Barak Bruerd

Technically I didn’t take this photo so it really shouldn’t be listed up here.  But its me in the picture, it’s a great photo, and those two things rarely come together.  So I’m posting it anyway with credit to Paul Wagner for shooting it, and credit to me for the artistic touches (tinting, textures, etc).  One of my best trips in a long time – three days, two nights on the side of Mt, Kenya fly fishing.  Caught three nice size trout and ate them along with a huge slab of Gouda and whiskey which sustained us through two freezing wet nights on the mountain.  The hammock is my own design – a bolt of heavy Thai silk with loops on the end that convert it from a sleeping bag liner to a hammock.  Warm nights and lazy-day lounging.

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Sounds like some kind of post-modern art…  This was the hunk of Gouda we lugged up Mt. Kenya and this is the chameleon that graced our table the first morning.  Chameleons are fascinating and hold a certain nostalgia from my childhood days in West Africa.  When going to Daystar University in Kenya, I use to keep one in my mosquito net and feed it moths at night.  There are actually about 160 species of chameleon.  All of them have eyes that rotate independently, prehensile tails, and tongues that extend out 1 1/2 times their body length.  They change colors through specialized skin cells called chromatophores, and more than just camouflage, color reflects emotion and temperature.  There is an old tribal story in Sierra Leone of how a race was held by all the jungle animals to determine who would rule them.  The chameleon being wise, jumped on the cheetah’s tail.  When the cheetah reached the throne and turned to sit down, the chameleon jumped off and thus became the King of the Jungle.

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Joel and Araella having a day at the playground.  Mostly I think the playground was for Joel’s benefit and Araella was just along for the ride.

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Really, it’s not intended to be a pun.  I took this photo of Tara at a historic estate outside of Nashvilla called Cheekwood.  Beautiful post-civil war home with botanical gardens.

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I’m famous now.  I don’t even bother to avoid the inevitable. I just introduce myself as “Barak… like Obama” and make cheesy jokes about being his white brother.  Doesn’t matter – people love it and I make instant friends.  These women were absolutely priceless – from Obama’s nearby village and all three living out incredible stories as they battle AIDS in their community and in themselves.  Stepping into their homes (behind me in the photo) I could only sit in awe of what they struggle with daily, and yet their hope is self-evident.  If only I could bottle it and bring it home with me.  We need it here desperately.

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This was a sign nailed to a tree at the entrance of a school nestled between three slums in Nakuru Kenya.  AIDS in Kenya is at an all time high of 8% and rates are typically higher than this in urban areas, especially where poverty has a stronghold on the population.  In stark contrast to the sobering message, this school and the others that I visited where bubbling with excited children.  I pray their future is as vibrant as their laughter.

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Not quite sure if we want to extract anything metaphorical from this photo… deserts, parched earth, wasteland, etc are never imagery you generally pair up with relationships, marriage, etc.  But we were eating lunch on this salt-flat in Marsabit and I shot this wide-angle of Kellie and Jeremy.  Pretty sweet if I do say so myself.

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