Sponsorship Photos..

It is a hot African summer day but the breeze blowing in my face from my position perched on the back of the motorbike is cooling enough for it to be a pleasant ride. We are wizzing along dirt trails, through fields of maize and past mud huts in rural coastal Kenya, across paddocks and farms and market places we ride. Every now and again we stop to greet people and ask directions. I am tightly gripping the borrowed SLR camera I have around my neck, it is very essential that it is in working order as the purpose of our searching is to photograph sponsored children to send an update to their sponsors. 

Arriving at a ramshackle cow yard we find a shirtless man, half asleep on the ground. He jumps up, clearly startled at our arrival, groping for a shirt and struggling to find words, he finally secures his shirt with a mismatched button and proudly declares 'Good evening!' in a slightly too loud voice. It is not even 2pm but considering he has only just woken up and English is his 3rd language its not a bad effort. 

We enquire as to the whereabouts of the child we are looking for as the local Agape rep says she usually stays with him, however he informs us that the girls mother is very ill, they don't expect her to survive more than a few days and the child has accompanied her to hospital.
Both men turn to me for a solution, they know that I have travelled hours to come here for the photos, and despite the tragedy of the situation they are genuinely concerned about me returning without the photo  'she is not here, so what do we do then!?'. I assure them that it is fine, the sponsor will understand if they don't receive their photo for a little longer. We can return another time. 

When we arrive at our next falling down farmhouse the lad we are after, Mulilu, is also not around, however family members assure me that if I can just wait they will locate him. Mulilu is out grazing the cattle. He sheepishly comes around the corner of the building, nervously murmuring about being in dirty clothes, once again I assure that it is ok and he manages a big grin for the camera. 

As I hop on the back of the bike for another search I can't help but smile to myself, I don't know what I really imagined when I first heard of the concept of 'sponsoring children' or how I thought the photos came about when I received email updates of the girl I started sponsoring many years ago, but now I stop and think about it, of course a child from a rural farming background will live hours from comfortable cities and good roads suitable for cars... However, little did I imagine that I would be the one hooting around the countryside snapping pictures of these gorgeous kids!