From the Farms to the Cities
By Vannaphone Sitthirath

Many people go about their daily lives hearing the endless hum from the construction of buildings, roads and other structures in Vientiane, the Lao capital. But few know much about the lives of the young workers that toil on these projects -- migrants from the countryside who are pushed by the challenges of poverty and pulled to Vientiane by the attraction that cities everywhere hold. Eighty percent of Lao workers, after all, are in subsistence-oriented agriculture and related activities. Here, the workers talk about the rice farmlands they left, the families they support and the dreams they wish to accomplish if they save enough money and get out of poverty.