Kids With Cameras: What They See is What I Get

Our car is still broken down, so I’ve been staying pretty close to home.  I wasn’t going to go to the orphanage this week either because of the car problems.  HOWEVER.  One of the new friends I met in February returned from the states to finalize the adoption of her son and wanted to return to Kimbondo, so Daniel and I went out there on Friday with Kim and her husband, Jeff.  The last time Kim was here “coincided” with my driver being out of town.  I told Kim that every time I am without transportation to the orphanage God seems to send her to Kinshasa and maybe she should pray for my transportation needs, lest she have to return again.  

I suppose the older kids had the day off from school because several of them were in the courtyard that is supposed to only be for the preschoolers.  Some of them were bullying the little ones and we had to intervene the best we could.  

Daniel likes to be my “photographer” when we go places so I passed my camera to him when we got there.  The thing about trusting a child to be your photographer is that you never know what sort of photos you will end up with.  Being younger and shorter gives Daniel a different perspective, so he takes photos of different things, and from different angles, than I might.  The quality also varies because it is hard to keep the camera still when other kids are jostling him and trying to snatch the camera away.  There are always surprises when we get home and I put the memory card into the computer.  Today was no exception, and I found this beauty in my camera:

Ha ha!  Don’t I look lovely?  Go ahead and laugh.  I did.  The boy behind me was pulling my hair with great gusto, more from curiosity than from a desire to hurt me.  I got beat up a little more than usual since the older kids were around.  One boy kept slapping me on the arm and yelling "mundele" at me because I was not blowing up balloons fast enough and he didn't want to wait his turn.  

Giving Daniel a camera lets me see things from his perspective in a very tangible way and is a good reminder for me that people often see the same things differently.  Here are a couple more photos from Daniel for you.   I wish I had asked him to get more photos of Kim and Jeff and one of us together but I kept getting sidetracked.  They'll be travelling back home soon, hopefully tonight, so pray for them.