22 girls...

So, EXCITING NEWS! I told some of you a few weeks ago God opened the door to start the first photography project with some girls in Hya Huellet (A neighborhood on the other side of Addis, which means 22 in Amharic). These girls do not have parents, but I would hardly consider their living situation an orphanage. 12 teenagers live together in a home with 2 house moms (only one of whom I have met ­ and she is a VERY inspirational woman). These girls are SUCH a delight to be around. They have the sweetest spirits and are so affectionate and joyful. They love to dance, do cartwheels, jump rope and play with hair. I am so thankful God opened the door to build relationships with these beautiful girls. Kristin Ivy, a friend from college who is living in Addis until December, is also helping me teach.

So for our first meeting I taught them some of the basic guidelines of photography through a slide show of images I have taken in the past and gave all of them single use camera¹s to capture what they see as "beauty" (the same assignment given to the students at Asco). It was a learning experience for me, as I had no idea they would be so unfamiliar with film cameras. Quite a few of them said there cameras were broken, since they could not see the image on the back of the camera after it was taken. Ops!

Tadelech, Konjit and Lidet, three of the 12 girls who are living at the girls home in Hya Huellet.

So about a week later I collected the cameras, developed them at the camera shop in Tor Highloch (where I am now a regular), and returned the first set of images this past week. They were SO pumped! It was delightful to see their expressions as they flipped through each image. The second meeting was a bit more successful than the first b/c Konni, the rockstar house mother, was there and she helped translate. After talking about why some of the images turned out the way they did (bad light, too close, etc) each girl shared her three favorite images with the group. It is so important to be able to verbally communicate why you enjoy a piece of art, and these girls are learning to express themselves in new and creative ways through this project.

We are very excited to pick up the next batch of cameras this week and will bring over scrapbooking supplies to decorate their personal images.

I am filing the negatives and documenting a couple of the best images from each girl just in case we were able to do a gallery down the road...who knows.

What a blessing this project has been. I am so thankful that God worked out all the details, and I hope that the girls are blessed and encouraged and stretched through these lessons in photography.
Jruss

Ps, if you have any suggestions ­ please feel free to shoot me an email @ jrussphotography@gmail.com