RHOADES LESS TRAVELED:

What started off as a vacation ended up as a mission.

Daily Pilot photographer Kent Treptow visited Mongolia — “a blank spot on the map, one of those untouched places … it’s like stepping back in time” — in 2007 and was struck by how many poor, filthy kids were scurrying around Ulaanbaatar, the capital city.

He spent that vacation hiking and camping with a buddy in nomad-lands in the western part of the country.

Upon his return, he couldn’t stop thinking about Ulaanbaatar, which prompted, after contacting an organization dedicated to feeding, housing and educating the forgotten children of the city, a return trip, solo and on his own dime, to do a social documentary in pictures.

By then, he had learned of an underground society. The kids, driven down by broken homes, a failing economy and below-zero temperatures, were living in manholes to stay warm.

This after the fall of communism in the early 1990s and the failure of their parents, and the government, to implement a free-market economy that doesn’t leave a cadre of unfortunates behind.

On his first night there, ushered into an office-sized manhole by members of a group dedicated to improving the situation, he saw a bruised, burned and sickly group of kids.

“It was pretty shocking,” he remembers. “It was completely cramped, and when I stepped down on the pipes, my shoe was melting. It smelled like an outhouse.”

Some were boyfriend and girlfriend, tending to one another’s ailments and despairs. Others fought for space, for scraps of food. Many, as young as 7 years old, drank and cut themselves, leaving scars on their arms. Most, emerging from their hole, dug in rubbage heaps for discarded meat.

In time, Treptow decided to focus his story on the kids in the first manhole he visited. He spent countless hours with them, grew fond of many and witnessed one of the most brutal and sorrowful sites imaginable. He almost landed in a Mongolian prison after being detained — and accused of spying — by an overzealous security guard at the airport.

By the time he left, he had bonded with many of the kids and transformed an unforgettable experience into an astonishing story, in words, pictures and audio (the children sing to pass the hours).

One problem: Where to publish it?

Clearly, it’s an international story. Equally clear: It’s an injustice, an abomination, that should be exposed, no matter the medium. Journalism 101, if you will.

Well, I got wind of it and, being a newspaper editor, there were stars in my eyes. There was greed coursing through my veins.

What a story.

What good work — at no small cost, and going it alone — by Treptow. I couldn’t be prouder of the industriousness and artistry of one of our own here at the Daily Pilot. I encourage you to read Treptow’s story. It leaves an indelible mark.

And chew on this: Treptow, who keeps a picture of the Ulaanbaatar kids on his refrigerator, described his final day with them: “They asked me if anyone was going to come and help them.”

BRADY RHOADES is the Daily Pilot’s managing editor. He may be reached at [email protected] or at (714) 966-4607.