The Excavator

I don't know his name because I cannot understand a syllable that emanates from his facial orifice. This isn't a language problem, but more of a result of the single tooth that remains in his head. He is not shy about being dentally challenged, in fact if the camera should even remotely swing past his location, he will tools down and give me a cheesy grin.

This fact made capturing a working image of this character quite a challenge, shooting dragons is a lot simpler and they don't pinch my cigarettes.

He's about 5'2", failing eyesight, can barely walk with what appears to be arthritic problems, but he is still a vital part of the team with the other farmers and their wives who work this series of paddies. The girls do all the planting, the men do all the heavy lifting of seedlings, cultivated crops and fertilizer sacks and this guy does the digging.

I have seen him start work on a paddy in the morning, 20m x 30m, that has been standing fallow for months, heavily overgrown, lumpy and dry. I come back the next day and the perfect paddy has been created. With a perimeter of mud, skillfully formed into water retaining walls, the base perfectly flat and horizontal, sunk below the surface of a few inches of water, ready for the girls to move in and do their magic.

He is an artist, he is a machine, he is - the Excavator!!!

Dave