The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

If Lia had been born in Laos, where her parents and twelve of her brothers and sisters were born, her mother would have squatted on the floor to give birth. The floor was dirt, but it was clean. Her mother, Foua, sprinkled it regularly with water to keep the dust down and swept it every morning and evening with a broom. She used a bamboo dustpan, which she had made herself, to collect the feces …

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