My blog for this week is up at www.npac.ca

Live from Africa….check it out!

TIA or This Is Africa seems to get thrown around a lot, I don’t know if it’s just from people who have seen the movie Blood Diamond or what the source is, but to me, this photo is Africa.   The love and endearing touch of a grandmother on a young girls head.  I remember looking at how everyone, even the men, walked hand in hand in Rwanda and thought how amazing and warm and different it was to back home.  And realizing that the people who only know Africa by what wars the newspapers write about or safari treks that travel agents peddle really are missing out.  This place presents so many challenges and differences and experiences every day it really is tough to describe to people who haven’t experienced it themselves. And for me, the amazing strong women who work tirelessly to better their lives for themselves and their families are really the ones who are the unsung heroes.  Getting to know the people on the ground in the village over the past week was an incredible experience and now I am gearing up for another week of it here in Ethiopia.  Ready to take of for Dire Dawa in 4 hours and haven’t gone to sleep yet. Another big day tomorrow.

P.S. After a minimal amount of time in Ethiopia I have recognized two things of great beauty here. Women and Coffee. Not a bad place to be!

A photo of one of the local women on my first day in Gambella, Kenya where we were working on a project with the Borana people.  The Borana are a pastoralist ethnic group who inhabit parts of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia, and are one of the poorest ethnic groups in the world.  Spending time in their village was an amazingly warm and eye-opening experience.  As a group and personally relationships grew with the locals and by the end it was tough to say goodbye.  Goodnight from Nairobi, more tomorrow.

-Brett.

Wubshet (left) and Habiba, the husband and wife team that run Global Hope Network’s Kenya operation on the ground are both amazing people.  Wubshet, the self-proclaimed bush man, is full of random quips telling us basically to man up.  His better half Habiba organizes the womens groups in the village and keeps everything running smoothly.  We have been staying in the Sandavy Guest House in Nairobi for the past couple days getting ourselves organized, picking up the mosquito nets we are going to distribute in Gambella, and adjusting to the local time after (at least for me) flying for about 26 hours straight, not including stop-overs.  More info at http://www.globalhopenetwork.org

I get by with a little help from my friends. Definitely not from their singing abilities, but from their ability to have a kick-ass sing-along down at the beach. I had a bunch of people over for a July birthdays/going away party, I kicked everyone out and after getting a noise complaint due to everyone’s rendition of Tom Petty’s “Free Falling” and we continued the party down at the Third Beach. Hello from Nairobi, more shots and updates in the next few days, just dealing with slow internet. We will be going out to the village tomorrow and I expect to be shooting a ton in the next few days.

I leave for Kenya tomorrow, but I wanted to throw this up before I take off. I had a big dinner party at my new apartment on Saturday and there was some interest from people asking for prints of these that I just put up on my walls. I spent most of Friday looking for a font that would work with an idea I had for some of my photos, and I am really happy how they worked out. If you are interested in either of these two, I’ll charge $40 bucks for a printed and mailed (or personally delivered) 12×18 print of it. $60 for the both of them. Email me at brettbeadle@gmail.com if you are interested.

Liam, Train Bridge, 2008.

Tristan & Victoria, Cannon Beach, 2009.

I celebrated Canada Day with 350 Kms on the Sea to Sky highway, this photo taken just past Pemberton when I turned around.  God, it is beautiful up there.