Engikaret

 My first week in Africa has been absolutely full of some of the most amazing things I have ever experienced in my life. It has also been full of some of the most painful.  I have not been overwhelmed, but taking it all in is definitely a process, and one I am thankful to be undergoing.  There is so much to say, I hardly know where to start, but I hope some of these images reach you in a way that they also reached me, and if you have any questions, ask me please, I still have quite a few myself. Hopefully when I have more time I will be posting just a written blog too. 

thanks for looking

-Rhys

 

Mt. Kiliminjaro can be seen only as the sun rises. It quickly disappears into the dusty haze as soon as the sun rises completely.

Every day, all the Engikaret school children travel across the sun scorched Savannah from their bomas, which can be up to two miles away. Snakes, wild animals and triple digit heat are all risks in Masailand.

Children bring firewood along with them to help with cooking necessities for their daily meals.

Morning prayers

Teachers and staff live in a small compound full time at the Engikaret base. Actual staff and teacher quarters are in the process of being planned and funded.

The Engikaret YWAM base is known to the loacl Maasai as a safe place ot visit, a consisten source of water, and place to get medicine and attend worship and fellowship services. The women also use a training center to learn seamstressing and have access to a corngrinding machine.

Maasai bomas are hand made huts constructed with cow dung and mud. The word boma however is also used when referring to the circular 'fencing' (made from thorny Acacia trees) that encircle the group of huts.

This is Isaac (left) and Joshua. Joshua wants to learn to be a music producer while he waits for his secondary school exams to come back to see if he can go to college to be a lawyer. He speaks english extremely well and he is 20 years old. Isaac is 13.

This is Nanyaku. Nanyaku has been sponsored to go to boarding school. Maasai girls must stay in school in order to remain ineligible from being sold or given away as young brides. Nanyaku is 12.

This is Sikata. At the time this caption is being written, she is nine days old. Born in the boma to a 14 year old mother, we were asked to come pray over them since her mother had not stopped bleeding since the birth. We later brough water for them both.

A lone Maasai man walks toward Engikaret at sunset. Maasai people must drive their herds to fresh sources of food and water, typically walking up to 15 miles a day. In years of drought and scarcity, they have even gone as far as Kenya for water sources. Up to 300 miles away.

Maasai women attend weekly fellowship and worship services at the YWAM Engikaret base. There are also medical supplies and a seamstress training center.

The actual village of Engikaret. The YWAM Engikaret base is about 3 miles from the village.

Yes, I am actually here.

The Maasai kids are all so friendly and very inquisitive, thanks for the photo Amanda!

The people are extremely friendly, the fauna, not so much..

 Dinner. We pulled the heads off of about 300 of these little guys to mix in with the Ugali, a very traditonal African food which is something like mashed potatoes and rice mixed together.

Northwest Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

Tucked near the woods on the Nooksack River in the small Western Washington town of Deming, the Northwest Wildlife Rehabilitation Center receives and treats hundreds of native wild animals every year.  Run entirely by donation, the center operates under lead rehabilitator and lone staffer Stacy Wise.  With a team of seasonal interns and volunteers year round, Wise and the people who dedicate their time and effort to the center help save the lives of native wildlife that have been injured, abandoned, are sick, or disoriented.  These images are the culmination of several months spent in and around the center. Some are releases for success stories of animal patients brought in, even some of whom were raised by Wise and the volunteers and interns, to be released as thriving adults. And some are the depiction of the sad reality of our own human influence on wildlife.

See the whole gallery Here,

Be sure and check out my projects page for more detailed info per image,

Video to come!

thanks for looking

-Rhys

Occupy Bellingham

The country is changing, whether we like it or not.  It seems a rare and very unique opportunity lately, to be thinking about the ability to tell future generations, I was there.

I hope you were

-Rhys

V.U. Latenight

Going to V.U. latenight was a very strange flashback to my early years at western, I remember how awesome and new everything was, meeting so many people, and just feeling the college experience beginning very ceremoniously with a big party thrown by your own school. I had a ton of fun watching so many young people starting their college journey and forming new friendships and trying new things. And between the Dead Parrots performing, a batting cage, concert by the Prime Time Band, human bowling, silent disco, free food and a velcro wall, there were plenty off opportunities for me to have a good time shooting

thanks for looking, and here's to feeling old

-Rhys