Introducing my Haitian students....

It is taking me a lot longer to post and edit my Haitian students photos than it did with my other workshops in the past. So much has been going on and as always never enough time to do anything. I am almost done editing the children's photos now and have just gone back to the recorded conversation I had with John the director and cofounder of Project Papillon about the projects he has been running, the back ground of the children and his dreams for his projects.

The photography workshop with the Haitian children ran a bit differently than the ones I have done with the children from Cambodia and Nicaragua. The Haitian children only had three days to shoot their images. I gave them less structure, but critique their captured images along the way by looking at their viewfinder with them.

James will be the first student whose work I will showcase from Project Papillon. James is 11 years old and he and his younger brother, Emmanuel have been with Project Papillon for two years now. They are both HIV positive and before being hospitalized for HIV complications, James was living in the slums with his HIV positive mother and their older sister. James goes to the hospital every week. His health is very fragile and John have hired a worker who works for James specifically to take him to hospital anytime of the day.

Here you can see a photo captured by John of James when he was being hospitalized two years before coming into Project Papillon. Down at the bottom is my capture of James.

wire sculptures from project papillon

It was my first time teaching art abroad, but I will say that it was really amazing to see the children's response to the projects I did with them.

With the support of my coworkers and students from my middle school, we were able to raise some money to help L.O.V. E with our work with children from developing countries. We raised enough money for me to buy some art supplies to bring over to Haiti.

The first project I taught the children was wire sculpture. The theme was for them to create a sculpture to show what they do in their free time. We got all sorts of fun sculptures from them that day, but the real fun was seeing what they do with the sculptures afterward. The children realized what they can do with the wires and started dismantling their original sculpture to create something that was uniquely their own. Here are the results:

missing patasca and the other children

It has been three weeks since I have been back home from my trip to Haiti. It felt longer than that because I am now back in the comfort of my own place and have started teaching again last week.

I am missing one of my favorite orphans from Project Papillon. I miss hearing Patasca's little voice as he replies back to my question with a, "je suis bien Samantha." Patasca is one of the seven orphans living in house #4. Every children in that house are HIV positive. John, the director of Project Papillon said the children from other houses have been told that the children living in house #4 are sick, so therefore they were all told to be very careful with each other when they play and have cuts that would bleed.

Here are some of my favorite photos of Patasca and I taken by my other favorite student, Ritchy.

starting over with a new blog...

I am not happy with squarespace so I am switching over to this format for my blogs. I apologize to everyone who has been following my trips for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Once I figure this new format out, I will transfer all of my journal entries from somphonh.squarespace.com to this. I will keep you up to date with my progress.