The Elephant Cloud » g10 http://elephantcloud.net tena yesteleng Sun, 04 Sep 2011 23:40:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 KEEN Donates Shoes to Podoconiosis in Ethiopia http://elephantcloud.net/2010/08/keen-donates/ http://elephantcloud.net/2010/08/keen-donates/#comments Sun, 01 Aug 2010 19:14:39 +0000 Jay Wright http://elephantcloud.net/?p=1217 an impoverished landThis spring we traveled to Gimbie, Ethiopia where I made a promotional video with Monica Barlow and Binyam Teferi to raise awareness for Podoconiosis, a debilitating disease just “rediscovered” in western Ethiopia. The video has since been widely viewed, including one very important viewing by the good people at KEEN Shoes.

Joni Kabana, a friend and professional photographer in Portland, has been working extensively to raise awareness of health conditions in Ethiopia.  In the process, the video was included in her presentations and as a result, I’ve learned that 918 pairs of shoes have been donated to Gimbie for the patients suffering Podoconiosis, courtesy of KEEN.  We are currently looking into avenues to get them there and I am extremely pleased that video played a role in helping the people who’ve touched me so deeply.

I’ve re-attached my video and a photogallery of Monica and Binyam delivering shoes to rural Ethiopia in April 2010.

]]> http://elephantcloud.net/2010/08/keen-donates/feed/ 2 The Street Boys http://elephantcloud.net/2010/04/the-street-boys/ http://elephantcloud.net/2010/04/the-street-boys/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:23:24 +0000 Jay Wright http://elephantcloud.net/?p=1130 jirata, lalise, and damekaMark Twain delights us with the wonders of boyhood. Skinned knees and bare feet, wild with imagination and thirst for adventure. Jirata, Dameka, and Lalise would fit brilliantly into these pages. I can see these three scamps racing the red clay roads to the staduim on Saturday mornings to watch futbol, striking taekwondo poses, and nabbing mangoes along the way. Later, they’d hang out by the foosball tables on the side of the tarmac, a road that cuts thru Gimbie on it’s way to Addis Ababa or Sudan, depending on your direction. It was by these tables on my walks home that they adopted me, taking turns teaching and quizzing me on Amharic, or Oromifa. I could never tell which was which.

lalise, taekwondo is big in ethiopia and free to watchThese boys are like all little boys and they’ll steal your heart and take your hand. Except they have no hands to guide them, they are on their own. These are the street boys, living together as a family, sleeping under trucks and in doorways, begging or charming their dinners from the townspeople and restaurants.

One little urchin with lazy eyes and a peaceful smile followed us into a restaurant for dinner. We were with our friend Mark and by the time we washed and sat down, David was sitting right beside us, beaming. I thought he was with you, oh, I thought he was with you. He sat patient, a perfect little gentleman and the clever little guy won us over. When the communal plate of injera came we bought him a soda and feasted. After the meal, clutching his prized soda, he rocked with lightness of laughter as Darlene mimicked an exploding belly.

I had already been working with the street boys for a couple weeks when we came upon Jirata, exhausted and sitting on the curb, in front of his favorite mango stand. I saw his tiny figure rise and turn to us with his signature stare, bloodshot eyes, and exhausted posture. Darlene, who’d never met him, recognized him instantly from my photos. His anticipation was overwhelming and his tiny hand found mine. I knelt to bump shoulders, as is the ethiopian greeting, and took the whole of his filth, from head to toe, into a warm embrace. I have never seen dirtier children.

Everyone had been looking for him, the boys told us he was sick and skipping school. Only nine years old, he’s HIV positive and both parents have been taken by the disease. He has no one looking after him aside from his best friends, who during previous hospital stays held vigil by his side.

No words were exchanged and his grip tightened and we walked to the hospital. This attracted attention. Ethiopians are not accustomed to foreigners embracing filthy street kids, let alone walking off with them. He could barely eat and he was so dehydrated his lips were sore. He managed half a banana and held a mango for later. He was admitted to the hospital.

