Children in Burma: Money for Molasses

• Read The Washington Times Story -- Children in Burma: Money for Molasses
  Learn more: Momenta Workshops
  The official name for this area is the Tourist's Jetty, but it's hardly a place frequented by foreign travelers. The location is a bustling center of commerce where daily supplies such as peanuts, rice, charcoal and molasses make their way inland from Mandalay along the Irrawaddy River from points north and south. A row of slums abuts the river and is home to thousands of poor local residents. I opted for a high vantage point to photograph so I could get a good look at the jetty. I noticed that some boats were unloading large drums surrounded by swarms of children.
  
  
  

  Barbara L. Salisbury, The Washington Times / Momenta

• Read The Washington Times Story -- Children in Burma: Money for Molasses
  Learn more: Momenta Workshops
  The drums contained cane molasses slurry that was being off-loaded from barges. Two barefoot men would lift each drum of molasses using a bamboo yoke to help shoulder the massive weight. Each drum weighs about 350 pounds. The men's muscles heave and flex under the weight; still, they make the backbreaking task look easy, almost like a well-choreographed dance. It's repeated over and over until the barges are unloaded onto the beach.
  
  
  

  Barbara L. Salisbury, The Washington Times / Momenta

• Read The Washington Times Story -- Children in Burma: Money for Molasses
  Learn more: Momenta Workshops
  Two things struck me when I climbed aboard one of the barges. First, the light was amazing from the open-sided hull. Saturated colors popped out of the neutral background in the soft morning light. The second was when the dockworkers left the barge with a drum; children would sneak on board and scoop molasses into small containers. They would steal away before being caught in the act. I was struck by this wanton act of theft and decided to investigate further.
  
  
  

  Barbara L. Salisbury, The Washington Times / Momenta

• Read The Washington Times Story -- Children in Burma: Money for Molasses
  Learn more: Momenta Workshops
  While I was on the barge, I wanted to make sure I'd seen the scene from every possible angle, and this is the perfect example of how simply turning around can completely change the quality of light. From the wonderfully rich, saturated colors and light in the hold, the light turned to silhouettes against a richly sunlit shoreline. The silhouettes men carrying a drum of molasses off the boat and onto the shore was a good image illustrating the activity of the process. It also showed me again how many children there were on the beach collecting molasses.
  
  
  

  Barbara L. Salisbury, The Washington Times / Momenta

• Read The Washington Times Story -- Children in Burma: Money for Molasses
  Learn more: Momenta Workshops
  I decided to leave the barge and focus on the activity of the children. Looking at this scene of a young girl on her knees in the sand collecting the small puddles of spilled molasses, I was struck by the desperation of this activity I was surrounded by. It was immediately clear this was not the simple attraction of children to sweets.
  
  
  

  Barbara L. Salisbury, The Washington Times / Momenta

• Read The Washington Times Story -- Children in Burma: Money for Molasses
  Learn more: Momenta Workshops
  The beautiful contrast of the golden molasses against the upturned sand belies the absolute poignant horror of what was transpiring in front of me. This sand isn't the clean, white sand of a beach resort, but rather the dirty, muck-filled sand along a river that is used as bathing area, washing area and toilet alike. Just an hour before, there had been a row of children and adults, largely suffering from dysentery, using this same stretch of sand as an outdoor toilet.
  
  
  

  Barbara L. Salisbury, The Washington Times / Momenta

• Read The Washington Times Story -- Children in Burma: Money for Molasses
  Learn more: Momenta Workshops
  Children swarming around the delivery trucks reminded me of children rushing for candy dropping to the ground from a freshly broken piñata. Of course, these children aren't collecting candy to eat and it certainly wasn't play, but rather they were looking for any small amount of liquid molasses they could gather into their buckets.
  
  
  

  Barbara L. Salisbury, The Washington Times / Momenta

• Read The Washington Times Story -- Children in Burma: Money for Molasses
  Learn more: Momenta Workshops
  Seeing the children crawl up under the truck to collect molasses dripping though the bed nearly broke my heart. I waited patiently for the little girl on the left to lift her head so that her eyes appeared above the pipe, while also framing the older boy on the right in the opening. Still, my main focus was the boy in the middle, carefully watching the steady drips of molasses fall into his perfectly placed bucket.
  
  
  

  Barbara L. Salisbury, The Washington Times / Momenta

• Read The Washington Times Story -- Children in Burma: Money for Molasses
  Learn more: Momenta Workshops
  I noticed this hand patiently waiting beneath the tail pipe of a truck for a few small drips of molasses. It was a perfect juxtaposition of the organic and inorganic. It was like tunnel vision, and I knew it needed to be photographed tight to have maximum impact. It took a few shots to capture the perfect drip.
  
  
  

  Barbara L. Salisbury, The Washington Times / Momenta

• Read The Washington Times Story -- Children in Burma: Money for Molasses
  Learn more: Momenta Workshops
  When I stepped around the back of the truck I saw a small hand reach out from underneath, like a frog's tongue reaching out for a passing fly, then quickly retracting. I stepped back and saw the small figure crouched underneath, liquid molasses flowing through his closed fist into the bowl beneath.
  
  
  

  Barbara L. Salisbury, The Washington Times / Momenta