Big Brother Mouse is a bookstore run mostly by Lao guys in their teens and early twenties. According to them, most Lao kids have never owned a book of their own. Apparently, the Lao language does not have much of a publishing history at all, for adults or children, and they're on a mission to change that. They write, illustrate and publish books in Lao, H'mong and in a few cases Lao with English translations, then ask tourists to buy some and distribute them to the kids we meet along our travels in Laos. Carl, Roz (fellow travelers) and I got a bunch and our tuk tuk driver took us to a H'mong (semi-nomadic hilltribe) village on the way back from the waterfall. We had no trouble finding kids to give them to!
This little girl was so shy that she didn't ask for a book, but I saw her hovering at the edge of the group and found out that she really wanted one. She was also fascinated by my camera and amazed when I showed her the picture of herself.
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