Malaysia
As I stepped off of the plane in October in Kuala Lumpur, the wall of heat at midnight was overpowering. Natalie and myself were headed to the city with a list of phone numbers and one purpose: To meet and interview/photograph as many Burmese refugees living there as possible. We had heard that there were thousands of Burmese that had taken refuge in KL after fleeing the military junta and genocide in Burma.
We picked a guesthouse to stay in - based solely on the name it and crossed our fingers that everything would work out (we thought any place with that spelled beds as 'bedz' had to be awesome - what?). It turned out that it was so centrally located that we could walk anywhere we needed to be. Thank God.
Not only did we cram more than we ever thought was possible into eight days, but we made some of the best friends of our lives. People that make you want to live your life differently, shift your perspective, and reshape your approach towards everything. Each family and person that we met redefined the term resilience, showed us what it was to really live in the moment, and how to to find time to laugh no matter what.
These are the images captured in that short time in Malaysia - a part of the project of telling the stories of Burmese refugees in an effort to raise awareness and create avenues of involvement for change. More here: www.indyrefugee.com
That's the legend, Patrick Sangbawi. You may not be able to tell just by looking at him, but he is a pop-star waiting to happen.
There are pictures of Jesus everywhere. And I love it.
This is Patrick. This was his last week in KL before moving to the USA.
This family of 5 has been in KL for 9 years. Thang (the father) said "I feel like we are a forgotten people."
This is the kitchen that Thang and his family share with 20 other people.
Cameron Highlands is four hours north of KL by car. It's a destination for thousands of Burmese that haven't received refugee status from the UNHCR. They live and work in covertly as they wait for their legal status'. Mostly they work on farms.
We met several men that had been working in the fields and asked them all the same question. "What do you want for Burma - in one word?" As we interviewed and photographed each of them separately, they all said the same thing... "Freedom" or "Democracy." It was powerful to see so many different people, but they all stood for solidarity in seeing Burma change.
