Not sure really how I feel about this but it documents one young american woman's experiences in Ethiopia that shows and explains some of the things that I've seen in other parts of Africa. She's there with the Adventist Church, working at an Adventist hospital in Gimbi. And her photos are brilliant.
Strangely though, she seems quite preoccupied with the poverty and hardship and doesn't seem to acknowledge the happiness reflected in the faces of the people that she is photographing.
I guess what it really shows is the impotence one feels when one goes to a place thinking that you're going to have this great impact and, in the end, save the world. And it shows clearly the shortcomings of existing "development" strategies. Sending young american women to Ethiopia to "find themselves" and reaffirm their faith in God is all well and good, but it doesn't do much to help the people in Gimbi (aside from when, in what appears to be the crux of the story, she pays for what ends up being one woman's cosmetic surgery). And perhaps the surgery is the perfect metaphor for what most development agencies are doing, especially in Africa. A little paint, a little polish and everyone feels better for a while. Sure they're still poor, and sure they're still suffering, and sure, the only hope you've given them is that one day, if they're lucky, some white lady might show up on their doorstep and give them something that really, in the end, hardly matters, but at least that's something right?
Now, please don't think that I'm belittling her experience, because my own experience in West Africa working as a photographer felt very much the same. But it looks like my next project (when the current never-ending project is finished in another couple of months) is going to be in Uganda, documenting the efforts of a group of development workers who are trying to reshape the whole development process. The catch with this group is that all of the development people involved are Ugandans. No one coming from outside to determine what Ugandans need. No one coming to impose their own ideas of what will work and what won't. The whole plan is to provide education and training to empower people in the rural areas of Uganda (ie. the people who would benefit from these development efforts) to make their own decisions about what they need. It's all kind of exciting. A really hope it works.