Yogyakarta, Indonesia (1996)

I visited an orphanage in a village a few hours drive from Yogyakarta for a newsletter for a charity organization. The children are very cool. Starting with the young leader, everyone knows how to make themselves look cool. During the daytime in a village in a tropical country, I rarely see people walking around, but when I talk to them, they come out of their houses.They don't talk much and only smile at you. The young man who was our guide during Ramadan told us that he would be in his car and that we should go to that restaurant to eat. He told me to be careful with ice, so I drank a room temperature Coke. As the sun sets and night falls, you can hear the TV sound from the houses in the village. All the houses have their windows and doors fully open. When I told him that I came from Japan for an interview, he asked me which TV program it was. The faces of the people facing the camera seemed more lively at night. The daytime heat had cooled off completely, and a pleasant breeze was blowing, when two people walking in the dark came up to me. When they found out I was hanging a camera around my neck, he said, "Please take a picture of this man," and pushed the man next to him forward. The man's eyes were closed as his face was illuminated by the strobe under the dim street lights. Without saying anything else, the two of them disappeared into the dark road with satisfaction. A blind man walked forward.