Peeing in Kapiri- Blog Post #4 (EA)


This is a picture I took during our Peace Corps outpost in Kapiri next to the pit latrine. This long weekend was surprisingly one of my favorite parts of the summer.
I was born in a large city to Nigerian immigrants, so camping and the outdoors were not things I grew up with. Because of this, I was a little hesitant about spending a long weekend in a more underdeveloped part of Zambia, especially because this involved doing my business outside.
I had been considering Peace Corps for some time, so being able to learn more about what the position entails was amazing. However, more than this I went outside my comfort zone to do things like sleep in a tent, kill a chicken, and even comfortably use the pit latrine I dreaded just days before. I think this picture captures the richness of my time in Zambia so far because it exemplifies how I have found joy and happiness in unexpected places.
During the more structured parts of the weekend, my cohort and I were able to assist in teaching middle schoolers about HIV as well as learn about the different programs that our Peace Corps volunteer, Nate, works on. We spoke to Nate about the ethical dilemmas that occur when working with vulnerable populations like these and it was especially eye opening. I realized that his dilemmas mirrored much of what we talked about concerning ethical photography in the pre-departure seminar.
Honestly, I hadn’t really thought about ethical photography until the Peace Corps trip. I have been working on a series of vlogs and photo slide shows this summer, but in Lusaka I don’t really have to think that much about ethical photography. The photos and videos mostly consist of the members of the cohort who are okay with the vlogs. However, in Kapiri there were many kids outside of our cohort that I could’ve taken photos of who wouldn’t know where those images ended up. This was especially hard because there were many moments I knew would be considered “cute” (like all the kids running up to Andrew and Alex). However, I recognized how problematic those images can be.
I was very intentional about the photos I took in Kapiri and tried to focus more on the Cornellians there. Ethical photography can be a very difficult consideration to implement especially when I am having a great time in the different places I am visiting. Although I will probably mess up, I will continue to try and use the ethical considerations I’ve learned to properly capture the rest of my time here in Zambia.

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