Donkeys and Cameras

When people think of Kenyan animals, things like lions, elephants, and cheetahs usually come to mind. Probably the most common big animal we see around here, though, is the good old donkey. Donkey attached to wooden carts are one of the most common forms of transportation for products or crops, and you can find them grazing on the sides of the road all the time. One of our former vision trip participants, Ellen, really likes the donkeys - in fact, she might like them more than the lions! While in Limuru last March, Ellen got the chance to RIDE on a donkey cart owned by one of the CARE for AIDS clients' husbands, George. She later decided to give a gift to George's family - a gift in the form of another donkey!

Justin emailed me a few weeks ago with the novel task of buying a donkey with the money that Ellen donated - as you can imagine, I got some help from Kevin, as I would have no idea where to start in this process. Kevin negotiated with some donkey salesman and found a great, hardworking donkey to pull George's cart. On the day they were going to purchase the animal, I gave him my camera to take pictures of George, his wife Jane, and their new donkey "Georgeking."

This leads into a second topic of discussion - Kenyans taking pictures. For some reason, Kenyans HATE looking happy in pictures. I can't figure out why...maybe they want to look serious, or maybe they think smiling is a sign of weakness? This is an added difficulty when you are trying to take pictures of happy people who's lives have changed to show donors - they can be smiling and talking and laughing, but the minute the camera comes out they look like they are contemplating the best way to kill somebody! You can view this picture of George, Jane, Kevin, and the donkey as a great example...

Along with this anti-happy-picture attitude, I've found that Kenyans really do love to pose for pictures. This seems somewhat contradictory, but whenever I let anyone borrow my camera it comes back with all sorts of glamour shots. Maybe this is one of those things that I just won't understand - they refuse to smile when someone asks them to pose for a picture, but they go crazy when they have the camera for themselves! Here's what I found after Kevin had my camera for an afternoon last week...enjoy: