Faces

I'm two weeks in and processing. But for now, here are some photos of the people I've encountered in Ethiopia...

A staff member at Hulugeb's Training Center for the blind. He spends his time hunched over the blind workers in the workshops, guiding their hands as they create brushes, brooms, and other crafts to sustain themselves. 

A blind lady crafting brushes at Hulugeb's. The blind residents learn each part of the process by memory, and they're provided with machines that give them just the right count of bristles, the wire, and the wooden blocks to thread the bristles through to make the brush. It's a fascinating process, and it's their livelihood. 

Fenetim, a precious, precious 3rd grade student. She's different from the other girls in school--it's her independence and her sweetness. She's the first to help me carry the school's small collection of books outside in the patch of grass for reading time. And when it's recess time, she'll run to me and hold my hand, and say "Mister Chris, jump up! Jump up!" And she'll start jumping and smiling. So beautiful.

A man I met in the street outside of Destiny. It was the end of an intense day. The 5th and 6th graders wore me out, and I was tired. I walked across the street and was waiting on the curb for a bus to come and take me back home, when this old man came stumbling out of a side-street and just started shouting and smiling. He said, "You, you love Ethiopia right!?" and I said "Yes!" and we bonded. He started hugging me and slapping me on the back, and calling to other Ethiopians on the road that I "no Firenge, he is Habasha!" And we had ourselves a raucous time on the street before I asked him for a photograph, and before I jumped in the minibus and went home feeling refreshed and chuckling to myself.

These are old friends at Hulugeb's. The one on the right can see completely, and the one on the left is completely blind. They both asked to be photographed together, leaning against a speckled red wall, and as I photographed them and showed the one on the right the photos on my camera, he would whisper into his blind friend's ear the descriptions of the photos, and tell him that the Firenge was photographing them both. Every photo, I and the friend with a fedora would say "Betam Comjo!" (very beautiful), and the blind friend would nod his head and laugh.

A little girl sweeping outside of a Hulugeb's workshop.

A little boy by a broken wooden bridge in my neighborhood, Tor Hiloch. I was walking down a path in the neighborhood that I'd never been down the other day, and I passed some old rusted fences, a school with barricades of stone and broken glass, and a little lean-to snack shop when I found field of old tree stumps by a broken wooden bridge. I walked into the field and there was a group of children on the bridge. They saw me, and started to charge. I had my camera on my, so I took it out and started taking photos. The children went crazy, jumping and dancing and posing, and it became an hour-long-photoshoot. They lived in the slum on the outskirts of our neighborhood, and they were beautiful children.

Another group of children from the broken wooden bridge.

When I was leaving, this little boy started chasing me up the path. Other followed. And the photoshoot resumed.

This man begs by the path leading to the Cherokee house. I don't know his name, but he is my boy. Whenever we see each other we get real excited. He says "Selam, Selam, Selam" (peace) is his hoarse voice, and I say "Selam" back and "egzersaleen, gwardenya." God bless you, my friend. Then, we hug it out.

Another friend from the path in Tor Hiloch. He might be considered a beggar, but he never begs. He lays out a little cloth on the path where people passing by can bless him with a coin or a Birr. And he blesses them in response, with prayers and little kisses on the hand. All he does all day is read his Amharic Bible. That's it, and every time I see him he's so happy. I'll struggle through the Amharic that I know, and our we'll sit and just smile at each other, or share a little something to eat, and that's enough.

My favorite photo so far. This man lives under the overpass in Tor Hiloch, in a nest of trash and plastic bags and a couple of blankets stacked together in the dirt. See the green bits of leaf on his lips? That's chat, the local legal drug (a mix of marijuana and coffee). There's something in his expression here that's different. I was walking under the overpass with my camera when he called me over for a photo, and every photo I showed him he got excited and shook his hands. He was pretty hopped up on the chat, and didn't say anything at all to me, but in this moment he's different. I don't understand it totally, but it seems like he's asking a question. "You think you know me. But you--who are you?"

Good question. 

-Chris