VN pic Vu 082613

Vu is one of the two operators of the Heip Loi. Since he handled the cargo taken on and delivered off he is the first mate to the captain. He was exempt from driving that day so he could talk with me; it was an arrangement he made with the skipper. I post a note describing his salary and living conditions so more there. In this shot he holds an NYC Metro card, the type you purchase from a kiosk at the subway station or bodega. In another shot taken a couple hours earlier Vu made a small flower out of foil paper to give me as a present. I have him this metro card and he couldn't comprehend what it meant. I've communicated with people before where we spoke maybe one word in common and up to this point Vu and I got some real interesting facts from each other using hand gestures and drawings on torn pieces of cardboard box paper but this subway pass was like Nic Roeg's coke bottle dropped from a plane into the aboriginal desert. Vu had no way to approach the meaning of it.after a long thirty minutes of literally knocking heads together we were able to shift positions from basically function to form. The card became less of a tool or a symbol and took on the role of a gift. Vu actually got me to realize what I took for granted how something simple like a token of friendship is sometimes really only that and needs no other meaning.