Several months ago, I showed the girls a photo I took as a part of an art project with some friends at Wheaton, in which we used nothing but our imaginations, cameras, and a 50 pound bag of flour. I showed it to them so as to help them to think a little more outside the box about photography, but then without my even suggesting it, they all made me promise that they would get to do their own photo shoot with flour. A week or so ago the day finally came and they had an absolute blast, covering one another in flour and coming up with all sorts of crazy things they could do with it.
With just a month left in Coch, things are ramping up quite a bit. I'm finishing up my research on the seguimiento program (i.e. the "follow-up" that they do with the girls who leave Albergue)--analyzing data and coming up with some proposals for the changes that could be made. And with the photography exhibition just two weeks away, the planning it can feel a little overwhelming at points, though I am hopeful that everything will come together. It is difficult to imagine saying goodbyes so soon, but the reality is that the time is coming and there's nothing I can do about it. I am now split between two places: I may be really excited to go home and be present with everyone I love there, but that does not change the fact that I have become woven into the fabric of life in Bolivia, and it is sure to be a painful experience to take myself out of it.
Some things I've been ruminating about lately:
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
-Desmond Tutu
“The individual is... held accountable for complicity with the present-day social structures that continue to deprive racial or ethnic group[s] of privileges and benefits.”
-Miguel de la Torre
“The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”
-Chimamanda Adichie
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
-Desmond Tutu
“The individual is... held accountable for complicity with the present-day social structures that continue to deprive racial or ethnic group[s] of privileges and benefits.”
-Miguel de la Torre
“The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”
-Chimamanda Adichie
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