Three months ago I got a call from the Mennonite Central Committee in Akron, Ohio. “We need a Canadian photographer. Would you like to go to North Korea?” What else could I say. “Pick me. Pick me.” I couldn’t refuse a chance to go to a country that almost nobody really knows. Three weeks later I was there photographing orphanages that were receiving soy beans and the pressure cookers to convert them to soy milk. All part of a program called First Steps run by a woman named Susan Ritchie. Susan was raised in South Korea and her command of the language and knowledge of the culture and politics is amazing. I had free reign to photograph when we were in the orphanages, but when we were on route or on the street, we always had a handler with us and that meant for the most part- no photos. I grabbed what I could of this unknown land, this one is on a back street where they are making charcoal for heating. Wish I could have grabbed a shot of the steam powered trucks that were moving down the streets behind a cloud of smoke- moving slowly for sure, but moving.