A Shared Smile
I love watching children play. It does not matter where you are in the world - they come up with their own games and adapt well-known games to have house rules. They smile and they laugh and they run and they use their imagination. The world and its worries slip away because their fun, their smiles, are bigger than those worries. The day I took this picture in Ethiopia, the children were playing in their schoolyard between classes. Some could not be bothered with my very white, very outsider presence, and others could not keep themselves away. Either way, the games went on. And as the games continued, we shared hope. Hope for their futures because we all dared to dream.
Sometimes I think it feels trite to say that a latrine, a toilet, is part of that dream. It is nothing complex and simply provides a private place for you a young girl to pee. It is separated from the boys toilets so that there is no concern of harassment. It is not college or law school or fabulous jobs or modern medicine. It does not provide clean water or food or shelter or school supplies. But it is the foundation for those things because it helps to get rid of disease, it provides dignity in a private place to pee, and it enables girls to go to school. And so I believe that a good latrine is part of the dream I have for these young girls, a dream that was in the making that day.
The girls were playing their own games and dreaming their dreams, and I was dreaming for them too. Dreams filled with hope and with laughter. Dreams caught in the moment of a shared smile.
~ Pamela Crane, PhD, Africa Field Manager
Blood:Water Mission
Blood:Water Mission
Leave a comment
Blood:Water Mission is focused on transformation, and this is your opportunity to join the discussion with your comments on stories and reports. With that in mind, we simply ask you to
Blood:Water Mission reserves the right to refuse to post any comments based on these criteria and basic principles.
For specific BWM questions and requests involving projects and other things such as volunteering and fundraising please contact our office or email bloodwater@bloodwatermission.com