Buddhist Monks

Today my photo story on Buddhist monks who live in a double-wide in Bossier Parish ran on the front of the Living section. I also did an audio slide show, which you can see here. When the paper was doing a story on property standards violations a few months ago, somebody who lives near the monks complained about some statues that were in the yard. I headed out to track them down -- not for that story, but in an attempt to find them for a project. I did, but communication was a problem from the start. They are from Thailand and speak only broken English, and when they don't understand something they respond with "yes" and a smile. It was very difficult to figure out if they wanted me to take pictures at all and when would be the best time to do so. I finally determined that Sunday mornings were my best bet, and that's when I met Buddy Landry. He is an American who was able to tell me what sort of ceremonies and chanting I was photographing and without him, my story probably would've failed.