More Africa photos

Some additional photos from my trip to Nairobi.

Mother and child in the Githurai slum of Nairobi.

Debbie McFerron with her favorite giraffe at the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi.

Giraffes are incredibly magnificent creatures.

Nelson Trent and Wahokia with their favorite giraffe.

Nelson considers the sobering reality of refugee children at Christ's Academy. The work done by the staff at the academy is, "The real deal," he says.

The children sing and dance for their visitors.

The headmaster, Rafael Mutua, is a magnet for the children at the academy. They know he loves them and they respond.

As well as singing and dancing, the children recite poetry and Bible verses from memory.

Short Pump, Virginia

Sadie absconds with Allan Mitchell's chair.

Catching up

October 18, 2008

Gayton, Virginia

Erie Mitchell's 90th Birthday

David Graham plays for Erie's birthday celebration at his parent's house.

As she opens cards from friends and family gathered to celebrate the beginning of her 10th decade her daughter-in law, Ann, and son, Allan, stand behind her.

Grandchildren, left to right, Allison and Andrew watch the festivities with their spouses Melissa and Steve. David Graham stands behind them.

Allan produced a book with 90 images documenting her life.

All shared a meal before ...

... the arrival of the cake ... 

... and the blowing of the candles.

October 17, 2008

Short Pump, Virginia

Duane Horst, left, and Bill Kaffenberger perform at the Daily Grind.

Paul Steinberg stands before the exhibit of his paintings at the Daily Grind. The Grind has become the center of a community of artists and musicians in the Richmond area.

October 12, 2008

Deep Run Park

Shawn with Sadie after a Fall picnic in the park.

October 9-11, 2008

Nashville, Tennessee

Participants in the three-day photojournalism track at the Collegiate Journalism Conference in Nashville do edits of their work before presenting to the faculty and their peers.

Awards stack up for participants in the conference.

Joni Hannigan, left, from Florida and Morris Abernathy, from Tennessee, play ping pong during a Friday evening break during the journalism conference.

Richmond, Virginia

October 8, 2008

There are a lot of stories about my friend Eloise, far right, during the recognition of her 40th year of employment on Monument Avenue.

Singer and drummer during recognition service.

James, Ashley and Justin waiting for me to do a voice over. Ashley and Justin will be married in a couple of weeks.

Fredericksburg, Virginia

October 7, 2008

Old fashioned milkshakes at Coolrich's Pharmacy on Caroline Street in Fredericksburg.

Horses sleep in the harness along Caroline Street, waiting the next customer.

Pope's Creek, Virginia

My daughter, Sherianne Shannon, and I spent a father/daughter day at Wakefield Plantation, the birthplace of George Washington. The original house burned in 1779. This house was built in 1931 as a memorial in the style of an English planter's home of the period. It is considerably larger than the original whose foundation was found and excavated in 1936. 

Dawn Palmer, one of the best National Park Service interpreters I have ever encountered, displays a replica of a certificate of indenture. Indentured servants and slaves were necessary for the economic viability of the plantation; the indentured for skilled labor, the slaves to work the fields. A slave, costing 30 pounds sterling at the time, could produce tobacco worth 1,000 pounds sterling from an acre of good land per year.

A curious cow on the plantation.

 Mushrooms form a fairy ring near the graves of George Washington's ancestors. including John, his great grandfather who emigrated to Virginia in 1659.

Gayton, Virginia

Elephant and calf carved in ebony, a gift from Christ's Academy in Nairobi to the members of Cambridge church. It symbolizes the nurturing of the young by the mature. It is the relationship the director, the headmaster, 10 teachers and four cooks have with the 161 students at the academy. Through their support efforts, it is a relationship Cambridge shares with the staff of the academy.

Nairobi, Kenya

A Maasai woman selling beadwork at the Friday Maasai Market in Nairobi.

Giraffes gather to gaze at the tourists outside Nairobi. An afternoon in the Giraffe Centre with these magnificent creatures is good for the soul.

The centre is principally a an educational facility where Kenyans learn about Giraffes and how to interact with them. Many school children come to the centre as part of their primary school curriculum. 

Nelson Trent, from Richmond, Va., in the midst of what centre interpreters call a giraffe sandwich.

Wahokia carrying on a tradition and renewing an old acquaintance. 

Githurai Slum

Nairobi, Kenya

A School for Refugee Children

I spent the day among 161 children — the collateral damage of war and violence in Central and Eastern Africa — was led by hand through the slum they call home and found home and healing in their touch.

Christ's Academy in the Githurai slum of Nairobi is a school for children displaced and orphaned by war and conflict in Central and Eastern Africa.

There are 161 children at the academy. All are refugees who have fled violence in Sudan, Somalian, Burundi, Congo and Kenya.

Among them is Aluel Kadam. Her eyes belies some of the horrors she has seen in young life in Southern Sudan. Christ's Academy offers her not only an education, but a place of hope and healing — a place where she is loved.

The director and founder of Christ's Academy is Lhelumo (Barthelemy) M'Mboboci, above. While fleeing the fighting in the Congo in the late 1990s, he came across eight children separated from their parents. He collected and took them with him. His plan was to reunite them with their families in refugee camps in Tanzania. But when he reached the camps, there were no families to reunite them with. Today, 12 orphans live him, his wife and their three children in a small, two-bedroom apartment in Githurai.

Christ's Academy grew out of M'Mboboci's desire to help more children displaced and orphaned by the violence in Central and Eastern Africa. Rafael Mutua, above, headmaster of the school, has worked with him since the academy was founded in 2001. He leads a faculty of 10 trained, accredited teachers. All all volunteers and serve without expecting any pay.

Cambridge church in Gayton, Va., supports Christ's Academy by sending enough money to feed the children each month with a little extra for supplies, materials and an occasional stipend for the teachers. Nelson Trent, a member of the church, visits to see the work of the school and play with the children.

None of the children pay to attend. They are accepted by need and receive two meals a day from the kitchen, above, in addition to their education. The school is not state supported and depends on donations to survive.

M'Mboboci used to send the children home at noon for a meal. That ended when two young girls were raped on their way to lunch. The children's guardians are refugees who worked during the day or are out searching for food. There is usually no one home — and often nothing to eat — when the children arrive.

The children entertain guests and each other with traditional songs and dance, poems and Bible recitation. Classes range from pre-school — beginning with three-year-olds — and currently go through the fifth grade. Plans are to add a grade each year as the children get older.

The children sat for exams today. Those who excel are awarded badges in each subject at the end of each term. Headmaster Mutua points to the badges Alfred Kimetu earned last term. He excelled in several subjects and was the best student overall in the school. The exams today will determine how many of those badges he retains.

Nairobi, Kenya

Kristen, left, and Jesse are just off a 16-hour plane ride. This is their first day in Nairobi, where the photographer-writer, multimedia team will spend the next two years as correspondents working out of Kenya.

Fighting sleep and setting up their internet access take priorities with a wish for a restful night tonight.

I love these little chameleons and their ability to swivel their eyes independently of each other 360 degrees. I waited for this one to turn green, but he knew where he was heading required a deeper hue as he shuffled off into the shade.

Life is incomplete without a mid-morning cappaccino at the Java House coffee shop in Nairobi, following a fresh brewed pot of Dorman's to start the morning. Kenya has some spectacular coffees.