Hello again. Internet was down in the hotel last night so no post yesterday. It’s still not working in my room so I’m writing in the hallway. Hi neighbors.

The last two days I was up at sunrise to head to school with Sandra, the woman breastfeeding in my first post. She is 19 and the head of her household. I followed her and her siblings to the private school Reencontro pays for them to attend. Several other orphans under Reencontro’s care also attend the school. The first shot below shows her younger brother walking away from his classroom. The students had gathered around me near the door to the classroom, and as you can see, followed us as we were walking away. The second shot shows Sandra’s younger sister (with the pig tails sticking straight up) taking notes as her teacher writes on the board.

The following two photographs are taken in the more advanced class. I’d say it’s for older kids but that doesn’t necessarily hold true. As you can see from the shot below there is a huge age variation in the class as students are separated based on ability rather than age. The second shot below shows Sandra answering a question on the board in preparation for the student’s upcoming exams.

Yesterday I spent the majority of the day outlining the business of professional photography. Here’s an example of my overview of stock photography and a simple categorization of topics for them.

In the evening I headed over to Sandra’s home and photographed them until just before sundown. This included all the chores (fetching water, watching dishes, sweeping up trash in the yard – pictured) and of course a few lighter moments as well.

Today involved an even earlier morning at the school and then all day with the photography school. We met in a conference room at my hotel so I could show them various stock and assignment photography websites as they don’t have internet access in their “studio” which is simply a rented home. I invited them all to lunch and we spent the late afternoon and evening taking pictures on the beach. Here are two shots of them shooting. The second shot shows the new Canon 10D that was donated for them. This will be extremely helpful as their other cameras are not of sufficient quality to sell the photos on most US or European sites. Thankfully this camera meets the standards.

Finally, here is a shot of the students looking at their photos in the book Venice Arts, Dr. Neal Baer and the African Millennium Foundation worked on with them, The House is Small, But The Welcome is Big.

During their thank you speech to me the students had extremely fond things to say about Neal, AMF and Venice Arts. They also presented me with a new hat and two shirts. Tomorrow we’re meeting a local TV station and then I’m off to the airport for 30+ hours of travel back to Los Angeles. There’s a long list of needs for the photography program so click on the sound file below of the orphans singing and then EMAIL ME to ask how you can help. The words to the song say, “Reencontro, encontrei uma nova familia.” What’s that mean: “Reencontro, I found a new family.” These people are doing some great work. I’m the lucky one to have found them!

Click Here for Audio

Today I spent the day with seven teens who have benefited from Reencontro’s services for many years. They are from 15 to 18 years old and study photography and journalism in the small school Reencontro set up for them with the help of Dr. Neal Baer, Venice Arts and the African Millenium Foundation in Los Angeles. They are pictured below in their classroom.

Through discussions with their teacher, Tomas Cumbana it was determined that my time with the students should focus on helping them earn income from photography. This fits well with everything I’ve heard about Reecontro helping these orphans become self sufficient as quickly as possible.

In the morning we spent close to five hours discussing the business of photography. They asked intelligent questions and stayed alert throughout my time in front of them. After lunch, we spent several hours with them interviewing each other while filming video and recording audio of themselves. Here’s a video of Tomas and I trying to get them to sit down as they switched between interviews.

In late afternoon, the equipment finally cleared customs and we delivered it to the students. At times they looked a bit overwhelmed by everything. In the photo below they are opening one of boxes containing a laptop.

Time to prepare for tomorrow… night night!

Today was all about a seven-year old girl named Celeste. In the morning we drove out to an extremely poor area and then walked about a quarter of a mile along a polluted stream littered with trash to arrive at the home she lives in with her mother and aunt. Her father and her infant sibling recently passed away of AIDS. Her mother is HIV positive and is following her treatment which is working. The home they are renting for MT100/month (about $3.50 USD I believe) is about 6 ft by 5ft, made of sticks and straw, has a mud floor that regularly floods with waste water and a leaky plastic roof. The photographs below are Celeste and her mom Flora outside and inside their home.

We then asked Celeste to leave the room and spoke with Flora about HIV and her treatment. The portrait below was shot during that discussion. Notice the fly on her forehead. We were all covered in flies which they have to deal with all day, every day.

After touring the home we walked over to large tree for food distribution. You can see several homes from the village on the left side of the image below while everyone gathers under the tree. The second image below shows Celeste during the food distribution. Reencontro provides a full range of services to her and her family from medical, school and food to their new home, all in the hope of educating her to the point where she can provide for herself.

Another nice part about the village is that Celeste will have other kids to study and play with. Several are pictured below. The story for all these kids is far from over. None of them have beds and many don’t have a table for eating or studying which means that life happens on the floor of their home. It was a wonderful day for the Reencontro team, but the hard work continues tomorrow!

Spent my first full day on the ground here in Maputo touring several neighborhoods near the airport and train station. The day started with a visit to the Reencontro office (pictured below). Upon arrival a group of students sang me three songs. Truly amazing. I’ll try to post some of the audio I recorded tomorrow.

After receiving an overview of the program we toured several homes and I interviewed the families. The mother pictured below has six of her own children and three additional grandchildren for whom she mothers as well. Her seventh child, her older daughter, passed away last year leaving the three grandchildren. One child and two grandchildren are pictured with mom in their current home which sits next to the new home the Reencontro is building for them. Building materials are visible on the right side of the frame.

The girl breastfeeding below is the oldest of several children. Her middle sister is at left. Their parents past away several years ago and shortly thereafter, she became pregnant with the baby pictured. They live in a home Reencontro built but don’t have a bed to sleep on (as was the case with all but one family I saw today).

Their bed is the straw mat barely visible in the darker photo above. I wish we could send all the extra mattresses left in the back allies of LA down to them.

Throughout the day I was accompanied by two boys from the photo school and their teacher Tomas. Tomas is pictured below with a group of local kids we passed on the way home. They went crazy every time he showed them pictures of themselves. This was a fun way to end an otherwise very depressing day. How do you prioritize the diverse needs of so many? All of their resources could easily go to building houses and buying beds, but they also educate, offer medical care and vocational training to the orphans.

There’s so much more but tomorrow is even longer than today so it’s time to rest up…

I’m waiting in the Joburg airport and have a few minutes to reflex and plan for the upcoming week which will include a meeting with the amazing artist Malangatana Ngwenya. Pictured is his mural at the Centro de Estudos Africanos in Maputo.

Thanks to everyone who donated equipment for the Give A Child A Camera, Give A Child A Choice program. We shipped over five boxes and I’m carrying even more equipment including the following:

3 photo printers with ink cartridges
7 digital cameras
4 laptops
Multiple harddrives and zip disks for the kids to store their photos
More random photo gear and bags than can be named

Thank you all!

My rough itinerary for the week is as follows:

Oct 11-13 – Meeting with the Reencontro staff including home visits and in-depth interviews, learning about the organizational structure and community-based support system, visiting homes outside of Maputo built by Reencontro, & seeing some of the micro credit programs in action
Oct 13-16 – Arrive at the photo institute for the first time, get a feel for their workshops and classes, deliver all the donated goods, learn more about successes and failures of the program to see how we can best help, take the kids in the field for shooting and finally critique their work and help plan for our future involvement in the program.

I’ll also have dinner with some local photographers who work with the program as well as Malangatana Ngwenya as mentioned above.

On a photography level, I’m going to working in mixed media more on this trip than on any previous shoot. This will include recording audio interviews as well as shooting video. We’ll see how it goes. I hope to post some of the footage here as it happens.