sobering day

I headed out to Mmankgodi yesterday afternoon and took along a young man who has offered to work with me in order to make some money for his younger brother who is suffering from HIV... He was a great help and a wonderful young man. Michelle has really been talking to him most of the time and it was her idea to get him involved in my photo project.. We took a drive out to Mmankgodi, about 45 minutes outside of Gabs. This young man(23 yrs old) left a job in Johannesburg to come back to Botswana to take care of his younger brother.. He was working in a gas station at nights, and for the afternoons was making sure his brother got the appropriate treatment. The job at the gas station became too much and he is presently looking for a job.

He was awesome with the kids at the orphanage, and worked with them in showing them how to use the various cameras and explaining what to do .... The orphanage was tough to visit...alot of young kids, all left alone(many due to HIV). Giving them a camera to take photos was a big highlight and was received warmly.. My young man talked to each individual child and explained exactly what he wanted them to do.. On the way back to gabs, he expressed his thanks for the "piece job" and said how wonderful of a person Michelle was... I agreed... because as a husband, that's what you have to do.... Honestly it was great to hear and I knew his situation way before our meeting because Michelle has been speaking about him for quite some time.. It was good to give him some help...

When I returned home, Michelle gave me the news that another one of her patients (that she has mentioned in past posts) had passed away... He was 16..

This was sad news and made me again realize how fortunate we are.... It's difficult to complain about a single thing when you are discussing life with a 23 yr. old who is willing to do anything to make some money to feed himself and his brother who is trying to cope with AIDS.. It's difficult to mope and whine about the difficulties of managing 5 healthy children when children who have already lost their parents , pass away at a very young age..

The thing that I find most striking, is that no matter how difficult things have gotten for some of these people(particularly the young man who helped me) is that their outlook is still very positive, optimistic and happy...
Here's some photos of the kids and their cameras.