Nothing about Africa is easy. Traveling there will test every ounce of your patience, wit and courage. Being young, more than a bit naive and extremely stubborn was enough to get me through four east African countries but there were many times I just wanted to give up and come home.
During an extremely low point for me I met an awesome woman working for the Peace Corps who invited me to visit the tiny village she was stationed at in Malawi. It was an adventure to get to Santhe, Malawi… 24 hour train ride, many, many buses, then thumbing it along a dusty dirt road. I remember sitting in the back of an old pickup truck, one of several hitchhikers, wondering where the heck I was being taken. When I was finally dumped at the remote African village I felt both scared by the sheer remoteness, no internet, no phone, no running water, but also felt butterflies of excitement.
So many of my photos from Africa are of women. The women in Africa are the hardest workers. They would be in motion from dawn to dusk often with one or two babies strapped to their backs. Wandering around Santhe making photos of the beautiful village one day at dusk will always stick in my mind. There were a group of girls playing basketball, finally acting like the children they were, and boys running by using sticks to propel old bike tires. The red dust that covered the village was stirred up and the light was hitting it in the most beautiful way. With so many challenges and absurd obstacles along the way, it was days like these that made all the hassle worth it. This is the Africa I like to remember.
