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Watchful Eyes
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
This is following my previous post from the weaving project in northern Rwanda.
Like many African societies, depending on the parents wealth and whether or not they are able to send their kids to school, many women bring their children to work with them - or at least until they can do some form of work themselves. What is so impressive about this is that the women's work is not hampered by their children being there and the children are amazingly well behaved. Just take a look around and see how occupied we have to keep our children in the West in order for them not to get temperamental or moody, these kids though are as quiet as can be, keep themselves occupied and need very little supervision.
Following the War/Genocide, many children were left orphaned, having witnessed their parents cold blood murder and having been surviving off of scraps left behind or other people in hiding. Many children had their entire families murdered, leaving them with no one. It is a common occurrence to ask someone how many children they have and it usually goes along the line of " I have 7 children, but 4 are not my own ". The national response to the orphaned children is overwhelming with the majority of families having adopted a child. At times they didn't even know the child, but their own kids recognized them from the school yard and ask if their family could take them in. Talk about a nation coming together after one of the worst genocides in history.
Yes, I do consider this to rival that of the Armenians and the Holocaust for one simple factor - whereas those were very methodical and systematic in the sense it wasn't exactly people doing the killing but people using machines of the sort, in Rwanda it was your neighbour cutting off your child limbs and throwing them at you before you died, the mere fact that it was friends, even family killing each other and with their own bare hands is the most disturbing aspect of all. |
jcdurka1 has marked this note useful
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I only miss a bit of focus on his eyes and the result will be wonderfull. But you've captured a great moment, very intense witha great glance.
Nice shot,
Jean-Claude
Hi!
beautiful photo..
Hm, Watchful and..quiet
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