This is part two of a post I did last week (part 1) on the faces of Uganda. This set of images was a quick project related to the kids at African Renewal Ministries (ARM), which is the ministry group in charge of the sponsor child program we work with at Cornerstone Church. This is a pretty amazing program for the kids in Uganda and ARM coordinates the sponsorship of over 7,000 children in Uganda right now, along with being a bridge for churches and other non-profit organizations among other things. They are an amazing group, but you can really see the difference they make when you actually go over to Uganda and meet the children in the program in person and see that it really does make a difference to them.
To me, they are in the business of producing fruit… something we all should have on our to-do list as Christians, if I can say that and not make it sound like a checklist. They, and the people who work with them are producing the fruit, described in John 15, for future generations in Uganda. Something not just talked about in John but all over scripture, and to me that’s exciting. Our October mission team leaves in about a week and I can’t wait to get back to see those kids again. Just saying that feels a little weird since I’m not really one for searching out kid-friendly whatever but there is just something about the joy those kids have about life that is contagious, except perhaps when they get caught in the rain, but who likes that.
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Today I finally had a chance to process some more photos from the shoot in Uganda. These were specifically pulled out for the kids, and there were way too many to put into one single post so I broke this up into two pieces. I’m not sure what preconceived stereotypes you have in your head when you think about the phrase “Uganda kid photos”, but what I had in mind was the late night 2am TV commercials guilting you into sending money. That just wasn’t what I saw when I was there, and below is a very small sampling of what I encountered while I was there in August. There is no sugar coating their hardships, and they do exist, but as you are surrounded by people who have basically nothing, according to our western standards, you find they are happy, smiling, laughing, and overall excited to see you.
It was quite inspiring to be around people who seemed to genuinely happy in spite of the adversity they face. There are so many things we (I include me in this) complain about every day that I think some days we just flat out lose our joy for life. Perspective helps, but that too fades with time. Ultimately I pray God will at least change my heart for the things He cares about, like the people in these photos. Only about 10 more days before I head back to Uganda with a completely different group of people, a completely different mission and schedule, but I’m pretty sure all of us have a soft spot in our heart for these smiling faces. In some respects this upcoming trip will be emotionally harder as we are scheduled to be in two different children’s prisons in the middle of the week. I know God will be moving with us and the kids while we are there, but I know the entire team would appreciate your prayers as we get closer to leaving.
Keep an eye out for part two of this post with the remaining five or so photos from this particular batch. Have a great weekend.
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Apparently I didn’t exactly take 1 photo per mile traveled on this trip to Africa but I came pretty close. I’m still trying to recover from sitting in a metal tube at 35,000 feet for some 20 hours but I’m also trying to figure out how to process what we saw and did on this trip. Last week I was sitting in mud watching some amazing people play soccer. This Friday I am back sitting in my air conditioned office looking out at a green pasture of grass. It’s 100*F outside, (it was much cooler in Africa) so there really is no going outside to “enjoy” the weather, but I am happy to be back home. I keep trying to figure out how to compare life in Buloba to life over here in Auburn but realized, probably yesterday, that there just isn’t any way to compare life in two different cultures that is so drastically different. It is like trying to compare the similar properties of a commercial jet and a bullfrog.
If you have a picture in your head of a stereotype late night commercial where they show photo after photo of people crying and dramatically upset with every unimaginable horror in great detail that just isn’t what I saw in person. Yes, there are humanitarian needs everywhere, but the people I saw and met, and photographed, were people like Joy in the photo above. They were happy, many full of love for their brothers and sisters in Christ, and overjoyed to spend some time with us.
It’s Friday and this week’s feet post comes from Africa of course. This week the feet are mine and Joy. She is an amazing woman from Buloba Community Church who helped with everything from translation to installing rain catches (although I did see her kick a chicken, which, sorry, was hilarious).
