What is your goal?
I like to play football with my friends, and i also help my mother at the restaurant.

I met Thomas and his friends during my trip across Mexico in August 2006. They all lived on “la Isla de Janitzo”, a little island off the Patzcuaro lake in the middle of Mexico in the state of Michoacan. This island is known for its main festivity “El dia de los Muertos” (Day of the dead) and also for the 40 metre statue of the war of independence hero José Maria Morelos. All day long I spent at that really beautiful place, where lots of Mexican people live from the business of tourism, restaurants, hotels, goodies…and most of the time, kids are working and helping their parents in the family businesses…

Late in the evening all the tourists were leaving the place, so I decided to stay there and spend the night at one of the three little hotels on the island in order to live and feel the place with its true mood. Kids were playing football with a battered ball here and there and then I went to the edge of the lake, where the boat was, to have a little moment by myself, enjoying life.
A little group of kids came to see me. They were curious and they wanted to know about the only tourist who stayed on the island. They were really happy, smiling at me, surrounded me and staring at my camera, I asked for their names and we began a very simple exchange… I explained to them where I was from, but they didn’t know anything about France or Paris, so I decided to draw on my sketch book, a quick world map to show them where my country was and where their home was in the world. I wanted to continue to interact with them so I first took a picture of Thomas to show them what it looked like on the digital screen. They were really amazed, excited and laughing a lot. The 2 other pictures were taken in a really natural way, I began to point my camera and then without trying to pose, they just naturally had fun and really expressed themselves with sincerity and happiness…what a precious moment and gift that they gave me in that short little moment! Spontaneously…

I know that they were going to school and then during the day, they would help their families in the tourism businesses They mainly played football during their free time.

I’m quite sure that the goal question and why? would be a very abstract question for them because they were really happy the way they were living and nothing much was being offered to them…