photography class

WOW! Today (Monday Nov 19) was SUCH an answer to prayer. After 3 months of working at an orphanage where photographs are NOT allowed, God, once again, rocked the boat. He is so faithful in small things that are SO important to my heart.

As you probably know, I brought 100 single use cameras to teach photography to students in Addis. Well, until this month the cameras collected dust in my suitcase. A couple weeks ago I had my first photography class with a house full of girls in Hya Huellet (this is a neighborhood on the other side of Addis...which went SO well, I will describe this experience in another update).

THEN! Two weeks ago we had a volunteers meeting at work to talk about problems and visions for Asco. There is a new operations manager named Zachariah who is a total baller. He is trying to implement new programs for the teenagers, as they are the most neglected and in need folks at the orphanage. The past couple months we have talked about trying to start an after school program, but really struggled with its sustainability after we leave...so we decided to just take it week by week and have a ping pong tournament and a photography lesson. Sadly, there were some unfortunate events and frustrations between the Sisters and 5 of the teenage girls, and a week ago they were asked to leave (all five were transferred to another institution about 45 minutes away.) Needless to say, this tension had everyone curious what would happen next and inevitability pushed back the after school programs.

Anywhoo, TODAY 20 teenage girls and boys gathered to learn photography. We captured everyone¹s attention by showing some images from the football tournament a few weekends ago, then I showed my new students a slide show of personal photos and talked about basic photo composition: rule of thirds, angles, framing, story telling, etc. Then we paired everyone up and gave each pair a camera to share. I encouraged them to take pictures of things that are beautiful in their world, encouraging them to prepare each shot (as there are only 27 exposures in each camera) and to be united around a theme. In about a week we will develop the film and at our next lesson we will talk about ways to improve, new techniques and what worked/didn't work.

This is Betty and Biterfish, two sweet teenage girls at the Mother Teresa Orphanage where I work. If you look in the mirror, you can see the sweet poster Kerri (another volunteer who is from Ireland) created for the photog class.

It's energizing to see these teenagers get excited about something. Not only are these lessons teaching them English and exposing them to a new art, but they are also learning a skill, getting to create something and enjoying a new activity together. B.E.A.utiful.

On the taxi ride home I was exhausted after a VERY full day at Mother Teresa's, but it was such a sweet delight to experience God's perfect timing. I know this photography project was from God, and He was helping me be patient by waiting 3 months until I was allowed to do it. PTL!

Have a great day!