Passports are demanded at checkpoints around Kayin State, Myanmar. Explosions at the nearby cement factory are mistaken for the warning shots of another battle between government and ethnic Kayin (Karen) soldiers; “If more than four, we worry,” our guide explains. The tuk tuk bumps down isolated country roads, where children pop up, like fresh produce, from small farms. A chorus of “Hello! Hello!” matches the slap of their bare feet racing after us.

It is too easy to overlook the symbolic. Open windows provide us with just that: a window of a region, a civil struggle, a culture and history and people. And we, twelve-hour visitors, can barely recognize it but through the physical grasp of one small hand.

(Brought to you by Weekly Photo Challenge).