuba diving in Malaysia, to building schools
in the Philippines. I was lucky enough to help lead a trip to Nepal that had us
trekking through mountain villages (actually, they were just the “foothill
villages” as anything below 15,000 feet
in the Himalayas doesn’t count as a mountain). Chris did awesome as he
sponsored a local basketball camp and played Mr. Mom with the girls at home all
week.
Nepal was amazing. The landscape was breath-taking and the
people were unbelievably hospitable. And, guess what? The Nepali children are
cute. Really cute. Makes me want to take random photos of other people’s
children cute. So, here I am trekking along when up comes a small child in
tattered clothes and big, dark eyes. The first thing I wanted to do was whip
out my camera and take a picture. But, the irony of this whole situation was
not lost on me. I had just spent a year lamenting to anyone who would listen
about the strangeness of other people photographing my kids and here I am wanting
to do the same thing. At first, I tried to resist. I won’t be that tourist who
comes back with stacks of pictures of random children whom I will never see
again. My resolve didn’t last long, however. Barely 48 hours in Nepal and I was
snapping away. You may be happy to hear that I did always ask permission first. I always appreciate when people
ask.
So, I have come to you to ask forgiveness in my judgment of
the Korean people. They aren’t strange. Or maybe, it is just that I am as
strange as they are. I wondered how one would present pictures of foreign children
to their friends and family and so, here I go.
Do you want to see pictures of cute Nepali children? Yes?
Okay, here are a few…
