I feel as much as my brain may have developed over my 24 years on this earth (this is debatable), my love for jumping off of docks into the water hasn’t changed one bit. There was another boat nearby, and the driver came up and said “Sir, sorry sorry sorry, but you are soaking our boat.” Haha, I guess my well-crafted and graceful flops into the water had been making quite a splash. He had moved the boat well out of the way for this photo.

I just got back home from a weekend out at Kibuye, on Lake Kivu. It was a great trip out of Kigali, we went to see about a million bats on one island, which was both cool and creepy, and then played volleyball and went swimming on Amahoro (Peace) Island. Kibuye is beautiful and I couldn’t understand why there weren’t more tourists there. I talked to our boat guide, Andrew, and he said a decent-sized island goes for about $20,000 US. Not too shabby for a spot like this….More photos and video tomorrow.

Lama Mugabo is co-founder and executive director of Building Bridges with Rwanda (BBR), the organization I am working with to implement a digital storytelling and photography project, in conjunction with Amani Africa, here in Kigali. He is a good friend and is working on community development initiatives in Rwanda.

My metaphoric photo of the day. We are Building Bridges with Rwanda. Things are happening, and it is exciting to be in such a place where every day there are challenges, setbacks, hope, victory.

I have been importing some of the video I have been shooting in Rwanda. Most of it is footage from the photography project, which I am going to edit into a short film. But I have been taking some fun footage as well, and this definitely falls into that category. I love how Lama casually checks his watch as we are on our way around town. Although I miss my motorcycle, riding around the city on the Motos here is a heck of a lot of fun and much, much cheaper than taking a taxi (when you can find them).

I went out shooting with one of my team leaders, Shem, yesterday. He is a keener, has really taken to photography and he is getting to really start to get the hang of it. I found this shot while going through all of his photos, and thought it was amazing. I remember this EXACT moment when I let out a Sasquatch-like moan after the legion of kids had been following me forever and I couldn’t shoot anything without being swarmed. I LOVE this photo. It shows the power of photography to me in the fact that it takes me back to this EXACT moment in time.
And the proceeding photo I took to get the kids to go away. Cute.

Not exactly clean energy, but TIA.

Natty Dread is a musician who has lived in different places all over the world. A Rwandan who grew up in Uganda, he has lived in Jamaica, USA, Germany, Israel, among other places. He is an amazing guy to have a conversation with, and an example of the returning diaspora who are coming back to Rwanda. EDIT: I learned yesterday Bob Marley’s mom was the person who named him Natty.  He told me he knew Bob back in Jamaica, but wow, that is really cool.

Two lovely girls. Two photographs which I think do a pretty good job of showing their respective personalities. Lauren, my roommate, needed a headshot for an article she was writing, and I obviously said something moderately shocking. Lillian is one of my team leaders on the photography project, she is a great resource and a very sweet person. Without her, I don’t think I would get half as much done as I do now.

Had a day off on Sunday so took a few Motos around town to a peace rally and shot some photos at the same time. Then in the afternoon I played ultimate frisbee with a bunch of ex-pats at the sports centre, god I hate that game.  Back to work today.