Sugar Harvest

Early on in my career I made a very financially irresponsible decision to volunteer as a photographer in East Africa for 3 months. I spent my time with different families in slums and remote village around Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. During that time I learned a whole lot about how much of the world lives, I found joy in unexpected places, and I witnessed things that didn’t make sense to my western way of living but seemed perfectly in place in the village. In this village of Budondo I learned how to ride a motorbike on the treacherous dirt roads. I was deeply touched by one family’s passion for growth and change inside the village. I watched the kids gather and play by the well every evening as the sun went down and they pumped water for their households. I listened to the sounds of the wild at night and felt connected to the cosmos like never in my life. The slow pace of the village life was something very special and connective, though it’s also important to recognize the lack. One example of that is the children who work in the sugar fields. These children had to work instead of attend school so they could help their families make ends meet. And when I say that, I’m talking about folks who live on $1USD per day.