Ghana: Girls Carrying Own Chairs To School

Many years ago, when I shot this picture in Adukrom, an Ashanti village near Kumasi, the local school’s classes had benches but no chairs. Each morning, soon after dawn, children in school uniforms carried their own chairs to school on their heads. A boy in the background is taking a bucket shower. Outside school, a woman sold the kids breakfast at a price the kids’ parents could afford. 

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Ghana: Ashanti Family Walking To Its Field

After school, an Ashanti family is on its way to weed a corn field near Adukrom, a village near Kumasi. The father carries a shotgun in case he finds a bird or a small rodent to shoot for the pot. The basket on one of the girl’s head holds machetes.

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Ecuador: Herding Sheep From A Horse

Fourteen-year-old cowgirl moving sheep on her family’s hacienda near the small town of Salitre, in Ecuador’s Guayas Province. When the rainy season will start, with torrents cascading down the Andes Mountains, these lowlands will disappear under deep water. Moving around will then need the canoe sitting at the foot of the corral fence.

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Ecuador: Where Soccer Is Played Even In The Jungle

In a clearing of Ecuador’s coastal rain forest, Awa Indians play soccer (football) in a warm downpour. Mud there is a way of life.

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Colombia: Cali Street Scene

I photographed this scene in Cali, Colombia, in the early nineties. Some of the city’s avenues closed to traffic on weekends to give families and individuals safe space to walk, cycle, or skate. The unicyclist was listening to his radio.

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Canada: New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy

 New Brunswick's spectacular Bay of Fundy boasts the world’s highest tides, averaging heights of 47 to 54 feet. People kayak around the rocks at high tide and walk around them at low tide. I got there late, as guards started to drive visitors away. Unfortunately my schedule did not allow me to return at high tide. The sea looked reddish from the sediments it was dragging back and forth.

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Colombia: Educating Disadvantaged Kids

Leaving home for school and a better future.

In the eighties, Russell Bloom, an American friend of mine, helped create a little school for children of a poor barrio in Cali, Colombia, and invited me to see it at work. It was heartwarming to watch how caring the teachers were, and how happy and eager to learn the young students were.                     
                                                                             

     Russell went on to devote himself to help Vietnamese boat people settle in the United States before he died, still young, of a rare illness. He left his fortune to a Cali shoeshine boy he had adopted and educated.

     In my January 17 post I showed how the day at the school started with a shower—cold but welcome in a 27 Celsius temperature. Toothpaste distribution and teeth brushing followed. Then some gym before sitting at some exciting classes.

At Christmas the kids reenacted the birth of Jesus. The little girl who brought her baby brother to play Jesus got the role of the Virgin Mary.

Colombia: The Thrill Of A Cold Shower

In a poor section of Cali, Colombia, these little girls burn with excitement in anticipation of taking their turn under their school’s cold shower before classes.

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Colombia: Culling Grapes

Young women culling grapes in Casa Grajales near La Unión, a small town in Colombia’s Cauca Valley Department. The good grapes will be sold as fruits, while those removed will be pressed and turned into wine.

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Colombia: Picking Cotton

Woman picking cotton under a heavy sun near Palmira, in Colombia’s Cauca Valley.

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