Badjao Smile

As part of my coverage last February of a security situation ivolving then NCRCOM Chief Major General Mohammad Dolorfino, me and my reporter went to a Marines Camp in Sulu. The camp, dubbed as “Tres Palmas” is located in a beach front. The area is surrounded by a Badjao community. Badjao’s are the sea qypsies of the Philippines known for their preference of living in their house boats rather than houses built on land.

Anyway, I was walking along the beach when I spotted a group of Badjao kids approaching me. They were curious to this stranger lugging along a big camera.

I saw this kid and she readily posed for me. The lighting was great and so is the kid’s profile.

A few seconds later, a curious boy joined in. Apparently, the boy hasn’t seen a camera all his life. He doesn’t know what it is and what it is supposed to do. I was trying to explain to him what a camera is but the boy couldn’t talk Tagalog. The older girl from the first picture then explained to the boy what I was doing. She then did something really funny.

She instructed the boy to smile. But she didn’t stopped there. She “directed” him how to smile. Hehehehe. Cute little naive children

When the girl left the boy to have his solo picture taken, the boy posed “smiling.” At least I think he wanted to smile for the camera. No difference from his original facial expression

You decide!