Ambaro, Madagascar
• Our village specialized in ‘bageda’…sweet potatoes. After harvesting, we would bring them to the market and trade them for maize. Although only Hanitra and Puppydoc are pictured above…
Kumasi, Ghana
• On my first day of walking to work at the hospital,
I met a group of children who would end up becoming my daily escorts.
This was a moment captured while the vigilant residents
inspected my suspicious-looking digital device.
Within arid depths of a land below abides the humble village of l’Ambaro.
A world where clothing is prized but threadbare; a world where meals are luxuries proved rare.
A world where days with famineare fraught; a world the remaining earth long forgot.
But this is a place where pure are the hearts, simple are the joys, the love of each part.
Where drums hum daily
their languid song,
enchanting the children
all the day long.
Where families dance into the hallowed night, merriment echoing under faint moonlight.
Where sand curls freely about their feet, naked, synchronized, stomped to each beat.
Until finally twilight snatches the hills, descending upon them a shuddering chill.
Then filled with cheer they part by the number into their huts to unite in deep slumber.
This is the place the world left behind– a place that will always be in the back of my mind.
• • •
My host village of Ambaro, Southern Madagascar
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Founded in 2014 by Dr. Phoebe Chi, Health + Inspiration is a health information and literary arts website designed to inspire, empower, and inform through a curated mix of essential health information, uplifting stories, and original poetry.