Kenya RPCV Annie Greene captures sorrow, hope in her photography



"I can't get Africa out of my head or my heart," she said. Above all, she feels enriched to have been able to observe, document and get to know the children. "Children who live amidst calamity and strife inspire me because they continue to laugh," she said. "I am struck by their resilience."

Kenya RPCV Annie Greene captures sorrow, hope in her photography

Out of Africa, portraits of courage
Peace Corps volunteer falls in love with children, captures sorrow, hope in her photography

By EILEEN MCCLELLAND
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Caption: In Living Praises, children living in a refugee camp, many of whom had been abducted by rebels in Uganda, praise God in song. The photo is on exhibit at Té House of Tea. Photo: Annie Greene

As the only white person in Mwongori, a village in western Kenya, Peace Corps volunteer Annie Greene, 26, was usually treated like a celebrity.

But some of the children considered her a scary alien life form.

"It was an unbelievable idea to them that there was somebody who is another color and who is walking around and talking," Greene said.

While working with teachers to develop a curriculum for AIDS education, Greene, an amateur photographer, also traveled in Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda. Everywhere she took pictures of children.

The subjects of her photography exhibit, All Eyes on Us, are children who lost parents to AIDS, children stranded in refugee camps, children from rough households, and even regular kids.

Some were won over easily and became fast friends.

Others, such as Esther, Greene's neighbor and the subject of Rays of Light, always ran screaming from her.

"I had known that family for the entire time I was there," Greene said. "I saw her every day, and every single day she was in tears. She saw me, and she would get all ruffled up. But one day after I'd been there about two years, I happened to walk through the doorway, and she didn't realize I was there, so she didn't scream right away."

With Esther's mother's permission, Greene photographed the little girl for the first time.

"I always had to be very creative with my use of light," she said. "I didn't carry a tripod around, so I used tables, bricks, leftover boxes, my knee. In this case I was trying to capture the light, teetering on the edge of a table because I didn't want to get too close, and not being able to see very clearly through the lens itself."

A second later the girl burst into tears.

Despite Esther's forlorn appearance in that black-and-white portrait, Greene says she's a happy kid with a close family.

Greene, from The Woodlands, majored in Latin American studies and psychology at the University of Texas in Austin.

In August, she will head to Kenya's capital, Nairobi, where she will work as a refugee-camp caseworker in a program coordinated by Church World Service.

Her dad, Bill Greene of The Woodlands, said Annie raised $10,000 in the States to have a dormitory built in Kenya to make the village girls' lives easier and safer.

Why return?

"I can't get Africa out of my head or my heart," she said.

Above all, she feels enriched to have been able to observe, document and get to know the children.

"Children who live amidst calamity and strife inspire me because they continue to laugh," she said. "I am struck by their resilience."

eileen.mcclelland@chron.com

When this story was posted in August 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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The Peace Corps Library The Peace Corps Library is now available online with over 40,000 index entries in 500 categories. Looking for a Returned Volunteer? Check our RPCV Directory or leave a message on our Bulletin Board. New: Sign up to receive our free Monthly Magazine by email, research the History of the Peace Corps, or sign up for a daily news summary of Peace Corps stories. FAQ: Visit our FAQ for more information about PCOL.

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