Lala

Lala was a little girl I met while working in Haiti. She was an orphan living in my friend’s home, and when I asked if I could take a picture he said no, she is ugly. I protested and took the picture anyway. I didn’t realize until months later that this Haitian leader who was fostering this child placed a very high value, as people there do, on children being clean and well dressed, so when he called her ugly, he was referring to her torn dress and dust. I tried to demonstrate this child’s beauty, and her bright spirit, in contrast to the interior of the mud house and the baskets. It was meant to show hope rising out of the darkness. I met so many bright spirits and beautiful souls during the time I worked there, triumphant despite their incredible poverty.