I hope that I do not bore my friends at SouthFloridaDaily.com who have definitely seen some of these photos before, but the majority of my friends haven't had a chance to see them, so I thought they would be a great part of my "Revisiting" series. (Plus, and Will, Leah, Hank, and others please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, I think you've only gotten to see these four: "Multiple Expressions," "La Bella," "Hideout" and "Bolivian Beauty". Hope you enjoy the rest!)
That being said, these photos are from a trip that we took in July of 2007 with Hyde Park Presbyterian Church. We stayed at the Bolivia Life Center, an orphanage for abandoned boys, located just outside of Cochabamba, Bolivia. There were several really amazing aspects of the trip, for the group as a whole and each individual on the trip. For example as a group, I don't think any of us will ever forget "El Tiempo de Cosquillas" (Tickle Time) when we would go to the boys' room to get them all riled up from being chased and tickled, before trying to settle them down to read and say their prayers. I don't think we'll forget the skits we put on in the nearby neighborhoods, or Walker being the conceited king. On an individual level everyone has their own stories to tell too. I know that even though he was there under unfortunate circumstances, Kenzo (who hadn't yet applied to medical school at the time) was thankful for the opportunity to visit one of the boys who had to be taken to the hospital after being injured while we were doing construction at the orphanage. He appreciated the opportunity to catch a glimpse of healthcare in a third-world metropolis. Some of the moms tell stories of how they were brought to tears just hugging the boys and tucking them in at night because it made them think about how these boys don't have a mother to shower them with the love and attention they give to their own children.
For me personally, some of my favorite experiences were: 1- the psychologist asking me to help with "art therapy" - and getting to ask the boys why they drew the things they drew. 2- being there with my mom and husband and getting to process things we were seeing together. 3- being there with some of my best friends from high school and college and getting to better know some of the other people on the trip. 4- going out into the villages and getting to love on the children who came out to play games, have their face painted, etc with us. 5- having my heart broken by some of the incredibly incomprehensible stories that surrounded each of the boy's lives (for example one of the boys was missing toes because his father used to cut them off when he was "misbehaving". In his case he was actually taken from his family.)
Anyway, while there I took lots and lots of photos. I had a hard time of narrowing it down but chose these because of their photo-journalistic style (a lot of the others were us posing with kids). Enjoy . . .
And P.S.- Once again these photos were all taken with my CanonPowershot SD 450, if I return, I will definitely take the new one.
This little girl lived in one of the villages that we visited and she LOVED me and my camera.
Her village happened to be one of the really high altitude one and you can see that the crisp winter air and dry weather had really chapped her precious skin.
Michael led a trip to Bolivia in the summer of 2006 and ended up staying awhile after to live at the Bolivia Life Center.
Needless to say as soon as the boys saw him, they ran up to greet him, so excited he was back.
Hideout from the heat (and probably the other boys).
The highest and driest village/neighborhood we visited. And below, faces from this specific village.
Back at the orphanage.
Day at the park with the boys. Let me tell you they loved being chased, which made for an exhausting day for me!
View from the orphanage.
Michael doing his thing!
cute little ladies...and a gentleman.
at some point you have to have a shot like this, right?
me and my mom
me and my hubby
kelly, meghan, michael and me trying to push kenzo off the cliff