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This 4th of July holiday weekend seems to have snuck up on me. I didn’t realize it was the holiday weekend until about mid-week, days just seem to be flying by at such a fast pace, can’t believe we are already basically mid-summer. I tried out some test shots on Deb tonight, something she is always thrilled about. I picked up this used lens (10-12 years old by the serial number) for my Uganda trip. I decided last year that I was going to forgo the big expensive, heavy, pro, zoom lenses and opt for shooting with prime lenses (a fixed focal length lens). They are cheap, fast, and extremely sharp, when you shoot them well.
This is Nikon’s Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D classic prime that came out back in the late 1980′s (see photo below), which converts to about 30mm on my DX crop sensor. Not the best portrait focal length in the bag for a crop sensor but it worked pretty well. Not so sure about the focus, it seems like it might be off front or back a bit but it will do the job. I shot some black and white film with it too but of course I can’t see that yet. It hasn’t been easy getting use to using primes, but it has forced me to look at shooting more creatively. Somehow shooting those big fat pro zoom lenses years back made me lazy. Primes may take a bit more work but I love the end result.
Hope everyone is going to have a chance to relax and enjoy the 4th of July weekend. As hot as it was today we may not leave the air conditioned house until the fireworks go off on Monday. Have a great weekend.
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So this is still Friday for another 5 minutes, meaning I just did get this post in before it would be totally irrelevant… well maybe that’s already the case anyway, but after reading my rss feeds tonight I realized I hadn’t finished this post. This week has been so busy, or maybe just off kilter a bit, and this coming week seems to be shaping up to be about the same. I never did seem to get any time to get out and shoot at all. I felt like I spent most of the week in my car driving back and forth between the house, Auburn, Columbus, work, etc, and any photos ended up being either in the car or in the house. It was a draining week to say the least. Finally today around 4pm the troubles of the week felt like they faded into the past after reading 2 Corinthians 12:7 when Jesus said to Paul “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” That was an amazing statement to me. Paul was praying that God would take away the thorn in his side and He basically tells Paul no, but, my power resides in you, and is perfect just the way it is. Not sure why that stuck with me today but it did, and I’m thankful.
One cool thing I accomplished this week was to get some prints ordered (photo #3 in line above) and they arrived today. So what you say. Well this is probably the first time in 20 years I have had 4-6 prints made just to put on my own wall. As a photographer one of the great joys of photography is getting to see the finished product, I just wish I had been getting prints made for the last 20 years, a little at a time, but I just never had the time or the money. This year I was determined not to put off stuff like that and it only took me until July to get them ordered. The frames I bought in June 2009 and have been sitting on my floor, literally collecting dust, since I brought them home. Now all I have to do is get them up on the wall. Hopefully I can get that done before the holidays show up.
Planning for my July Uganda trip is in full swing, we will be leaving one month from tomorrow. I can’t believe it’s only 4 weeks before our team leaves for Africa and there seems to be so much left to do before we leave. I am still trying to raise money for both this trip and the October trip so if you are willing to help fund our mission team please check out the details here or you can just make an online donation here. I really really appreciate all those who have given so far, it really does means a lot to me and to our whole team. Trying to prepare all my photography gear to be hauled halfway across the world is a little overwhelming but it’s coming along. I just about have everything put together at this point minus two lenses. One, a used 20mm prime I should have in the next week or two, hopefully, the other (an older classic from Nikon, their 80-200mm) seems to be a total long shot at this point, but who knows. I am really looking forward to the trip, can’t wait to see God at work through so many people.
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I am still going through all the different shots from last weekend but pulled this shot out of my Father-in-Law that I just love. I hadn’t seen a news paper in so long that I had to pull out my camera. I love the mix of old and new this shot portrays. To see more shots from the weekend you can go to the Flickr gallery or you can see Deborah’s blog post as well. I will be adding more to my Flickr gallery as I can get them sorted out, but today the photo of the day is my Father-in-Law David reading the newspaper.
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Photo of the day today is a shot I took in almost no light with a very bumped up ISO (film speed). Sometimes grain and texture work, I think it does here because of Jacob’s expression, he’s quite a character.