The next morning, I set out to visit him. A little girl living on the hospital grounds knew where his bed was and brought me into the ward to see him. I had drawn a little cartoon on a makeshift card, but when we arrived, his bed was empty. The nurse said he woke, pulled out his IV, and left.

my team, my teachers

A few days earlier, I happened upon a crowd gathered on the curb not far from the hospital. Two of the boys were in the middle so I pushed my way in and found another boy lying on the ground. I’d never seen him before, but he was wearing one of the yellow t-shirts that were given to a handful of the boys six months earlier. One man spoke broken english so I grabbed Moti by the shoulder and pulled him over to relay the story. The man translated, but would never have considered asking Moti himself. The crowd dispersed but the boys remained together, I know they would not have left him alone. I picked him up and carried him to the hospital. Half way he insisted on walking, though he had to hold me with all his might, his strength all but gone. In the emergency room I found a nurse and they laid him down to rest. I learned later that he was epileptic and had had a seizure. He was discharged that afternoon and I never saw him again. The Children’s Medical Fund paid the bill.

Today, Jirata and four other boys are living in a small rented house in Gimbie. A program called the Street Boys pays for the accommodation. A sister project, The Ark, offers economic opportunity for unwed mothers and employed one of them to live in the house and watch the boys.

I created the following video about the Children’s Medical Fund, which provides health care for children in need under the age of eighteen, including the Street Boys.

]]> http://elephantcloud.net/2010/04/the-street-boys/feed/ 4 Podoconiosis http://elephantcloud.net/2010/04/always-wash-your-feet/ http://elephantcloud.net/2010/04/always-wash-your-feet/#comments Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:30:25 +0000 Jay Wright http://elephantcloud.net/?p=1053 In a land where water can be scarce or remote and is always heavy to carry, hygiene is not always the first consideration. In a land where the body is pushed to exhaustion simply to put food on the table, shoes aren’t necessarily in the budget. Education can be a luxury and even then teachers might not be available. This is a film about taking nothing for granted.

This is the first of two videos I was tasked with making and the imagery contains pictures of terribly disfigured feet due to an ailment called podoconiosis. If you do not like medical imagery, consider this before watching the video or viewing the gallery. The video was made to support the work of Gimbie Adventist Hospital in Ethiopia and I would especially like to thank Monica Barlow, who among many other things, is the compassionate narrator.

]]> http://elephantcloud.net/2010/04/always-wash-your-feet/feed/ 3 The Gift of Knowing Good Health http://elephantcloud.net/2009/12/the-gift-of-knowing-good-health/ http://elephantcloud.net/2009/12/the-gift-of-knowing-good-health/#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:00:13 +0000 Jay Wright http://elephantcloud.net/?p=880 bwanaI’d taken to riding in the Land Rover with the tanzanian staff. It started on the second day in order to beat the mobile clinic to the village and capture video of it’s arrival, but from that moment on I kept my spot in the car. I preferred the intoxicating laughter as the staff amused themselves in rapid fire kiswahili. I didn’t understand a lick of it, but Amiri translated bits and entertained me in english as well. I spent the mornings strolling the village before work began, occasionally raising my camera or greeting the locals.

the walk to maji motoI’ve been to some pretty remote spots, but this was exceptional. Roads forged simply by driving the terrain. Tracks led off in multiple directions as we tried to ascertain the paths of least resistance. It was afternoon and I’d been invited to do a home visit for a patient unable to walk the return trip. Turn right at the shrubs here, go thru the break in the fence there, there were six of us, including two men that weren’t among the one hundred selected for treatment that day. Their knowledge was our map and on the return, they wanted to take me to maji moto, a small bubbling natural hot spring in the middle of a vast flat salt plain, surrounded by joshua tree-like mounds of granite in the distance.

brothersThe following day, one of the men returned to the clinic and was admitted. I greeted him in the morning and took his portrait. That afternoon I greeted him again, this time welcoming him to the lab, Darlenes signature flowing across his lab slip. I prepared a slide for malaria and test tube for brucella as she prescribed. In the corner of the lab, a makeshift studio forms and I snap portraits and the drama troup drums in the background, surrounded in dance. Educational slideshows, talks and skits entertain, as do brief encounters with their own image on my camera. Well beyond electricity, this landscape is one where firewood is precious and living is hard, but the spirit is strong and I sincerely hope that every one of these wonderful faces can know the feeling of good health.

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