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The school is nearly done!

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Someone recently saw a photo of masons working on the school The Friends Project helped raise funds for in Las Minitas, Nicaragua. They said, “Wow, you’re really moving. You’re no joke.”

That’s right, The Friends Project doesn’t mess around!

We started fundraising in late August with other volunteers, including an elementary school principal and SUNY Geneseo students, and started the first foundation hole digging Dec. 1.

Masons just laid the tile floor this week.

By Feb. 10, we will have a community celebration and the kids in Las Minitas will be the first ever of their community to go to their own dedicated school, ensuring they have all the opportunity to complete an elementary education.

A second look

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

I always encourage my beginning photojournalism students to never delete or otherwise throw away their images because often the images you are positive are amazing images when you take them don’t turn out to be so. And sometimes,  the photos you dismiss on first glance are the ones you like or speak the loudest.

This gentleman came up on me fast while I was walking in El Sauce, and I took two photos before he had passed. It was quick, and I dismissed the image. Many times. In the end, it is one of my most popular photographs.

On my second, fourth or seventh look, I noticed how it conveys the pace, the environment and occupations in a very specific, exotic place. The teenage girls giggling and being teens in the doorway could be anywhere — they are like every teenage girl, everywhere.

Now, I love this photo.

Second looks. Always worth it, in photos and life.

Daily commute, El Sauce, Nicaragua. Photo by Kris Dreessen

The view from on high

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Sunset at the Ranchon on the mountain top in El Sauce, Nicaragua, where the Los Altos de Ocotal eco-tourism cooperative members welcome visitors to their farms and way of life, which is a step back into “old world” ways… cooking over fires, mashing corn and hand-patting tortillas at meals, oil lamp and growing and harvesting simple crops with a mind to eco-friendly practices.

You can see San Cristobal, the volcano, here too. So beautiful.