mzungu! mzungu!

Yikes. I have no right to the life I lead. We toured the namatala slums today and it was one of the most heart breaking things I have ever done. Shouts of “mzungu! mzungu!” at first had us really excited – like we were celebrities- it was fun and we were having a great time just making people smile. Then we went into the slum and were surrounded by children running up to us, touching us-wearing ripped clothes if they have clothes on at all. Off to the side the women who are hanging back shy but you could tell that they were excited too. The kids LOVE having their picture taken. They tried to jump into every shot possible and always always want to see what it looks like. I could tell that the women wanted their pictures taken too but were too shy or embarrassed to ask. I found that I like to take the pictures of the people that are standing off to the side- the ones that you can just see a story in their face. I really wanted to include everyone. I ended up with a million pictures because every person in the village wanted a picture just of themselves. There was just such joy in their faces when they saw themselves on the screen.

Their huts were so small. No more than 4 of us could fit in at one time, yet they sleep in average 9 people in each.  The kids get one meal a day at school through Child of Hope (the organization we will be working with). The family usually has about 1000 shillings a day to feed their whole family of 9-11 which is about 40 cents.  That blows my mind. It was hard to carry around my camera which could probably pay for the whole village. There are so many people in need. They told us that the men in this slum tend to be alcoholics and abusive. Child of Hope is trying to empower women. They say that if you empower the man he will take his success and leave his family and drink his money away, but if you empower a woman then she will stay in the home and teach her children to be better. There are so many single mothers who keep having children trying to find a man to stay around and provide for her and her family. Prostitution is also a huge problem because it is one of the only sources of income that young girls can provide to their impoverished families. They told us that 20% of the population in Namatala has HIV and that only 1 in 7 children reach the age of 5 years old. It breaks my heart. I don’t even know how to start to comprehend.

All I could do today was give them the simple joy of taking their pictures. I wish that there was a way that I could take pictures of people and be able to give them a copy right away. Where is a good Polaroid camera when you need one?! I just know that these people would treasure that picture so much! It would be a dream come true to be able to do some sort of photo project like that in a place like this. I know you can’t change their way of life- as much as we would like to, it is a slow moving process- but I could give them something tangible to treasure. 

I am just blown away by today. I want to help. I want to be a part of every project. I don’t even know where to start! These are some of the pictures I took today in the slums. I can never decide if I should upload them to the blog or to fb…

 this little boy just ran up and grabbed my pinky and wouldn't let go

 both women and children were so excited to see themselves 

 tell me you aren't in love with this picture! this grandma was giggling like a little girl when i showed her!

 hahaha such a cheeser!

 this is where they get their drinking water... so not ok.

 i just thought this woman was so beautiful- turns out she is one of the teachers at the child of hope school 

 she was a little confused by the camera at first but then so happy when she saw the result!

 her friend wanted a picture too when she saw!

this little girl was so shy and just gently tugged my arm as everyone else was walking away..her family is in the background waiting for her to come. i see hope for the next generation in this picture...