Dream Trip 2008: September

Great Travel Moment

It's tough in Siliguri (a town in the Indian state of West Bengal) like nothing I've ever seen. In June the sun pounds down from above with seemingly as much force as the sledgehammers that the stonebreakers wield. Children as young as ten have no choice but to work alongside their parents, pulling rocks from the bed of a nearby river to be broken into gravel for local contractors. I had the opportunity to follow the work of a team of volunteer chiropractors who journeyed out to the rural community of Chenga to help the working families. Despite the trying circumstances smiles were the rule of the day. The children laughed and played games with each other. But when you're looking through a lens you view the world in fractions of seconds, a different truth sometimes comes out. The vulnerability, the want and need that I caught here stunned me.