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…
…the entire family worked very hard.
•
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.
😉
Ambaro, Madagascar
•
Although this family treasured life and found joy in the simple things…
(Papa with little Mialy)
…it is no lie that each day was still a struggle.
•
Faux Cap, Southern Madagascar
•
When Puppydoc first arrived at her new home,
the villagers were a tad bashful…
…but this issue resolved itself rather quickly.
😀
A family
I lived with in
Mahantantely, Central Madagascar
•
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 famine are 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
