Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Communication, its a wonderful thing!

Since I have been here I have met 6 English speaking people. A couple from Manchester, a Guy from Poland living in London & 3 girls from Canada, that is it! The rest of the time its a very, very broken English. I have to admit they don't understand me & I really don't have a clue what they are saying, but we get by with a lot of hand and finger jestures?!
So how do you communicate with all these refugees when you go about the camps? Easy, carry a camera.Once the kids know you have one they are queing up. Mums & Dads too! You get invited into their "hut" to take a photo of them together, the parents are so proud of their children, just as we are, thats what makes you realise they are no different to us. They all pose happily with these huge white smiles & are are so excited when you show them the photo on the back of the camera. Time to move on, they smile again & I can't help thinking what pain & humiliation they hold back behind those milky eyes & pure white smiles.Today I had about a hundred photo's printed to give out to these people. Such a simple thing that we all take for granted.