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mercy street

as i was shooting, someone was telling me that volunteers at the orphanage had given him his name, shortly after his parents dropped him off some months ago. "his parents?", i asked, putting down the camera, thinking i had misheard.

but indeed, his mother and father had brought him here some months ago, both of them in tears, inconsistent and completely unclear as to the reasons why. he had obviously been loved and well cared for to that point. he engaged immediately with people, loved to be held, and was not terribly malnourished. it was an incredibly unusual circumstance, so much so that the staff decided to take him.

they feared it possible that both parents were infected with HIV and knew he would be an orphan soon enough. or that the family owed "bad men" money, and were worried the baby would be taken in exchange and forced into child labor or prostitution.

i am still unable to get my head around ANY situation that would bring parents to this kind of decision. it's a level of poverty and desperation that exceeds my capacity to grasp. but the one light in all of that mess was this little face, reaching for my lens with his sticky hands, baby fat rolling around his wrists, sheltered from whatever would have been his lot in life otherwise. lord have mercy.

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Uploaded on Nov 2, 2008

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