Living and teaching in the small village of Lewoh was a very humbling experience. I have the utmost respect for the determination and compassion of the children I met, many of whom walk hours a day to attend school or access clean water, carrying heavy loads to help support their families. I admire the resiliency of those, such as Rasking (photographed below with nursery school children and handmade goods) who are suffering with AIDS yet following their dreams and putting themselves at risk to spread the word about the tremendous amount of corruption present. I am amazed by the strength required to hand make the bricks used to build the houses and schools, and to carry resources on your head through the mountains for kilometers at a time, barefoot.
Taking pictures in Cameroon was an experience in and of itself. I quickly learned that my camera was not always welcome. After taking tons of pictures while climbing Mt. Cameroon, I found myself in a sketchy situation where I almost lost my prized shots. I saw this amazing AIDS bulletin board from the vehicle I was travelling in and pulled out my camera to take a picture when I realized that we were stopped at a check point. Definitely not the place for a camera. Unfortunately, the armed guard saw it even before I had turned it on. He approached the window where I was sitting, machine gun in hand, and started yelling at me in French to give him my camera. There was no way I was giving up my camera loaded with evidence of my climb. After trying unsuccessfully in my broken French to explain that I had not taken a picture, our guide took my camera and showed the guard each and every picture before he was convinced. Lesson learned! From then on I was careful to assess the scene before discretely taking pictures of my surroundings.
Photographing the children and locals was a whole different story. They were thrilled to be ‘snapped’, provided you asked permission first, and were fascinated to then see the images. For many of the children it was their first time seeing themselves. I will never forget the smiles it brought to their faces.