some people.

 
coffee is important at FHI.
 
Samuel Adams, intern.

 
Cheryl Winter.
sister of Bill.

yep. uh huh.

There was a lot of Greenville in Rwanda.
 

 

 

our favorite guard.

 
this is alphonse.
he was always laughing and smiling.

 

 

war scars.

 

I've written about Paul in my blog.
he ended up being one of the favorite people i've met here.
he told me his story. here's a part of it, in the context of a conversation i had with chase:

caitlin: so it starts with me hanging out with paul. he's spent so long trying to tell me that he just wants to tell me his story so i can know him and his heart, which is kind of weird, but turned out to be amazing. paul is an incredible person and, though he has faults, i will try to never speak harshly of him again...he told me the story of what happened to him in the genocide
caitlin: his family was killed by their neighbors, their friends. they took him, they beat him, they cut his face up with these metal sheets (hence these scars he's got all over) and threw him down this big, well-like hole that they were using as a mass grave, i assume
caitlin: they left him for dead. he survived by standing out of the way of the other bodies that they threw down and stepping up on each one, until he reached the top of the hole and got out. holy shit.
chase: wow
caitlin: then he went back to his house (i think this is the chronology) and found his family dead. all of them. he found his mom and she was naked, so he went and put a blanket over her (i might have told you this already...) the woman who was with the people that killed his family came and stole this blanket
caitlin: paul later met this woman and forgave her, i think...told her who he was
chase: yeah, you did tell me that part
caitlin: after the genocide he was a street boy, an orphan...a compassion international rep. found him and got him set up for an education. he did really well, made a lot of friends, got great marks, etc...ended up befriend the son of the lady who owns the shop he works for...
caitlin: he currently lives in a little house where he supports another boy, some street kids, i think...and sometimes doesn't get paid by the shop owner, so he can't afford rent
caitlin: but he's so generous. he's always giving, always. and he's revolutionized the way i think about giving to street kids and beggars. he talks to them, he really talks to them. tries to figure out their story and why they're where they are. he's so passionate about helping people and loving people.
caitlin: he sees his life this way: God intentionally saved him, picked him to live and now he has a responsibility to help those around him, to understand people, why they do the things they do, forgive them and help them
caitlin: i've met no africans like this

some kids.

so i went to go deliver some stuff from my friend Travis to the kids he used to play with when he was here. i went early in the day, but it was chaos. so many children and no common language. i ended up going back later with paul. but these were the first photos i took of them. Travis, i hope these are the right kids :)
 

 
they surrounded me. these shots reflect the chaos of that, i think. i liked it.

 

the kids.

 
so these are the kids that Travis loves. i delivered them some things from Travis and, the last night i was in Rwanda, they won me over. i got to sit in the same little room with a beautiful family with beautiful children. we sang and played and teased each other...and then the mother prayed over me with authority.
there was real love in that house.
Travis? is this the boy? the one that anna told me about?

 
i'm afraid i would butcher their names, so i won't try.

 
...

 

 
Paul and the kids

 

 

hehe.

my african family.

 

 
great picture of me.

:)

 

terrace day.

we went to visit some terraces last week. FHI helped to organize their construction, an initiative implemented by the government originally. building the terraces is part of a farming project basically serving to educate local subsistence and other farmers on how to make the most of the land and improve harvests.

from what i could gather, terraces are used for erosion control. the terraces provide flat land in the hills so that water doesn't wash out the crops. this technique has doubled and tripled peoples' harvests.

 

 

 

working working!

i loved this. i was walking around the terraces taking photos of the girls (and few guys) working...then they would ask me to see it in the viewfinder and laugh and laugh. we didn't have a language between us, but we connected. i loved this.

 

 

 

black and white terrace photos

 

 

 

where they live.

 

child headed households. (there is a breast in this batch, please skip over if need be.)

 
this is a family we met with for an interview concerning FHI's Child Headed Households (CHH) program. Charith got their names, i did not. The family consisted of a brother, sister and sister's baby.
baby.

 
this is not uncommon in Africa. you get used to it.

 
:)