To Serve A Nation update

To Serve a Nation photofilm is on a bit of a tour in Laos at the moment thanks to Tessa Bunney. She went back to Phonsavan to share the film with the women we worked with and other members of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and will be giving a talk in Vientiane on 17th September. 

It's such a brilliant feeling to show photofilms to the people who have given so much to make these stories possible and I'm really happy Tessa was able to go to do this - I wish I could have been there too!

The women of UCT6

After leaving Lao last November I faced a new set of challenges when putting together the material Tessa and I had recorded. It was the first time I had worked in a language other than my own and this was a steep learning curve. But after many weeks of wrestling with story lines, final cut pro, translations and different time zones the film was finally finished. 
To Serve A Nation explores the lives of UCT6, an all female UXO clearance team working for The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) in Lao PDR, the most bombed country, per capita, in the world. The full article with Tessa Bunney's images and text, including extracts from my interviews was published in the Financial Times Weekend magazine. You can see a copy of the article here and the film online on the Financial Times website here.
It was a pleasure to work with someone as established as Tessa and to be play a small part in wider work in Lao. It was also a proud moment for me to see our work and the stories of the women published in a context where so many people could access it. 

 
To Serva A Nation from rebecca harley on Vimeo.

Along the Mekong River

After an intense 10 days in Xieng Khouang Province in the North East of Lao PDR where I have been working with Tessa Bunney documenting the effects of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO), we have returned safely to Vientiane.  We've spent a lot of time interviewing, photographing, listening, eating, crying, laughing and drinking a little bit of Beer Lao. It's been an experience and I'm incredibly happy to have been asked by Tessa to accompany her on this assignment and to be part of her story.

We arrived back in the capital Vientiane after a dusty hot journey through mountainous landscape, relieved to be able to bring back the stories we collected and to walk on safer ground. From the people we met along the way and from our outstanding translator Long, I now have a much greater understanding about one of the most heavily bombed countries in the world. I'm leaving here in a day to go back to the UK to work with the material we have gathered and to put it all together, which will be a challenge - albeit a good one.

So today I decided to borrow Tessa's bike and head out for a cycle along the Mekong River. As I biked along I felt extremely happy to have had the opportunity to visit this country and meet some of the people who live here. It's hot and there wasn't much breeze, but I felt an overwhelming sense of joy and freedom to be riding it down the dusty track with the river on my left and Thailand on the opposite bank. My friend Jamie is right, it's so brilliant to call out "Sabaidee" (Hello) to everyone you see and hear them call back "Sabaidee" - and then you both start laughing. It just makes you smile, it's such a beautiful singsong word.

So my challenge to myself is to wake up when I am back in cold and frosty England and say to myself Sabaideeeeeeeee! - surely this will keep me smiling through the Winter.