Peterson

I wasn't sure what to post after my 30 Favorite images of all time. I mean, that's kind of a hard act to follow, you know? So, I decided to share one of my favorite people.

When I met Ryan Keith of Forgotten Voices International, he told me the story of a boy named Peterson. Peterson was born with HIV. When Ryan met him, Peterson was a 7 year-old boy living with his mother and his 4 year-old sister, Prudence in a rural area of Zimbabwe. The very same day Ryan met them, Peterson's mother died from AIDS. Before she died, she asked Ryan to promise to take care of her children - and he did. And that is basically how Forgotten Voices was formed - from a promise. The story continued as Peterson was left to live alone with and take care of Prudence, who was also born with HIV. Prudence had never learned to walk or talk and was basically given up on by her community. But Peterson took care of her - he carried her on his back to school and to physically therapy at the mission hospital nearby. She began walking, and talking, and was even given the job of chasing the monkeys away from the garden. But, one year after their mother died, Prudence died as well. And then Peterson lived alone...

It was after hearing this story that I knew I needed to go to Zimbabwe. And the entire time we prepared to go, I just kept looking forward to the day I would get to meet Peterson too. I didn't know what to expect, but I knew this was a kid I needed to meet.

When we arrived at Peterson's home, he was a bit shy to meet all of us.

We were thrilled to find that Peterson was no longer living on his family's homestead alone. His aunt had moved in to care for him, and had hired a farm-hand to help out and take over the chores that Peterson had done. And in January he was supposed to move to his Grandparents' farm to live with them and the rest of his extended family. What a blessing that his family has been able to step up and take care of him!

We were all surprised and thrilled to watch Peterson running and playing with his friends. He seems to be in great health and having so much help around has freed him up to just be a kid and enjoy life. What an incredible blessing!

He loved Adam's video camera

and turned out to be quite the videographer himself...

As excited as I was to see Peterson happy & healthy, no one was more glad than Ryan. Peterson & Ryan have spent many days in Zimbabwe together and though they don't speak the same language, or live lives that are remotely similar, they are good friends.

Peterson & Ryan showed us to the place on the property where Prudence and their mother was buried. He is such a brave little boy.

I am so blessed to have met Peterson. I hope that I will meet him again someday, and I pray that he would stay healthy and get to keep being a kid for as long as possible!

I'll leave you with the many faces of Peterson...

My 30 Favs

In my mentoring sessions with Davina Fear, which were awesome by the way, we decided that it's time for me to remake my website. Such a pity, since I never was able to get this one finished - but I think it's time! My work and my goals have changed a lot over time, and I think that's why I wasn't able to get down to really making it happen. To help me with this whole process, Davina gave me an overwhelming homework assignment: choose my 30 favorite images of ALL TIME and choose one word to describe each image!! EEEK! I'm a bit indecisive when it comes to picking favorites (I don't have a favorite movie, favorite song, or anything like that). But, I did it! So, I thought I'd share them with you!! And this time, I'm going to let them speak for themselves.


(the photo above was taken as an Associate for Real Life Weddings)



(the photo above was taken as an Associate for Grazier Photography)

























What I think is really cool is that of these photos 2 were taken in 2003, 1 in 2004, 3 in 2005, 3 in 2006, and 15 were taken in 2007! I mean, I knew that I'd grown a lot as a photographer in the last year, but that was really cool to see!

So, I won't share my words with you - but I'd love to hear what YOUR favorites are, and what words come to your mind when you look at these photographs! Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think.

And be on the lookout - a new website is in the works.... yay!!!

Shumba Shaba

After my frightening encounter with the "cops" in Bulawayo, we drove out to the Matopos to a place called Shumba Shaba for a leadership summit with some of the local leaders working with Forgotten Voices. For Adam and I, it was a bit of a break from "work" and a chance to relax in one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Check it out...

A woman walking through the bush on the drive through the Matopos.


Ryan walking up the ridge at Shumba Shaba. The landscape was created from massive volcanic activity like a billion years ago or something. The landscape is like nothing I've ever seen before.


Sunset on our first night at Shumba Shaba


Our first morning, Adam & I both woke up at dawn to catch the sunrise. Here's Adam, filming me taking a picture of him with the sunrise behind


The early morning light on the valley


Sunrise from my balcony


This is my AMAZING cabin. The cabins were all built into the rock, and most of us had these amazing views (though mine was admittedly one of the best :) from walls made entirely of glass. Part of the floor in my cabin was the rock below, as was part of my wall. It was really lovely. Too bad I'm a scaredy-cat and couldn't sleep in there by myself... It was just TOO many windows and one too many field mice popping up out of the rocks in my bathroom to steal a granola bar. I made a mad dash to the main cabin to bunk with the guys. They thought I was nuts, but were nice enough not to make too much fun of me :)


A fence in the early light


One of the rescued horses on the property. They wander freely all over the place and are just beautiful.


One of the cabins from below


A cool rock


The tree canopy


More of the crazy volcanic landscape. These giant boulders are scattered randomly all over the place - sometimes stacked one on top of the other like God was building a tower of blocks or something.


The valley on the other side of the peak


The leaders praying for the nation, and for rain on the side of Shumba Shaba


Obert, one of the leaders at the Mtshabezi AIDS Project


Gordin, another leader at Mtshabezi


Pastor James from The Rock Church


The BEAUTIFUL sunset that evening


The horses in the valley below as the sun set


And then there's me - in the side mirror of our van :)