January 30th, 2008
I have a very dear friend named Sean who is in Eastern Congo right now meeting with Rebels leaders and Child Soldiers. He is braving some of the scariest known areas in all of Africa right now to find answers to so many of our questions.
You can read about these here:
http://www.seancarasso.com.
… Eastern Congo is a place we all need to focus our attention on and pray for….
January 29th, 2008
In the Congo – Continued fighting has added to a humanitarian catastrophe that has caused more deaths — 5.4 million since 1998 — than any other conflict since World War Two, relief experts say. read more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080129/wl_nm/congo_democratic_ceasefire_dc;_ylt=AuJuCRBUwII6ewGfzXs0zNG96Q8F
January 25th, 2008
I’m currently out in Los Angeles shooting the Passion Conference.
Lots of good music and teachings.
You can find out more at : http://www.286generation.com
It’s so exciting to see so many young people geared up to change the world. It makes my heart soar!!!!
-esther
January 20th, 2008
A woman in a clinic on the outskirts of Kinshasa delivers baby Josh – a healthy baby boy. This clinic, with hardly any medical supplies, treats over 44 patients daily and delivers close to 100 babies per month. The clinic will get so packed that new mothers have to share a twin bed and sleep next to each other with their newborns. The area surrounding is very poor and many of the children will grow up on only get two meals per week. They are extremely malnourished causing their bellies to pop out and their hair to discolor.
January 19th, 2008
We are all home safely now. I will continue posting more stories, videos and photographs in the coming days.Thanks to you all for your many Prayers !Drew, Esther and Josh www.banding-together.org
January 19th, 2008
after 42 hours of travel. I am finally back home safely in my house. It is so strange to be back in this land so far from what I was touched by in the Congo. I can’t wait to go back very very soon. I will keep you updated on that venture as it nears. For now, I must catch up on my sleep and jump back on the bandwagon here in America. I have many stories to edit and get to all of you. This time it will be video/photography media stories to share with you. I can’t wait to get out their voices! so you can hear straight from them.-Esther
January 16th, 2008
Congo Day 7 Today was by far my favorite photographic days. We went back to the rural area of Kinshasa and visited the clinic, where Drew gifted them with medical supplies and helped feed the children. They serve two meals per week right now, but are hoping to increase that in the coming months, hopefully with the help of banding together.Tomorrow I fly back to Paris and then the States. I am not ready at all at this point to come back. I am enjoying my time here so incredible much. There is so much work that needs to be done. There is so much that we can do!!! As crazy as it is.. we did get some soldiers to pose a photo with us and they didn’t steal my camera. ;-) 
January 15th, 2008
Congo day 6
Today we went to a clinic outside the city of Kinshasa in a more rural area. People began to look more and more poverty stricken as we started 4 wheeling off the main road. We pulled up to an old white clinic that Banding Together will be helping in the future with medical supplies and Aids education. They serve the community children two meals per week and attend about 44 patients daily. I went into the maternity ward first and met three women. I asked to hold the first madame’s baby and she placed the 2 day old child in my shaky arms. I then proceeded to ask her the wee little ones name. She first asked my name and then said the baby’s name is now “Esther”…. wow, i must say, i’ve never had a child named after me. Also, there were two other women in the clinic with two boys who named their babies after Drew and Josh, but they couldn’t say Josh’s name right, the child is now named George. I really enjoyed this place, because it is the first that i’ve been to that the people weren’t afraid of the camera. I snapped away as I met the local people, played with the kids and tried to say a few things in french. Tomorrow Josh is heading back to Kenya, where he will fly back to the States. Drew and I are headed back to the Clinic tomorrow to help prepare a meal feed the community children. I can’t wait for this !! Africa has really grown on my heart. It is a place that I will long to come back to. The below photographs are in Mpasa and the bottom photo is Esther and Esther. ;-)
January 15th, 2008
Day 5 Congo
This morning, I was running late and had the luxury of breakfast, practically in bed.. Thanks to Josh.
We had several meetings set up today with the people who invited us to this country. The first man, was a bishop and also a member of the Senate here. He was very kind, gentle man who asked me if i was a madame or a mademoiselle. I replied,”Je ne suis pas mariee”. They all laughed. My french is starting to come back roughly at times. I have decided i’m going to study it a lot more when I get back to the states. It is such a beautiful language that is useful in many countries around the world.
Our next venture was suppose to be shooting downtown with a our own police escort, but we have decided it was best not to do that. People here do not want to be photographed in public. The best bet for good images seems to be from a car or in the privacy of homes.
We instead decided to visit a government orphanage on the outskirts of the city. We pull up to a semi-nice looking place that housed 110 children. Several of them were outside screaming ( mondelli ) which means white man. Drew sat in the office and had a meeting, while Josh and I, video recorded and photographed the kids. They were having meal time, which was some type of maiz. You could tell that the orphanage had no education on nutrients, because the children all had blown up stomachs from malnutrition. Rice is not good enough for them.. they need real food.
We have some very good friends that have been helping banding-together since they started working in this country. They made us a beautiful dinner the other night and we wanted to give back to them by making a good ole’ American Meal. They do have a nice store in this city where we found a handful of American food, but the prices are insane. A bottle of Cola cost about $6 USD a small frozen pizza cost roughly $15 USD, I think because most of it is imported. We decided on spaghetti, salad and garlic bread. I think they enjoyed our meal… or at least they smiled and said they did.
Tomorrow, we go outside of Kinshasa to a rural, poverty area to bring medical supplied to the local clinic.
-Esther
January 15th, 2008
day 4 congo
Third world countries are becoming more and more familiar to me. I want to still see it from an outsiders eyes, but i think i’m adjusting with being out of the USA so much lately. I remember the first time i arrived in India, I was in awe to my surroundings every place my eyes looked. Now here in Congo, I feel like i could be missing things because they seem so normal to me and to those who have never been here would be fascinating. I was talking with a friend today who was raised in South America. He said the first time he set foot in Walmart in the USA, he was blown away, but now it hardly has an affect. The things we take for granted in our clean country is shocking. We have so much, yet we all complain about being poor or not having enough. The truth is, will we ever have enough ?
My favorite part of coming home from a trip is the soaking in the luxury of Hot showers, electricity you can rely on all the time and the precious clean air we have in every city of America. Compared to the rest of the world that i’ve seen, we breathe in the best stuff.
I am smacking the mosquitoes as I am writing this to you. It is something you have to be very concerned about on this continent. Malaria is a very, scary and dangerous sickness that strikes with the bite of a mosquito. When i visited the dr’s clinic a few days ago, there were several malaria patients in the hospital rooms, hooked to IV’s.
As he told me, it is what most people come to him sick with.
Church on Sunday, was glorious. We visited a United Methodist Church that is right next to our hostel. The whole service was in english, along with the beautiful music. I recorded some of the african songs they sang and will post them when i get some time. After Church, we were invited by the dr. we met a few days ago, to eat lunch at his house. He lives on a street in Kinshasa that is named after him.
After a delicious meal in his Air Conditioned home, we went to see some communities and touch the Congo River. I asked him about the Tiger Fish really lived in the Congo River. A few weeks prior to my trip here i had googled the congo river and found photographs of this Giant Fish caught with Razor sharp Tiger teeth. It looked unreal. He confirmed what google had shown me.;-)
I am getting more use to the use of my camera here and learning when to hide it. Anytime you see any uniforms or approach an intersection, I dodge to conceal it.
-Esther
