Imagine If...

-You only had one pair of shoes, that you had to wear rain or shine, hot or cold

-You only got one meal a day

-Elementary school and high school cost your parents 75% of their weekly salary to send you and you have at least 3 other siblings

-when you got a cold not only did you not have money for medicine but didn’t have money for tissues (and you couldn’t substitute with toilet paper because when your going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground you don’t really bother with the stuff)

-You had to wash all your clothes by hand (the Reimert Laundry room looks nicer and nicer in my memories as the days go by)

-You’re most prized possession was 200 shilling coin (about 17cents converted to US dollars.

-You didn’t have running water or electricity 

-Every March there was the potential for huge rainstorms to come and wash away everything you own

I keep trying to imagine my everyday life at home with just one of these things missing from it...and I can’t...There are some days where this world doesn’t seem so different than the one I left but the moments in between when I’m faced to recognize that I should be way more grateful for the life I have has been quite humbling.

The other reality check I’ve received since arriving has been the actualization of the concepts I learned in my Anthropology of Photography course.  Just because we believe someone to be the “other” doesn’t give me the right to photograph them to provide evidence that I’ve experienced the other.  Since this realization I’ve been trying to be better about when I take pictures...because again I can’t imagine someone coming to my home or driving down my street and taking a picture of me just because they wanted documentation that they saw what they saw there...it’s insane.