PixelatedImage Blog

It’s been an interesting trip. I passed out on the plane while flying to Heathrow, came too looking up at the lavatory door, thinking how much more comfortable the floor is than the seats in economy. Then I got up and did it all over again. The things I do for attention. They gave me oxygen and tea to for the nausea, but nothing for my bruised ego. I had lunch in London with my family, which is a rare treat indeed, then continued on to Nairobi and a 2 hour drive out of town into Masai country.

Gary and I spent the week bumping around the red-dust roads, meeting and photographing masai families and making faces at school children. Long days and the usual challenges of trying to make one’s vision line up with the creative brief and the actual situation in front of you. In broadcasting they say you should avoid working with animals and children at all cost, I have chosen to work with both. At the same time. With language barriers. While jet-lagged. It is, in short, way too much fun.

We spent a morning at a water project that World Vision Canada had funded, and to hear the stories of how the community has been impacted, how their lives have changed, and their children have stopped dying, is enough to snap you back into the reality of life for most of this planet. (Have I reminded you about the amazing World Vision Gift Catalog? It’s available in Canada, the US, and the UK, if not others as well…)

While gone my emails piled up, the Vision Collective gained momentum (and spam too, darn it), and I feel like I’ve been left behind. On the other hand, the BorrowLenses.com contest got some attention and coming home to this many emails and comments and ongoing conversations is like coming home to a party in my living room, and it’s exhilarating. But I’m tired, so feel free to stay, but I’m going to bed.

I’m writing this in Heathrow. I fly out in an hour, then home sweet home in about 12. It’ll take me some time to get images from the trip up, but in the mean time this is a snapshot I took to mark the end of our time in Kenya.  It’s my last shot of the trip, a quick portrait of a wonderful Masai woman who had given me a beautiful beaded necklace the evening previous. We’d spent a couple afternoons with this beautiful woman and her large family and I wanted to remember her face. I felt so at home with the Masai that leaving felt more painful than usual. Africa retains a very special place in my heart – somehow it always feels like going home to be there.

More to come. It’ll be good to be home. I’ll announce the BorrowLenses.com winner tomorrow. Ok, got a plane to catch. See you when I’m home.