Bekondo

Bekondo, Cameroon

My brother joined the Peace Corp and at the end of his two year teaching commitment, I dipped into my savings and bought my first overseas plane ticket to visit his village, Big Bekondo in Cameroon. He took me to his school one day where he alternated groups of students through his classroom to take a test. If the room was too crowded, there were not enough pencils to go around and the temptation to cheat was much greater because the students had to sit so close. At the end of this school day, it began to rain. I looked out between the small “windows” in the schoolhouse bricks with my camera; hoping to photograph the shapes of light in the wall. Almost as if asked, a student crossed paths with my camera lens at that exact moment. I do not even know that he could see me inside the dark classroom, but he appears to catch a glimpse, curiously looking right at me behind my lens - exactly as the shutter clicked open to capture his image in the rain. This picture is one of my first photos snapped with the intention of being a ‘photographer’ and remains framed in my home - as one of my favorite photographs seven years later.

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A Day at School

My brother joined the Peace Corp and at the end of his two year teaching commitment, I dipped into my savings and bought my first overseas plane ticket to visit his village, Big Bekondo in Cameroon. He took me to his school one day where he alternated groups of students through his classroom to take a test. If the room was too crowded, there were not enough pencils to go around and the temptation to cheat was much greater because the students had to sit so close. At the end of this school day, it began to rain. I looked out between the small “windows” in the schoolhouse bricks with my camera; hoping to photograph the shapes of light in the wall. Almost as if asked, a student crossed paths with my camera lens at that exact moment. I do not even know that he could see me inside the dark classroom, but he appears to catch a glimpse, curiously looking right at me behind my lens - exactly as the shutter clicked open to capture his image in the rain. This picture is one of my first photos snapped with the intention of being a ‘photographer’ and remains framed in my home - as one of my favorite photographs seven years later.

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