WEEK 45: "CHASE THAT LIGHT YA KNOW"

"Nice but kind of flat don't ya think? You got to get up early to chase that light you know", said the snide bitchy photographer from a paper out west glancing over my shoulder as I looked over the take from my first day in Haiti. Despite wanting to club her with 70-200 I silently agreed. It's two years on now. After a week working for Operations Smile I got up this morning at 5AM to "chase that light" for my portrait project on those displaced by Kenya's election violence. First stop Mathare, one of the poorest sections of Nairobi, where in one city block 400 families were chased out and had their homes destroyed by people they used to call neighbors.

Sadly since being in Kenya I have not had more than three hours of sleep at night. Trying to be coherent storyteller and chasing that light is an exercise in masochism. Even though I may be giving myself heart palpitations from too much caffeine and seeing nothing but thick dark storm clouds in the sky, I schuffle off to chase that light. Half way there I feel as dark as the clouds as my driver Franics says "you'll never see sun on a day like this". I try not to scowl. I don't want to hate him this early into my trip. Lucky for him five minutes into my visit to Mathera the sun comes up big, golden, and beautiful. I can't help but think of you snide bitchy west coast photographer.