Rural Karatu

The landscape of colour, struggle and hope. That sums
up the rural areas of Karatu. I fell in love!
Please note, their rainy season just ended when we arrived, by the end
of our 16 day adventure the roads were dusty, the leaves turning brown
and the colour of lush quickly turning to what seemed to me depressing.

Women always carrying their babies while working
gathering firewood, hoeing their fields, and collecting water.
I kept thinking how different my life was, with two
little ones at home. Water from a tap, heat from our furnace,
fields for food - that was our local grocery store.

Rainy season just ended so my guess is her shoe is along the road. While running to school, after collecting firewood and water. Most schools will strap or hit the children for being late. Girls are responsible for water and firewood in the morning before they can go to school.

We visited Agrafina Sikay's farm and were introduced to her goats;
Agrafina is part of CPAR's Farmer Field School. CPAR targets women
who are unattached to men and provides them with goats or pigs.
The women then breed the goats and pigs, pass one goat onto another independent
woman and then are free to use the meat and milk to provide for their families and community,
as well as sell the surplus at the market. My family purchased a goat over the Christmas holidays,
it felt great to see this small gift have such an impact.

I photographed these women above and after they quickly
came over to me to see their photos on my camera.
They were like school girls, giggling with joy over
seeing themselves.

This little girl was very interested in us.
At first she played shy but kept getting closer
and closer. Her breathing wasn't right.
Closest hospital would be about an hour drive
from her home. Rural families rarely have
vehicles. To take her to a doctor they would
reply on carrying her or a pedal bike. If they were
lucky - maybe a motorcycle would be in the village
about half an hour away. They are very remote.