The Happy Engineer

The kids from this classroom were full of life and had the most contagious smiles. This kid wants to be an engineer when he grows up. I looked at his drawing as I was editing his picture and loved his outlook on life: When he grows up he's just going to hang out on a rooftop, smiling and looking at the sun that will be smiling back at him. I'm not sure if the plane in the back is to show that he wants to travel, but he already knows that he wants to enjoy every moment and that he will get to the top.

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Les enfants de cette école etaient plein de vie et avaient des sourires contagieux. Cet enfant veux devenir ingénieur quand il sera grand. J'ai regardé son dessin pendant que je travaillais sur sa photo et j'ai adoré sa vision du future: Quand il sera grand il se délassera sur un toit, en train de sourire et de regarder le soleil qui lui sourira aussi. Je ne suis pas sûr de savoir si l'avion représente ses envies de voyager, mais Il montre qu'il sait déja qu'il veut profiter de la vie et qu'il ira loin.

Haiti Day #4: Two Cops

NEW AND IMPROVED:
I will now blog both in English and French so that our followers in France can understand.
Je vais mainteant blogger en Anglais et en Francais pour que vous puissiez  nous suivre plus facilement....Malheureusement ce sera sans les accents.

- Port-au-prince, Haiti -

The kids at the school already had a lot more confidence than the kids at the orphanage and they loved to be photographed. These two futures cops were the "cool kids" of their class. They were definitely leaders, and a lot of the kids around them looked up to them. I guess it will be easy for them to play the good cop/bad cop routine in the future if they end up working together. It was great to see all of them acting out their dreams for the camera.
Hopefully next time they can wear the entire police uniforms and keep plastic badges.

Note: We did not bring the Von Dutch shirt with us as part of our costumes...she already had it

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Les enfants de cette ecole avait deja beaucoup plus de confiance en soi et ils adoraient etre pris en photo. Ces deux futurs policiers etaient les"chefs de bandes" de leur classe et beaucoup des autres enfants les regardaient avec admiration. Ce sera surement tres facile pour eux de jouer au bon et au mauvais policier pour resouder leurs enquetes s'ils travaillent ensemble dans le futur. C'etait emouvant de les voir jouer leurs roles repectif pour les photos.
Avec espoir, la prochaine fois les enfants pourront porter l'uniforme entier et meme garder des badges en plastique de policier.

Note: nous n'avons pas apporter le T-Shirt Von Dutch dans nos costumes....elle le portait deja.

Haiti: The airplane pilot

Photo by Sebastien Roche-Lochen

When we started receiving costume donations from some amazing supporters of the project, we mentioned them to some of the people who were already working with organizations in Haiti. We had a few contacts before going to Haiti, and since we had never been there before, we listened to every tip and critique we had about the project. One of our contacts, who worked with an organization helping kids, told me that she didn't think it was a good idea to bring costumes such as the astronaut or the pilot because the kids would never think of it if they didn't see the costumes and it would be unreachabe for them. Since I agreed that we wanted the kids to set a goal they could reach, I listened to her and left these costumes at home. So it broke my heart when one of the kids said he wanted to be an airplane pilot when he grows up.

We made the best of it and he drew a plane on the blackboard. This kid had so much charisma that the pilot hat would have been perfect on him but he made it work with his big smile. I guess he reminded us of what this project was about: hope for a brighter future. The higher these kids will set the bar, the more they can accomplish. So next time I will bring along every single costume that we acquired, because every kid deserves to dream big.

Haiti Day #4: Bigger Dreams in School

The kids at this school were had it better than the kids at the orphanage. They had electricity, toys to play with, and an excellent team surrounding them. They enjoyed dressing up and posing for the camera and they loved being models for a moment. They were all trying to impress each other and the rest of the class was cheering every kid who was being photographed. It was a lot of fun

Haiti Day #4: L'ecole des enfants du Village de l'avenir

Pictures by Helena Harper and Sebastien Roche-Lochen

After our first two days in Haiti we moved from the guesthouse where we were sharing bunk beds in dorms to a beautiful little Guesthouse located in Delmas. The owner of the guesthouse also runs a school, an hour away from her hotel. The kids were still on vacation so she asked them to come for one morning just to participate in our project. The school was under renovation but we could see a difference with the orphanages right away. The kids at the school had electricity, running water and lots of toys to play with.

The kids at the school were a little more demanding than the ones at the orphanages, they obviously had seen a lot of different people from various organizations go through their buildings in the past. There was even a photography school across the hall from them created by a woman from Belgium. She helps teenagers from Port-au-prince become working photographers.

When the director of the school walked in the class they all stood up and acted like the nicest kids. then we started explaining to them why we were there. They started thinking about their future and began working on their drawings. A few minutes later the director left the room and chaos started.

Haiti Day #3: Behind-the-scenes pictures

These are some of the pictures that were taken during our session at the girls' orphanage. You can see the girls drawing what they want to be when they grow up and some candid shots of the girls waiting to pick their costume before we shot them.

Haiti Day #3: The girls receiving their pictures

 

Pictures by Helena Harper

The reaction of the girls receiving their pictures was heartwarming. They were all smiling and they were all proud of showing their gift to all their peers. This was only the second time we were handing out pictures on site and seeing the smiles on all these beautiful kids made it all worth it. We also brought a bag full of toothbrushes donated by a dentist in Los Angeles and they all received one with their snacks. It was a day of pure joy and the girls who wanted to become hairdressers even practiced their skills on me.