Barak Bruerd

Staying “in Africa”

Posted on September 05, 2008 by Barak in Africa | No Comments

In northern Kenya we ate breakfast at a fantastic little hole-in-the-wall guesthouse in Torbi where the rooms were named after places.  So I posed beside one of the doors that was most apropos for my work.

Homemade Toys

Posted on September 04, 2008 by Barak in Africa | No Comments

Saw these sitting on the tank pad at a school in Marsabit.  Children had made them from plastic bottles and sticks and were racing them around the tank during recess.

Desert Dusk

Posted on September 04, 2008 by Barak in Africa | 1 Comment

Spent an incredibly memorable night in a small rural town in northern Kenya called Torbi.  Part of Marsabit district, the area is the traditional lands of several nomadic tribes, or pastoralists as they are technically referred to.  The desert here is both harsh and beautiful and I caught a few shots of dusk.  The dome in the photo is one of the houses which bares an uncanny resemblance to homes built by nomadic races in both central Asia as well as North America – cloth and skins draped over a wooden frame.

Desert Sunset

Posted on September 04, 2008 by Barak in Africa | No Comments

Sunset in Torbi, Kenya.  At 9,000 feet of elevation, several hundred miles from the nearest major town, the stars were incredible.  I spent most of the night sleeping on top of the Land Rover 4×4 looking at the Milky Way.  Some friends there killed and roasted a goat for our group and cooked up rice and cabbage for us.  Amazing experience.

Marsabit

Posted on September 04, 2008 by Barak in Africa | No Comments

Marsabit… it’s as close to Mars as you will ever come without leaving planet earth.  Home to 158,000 people in a barren wasteland.  We drove for nearly 9 hours and in places that appeared entirely inhospitable, entire families would materialize from nowhere and be marching steadily towards some unknown destination.  It was both amazing and eery.

Sharing…

Posted on September 04, 2008 by Barak in Africa | No Comments

The spring at this oasis supplies water for several thousand livestock a day; camels, donkeys, goats, and sheep.  It also supplies people.  Though it looks like dirt, most of the soil surrounding this spring is layers of dung built up over generations.  In the coming year Blood:Water will fund the rehabilitation of this spring.  It will be excavated by the local people, backfilled, and then capped with an outlet that will run “down stream” so livestock can drink without contaminating the water.  A separate tap will be made so that people can obtain water without fighting for space from the animals.

Jostling for a Drink

Posted on September 04, 2008 by Barak in Africa | No Comments

Road to Manhood

Posted on September 04, 2008 by Barak in Asia | No Comments

Two brothers driving the family sheep to a nearby spring.  Although it’s easy to gloss over the simplicity of this story, it depicts something truly remarkable.  How many of us would allow an 8 and 10 year old wander miles from home unaccompanied?  How many of us would allow them to be in charge of a major portion of our family’s assets?  Livestock represent the entirety of a pastoralist’s wealth; it’s the only possession they have that is of material value.  And so on the shoulders’ of these two boys rests the family’s investments from which they will trade, buy food, pay for school, purchase clothing, medicine and anything else required for basic survival.  The journey to manhood begins early and is shouldered with an ease most of us in the West can barely comprehend.  I turned away to climb into my air conditioned Land Rover and grab a bottle of ice-cold water from the cooler.  They walked the rest of the way to the oasis and drank from a spring polluted by the feet of thousands of dusty animals.  It’s an injustice of immeasurable proportions.

Maikona Teacher

Posted on September 04, 2008 by Barak in Africa | No Comments

Maikona elementary school is a dusty school in Marsabit, Kenya.  It’s three concrete brick buildings with classrooms and rickety wooden desks.  Sometimes kids double and triple up at the desks.  Outside the wind whips the desert sand into dust devils that spiral several hundred feet in the air and a dozen thorny scrub trees are the only plants that break up the otherwise barren landscape. But Maikona school is a source of pride for the community.  They built it.  There was no one there to help them, the government ignores them, and so they built it themselves.  They wanted a future for their children.  They sold camels and goats and donkeys, they purchased the cement and brick, they hired the technicians, and they built the school.  Now they pay the salaries for 3 extra teachers b/c the government will only provide 7 and each classroom has over 80 students per teacher.  It’s incredible to see the dedication of this community.  They stand proud for what they are giving to their children.

Bond, James Bond.

Posted on September 04, 2008 by Barak in Africa | No Comments

I love this shot of Paul Wagner.  He’ll probably kill me when he finds it on this website.  But in spite of his rather unpresuming personality, I think this perfectly captures the nonchalant adventurer that smolders just beneath the surface.  Priceless.