Posted on by Krista Guenin

Wanna See More?

Thank you so much to everyone for the wonderful, humbling, and encouraging response to my images from Haiti! My great desire as a photographer is to impact people with my images. To think that these have done that, is just amazing! Special thanks to those of you who have been spreading the word – especially Bryn and Stephanie. It’s been especially cool to hear from so many parents who are adopting Haitian children – from HFC and all sorts of other organizations. You parents are an inspiration to me, and I have really been blessed by your comments and emails!!

So, for those of you who are interested, or who are personally connected to the kids at HFC, I thought I’d offer you a peek the other 2,000 images! You can view them here. Enjoy!!

Posted on by Krista Guenin · 8 Comments

Haiti

Ok, this is my last post on Haiti, and then I’ll have it all out of my system. Well, I may never really have Haiti out of my system, but at least I’ll stop blogging about it every day :) I just wanted to share with you some of my images from the rest of Haiti – outside the pension. The parts of Haiti that aren’t supported by foreign donations…

As I mentioned a couple posts ago, HFC is situated in a rough neighborhood – Bolosse. The school and the pension are closed off from the neighborhood with guarded gates.


Even the kids who live directly next door, only get to peer in from over the barbed wire. This kid’s house is actually above the fence, and I often found him looking over the wall watching the children playing. It made me sad. He can see these kids having fun, eating food, going to school – and he is kept at a distance. Maybe his family can’t afford to send him to the school? Who knows? But I wonder what goes on in this kid’s heart. Is he jealous? bitter? angry? Does he even care? Only God knows… but I know he watches these kids, a lot…


A few more scenes of the neighborhood, taken from inside the walls of the pension.



oh, I love how she’s standing. her stance is so full of attitude.


this. is. haiti.


We wanted to go for a walk around the neighborhood to get a better picture of what it’s like, but we had to wait until one of the men from the pension could escort us. (there’s a very real danger of kidnapping in Haiti). So, we walked up this hill, and at the top was a garbage dump, of sorts. It was also a soccer field where the local kids play… The garbage is everywhere though. Everywhere.

This kid was playing up there, riding his bike around the dump. And he did NOT like me taking his picture…


We also got to tour one of the high-schools nearby. The school is on the property of a seminary that is loosely affiliated with the pension. This was one of the few places we could walk freely. It was a beautiful campus.


We found some boys in an empty classroom singing and playing instruments. They were happy to let us sit down and listen as they rehearsed for graduation. They were such sweet guys and they drilled us with questions about the US, and how it might be possible for them to get there. For each of them, and for many people in Haiti, the dream is to get to America. That’s the only way they can see their life improving.



This school is also where the kids go for Sunday School before church. There are a bunch of other kids there, and a ton of people at the main church as well. It was cool going to church with them, but I did almost fall asleep ;) When you can’t understand creole, it’s a lot harder to pay attention! So, to stay awake, I took pictures of the cute kids…




But, there’s more to Port-au-Prince than just Bolosse! Here are a few shots from our travels around the city…

The President’s house. It was kind of crazy to see this in the middle of everything else…


local markets line many of the streets


And as I said, there’s garbage everywhere. One of the big problems with this is that when it rains areas can flood because drains are filled with garbage. But one of the reasons flooding in Haiti can be so horrible is because there isn’t good infrastructure to allow for drainage. There is just water everywhere, rushing in torrents down the street, and just everywhere. You can easily see why hurricanes that hit Haiti can be so devastating.


Yeah, this is a street we’re trying to drive on. It gives new meaning to the idea of a traffic jam.


And the lovely tap-taps. The tap-taps are like a cross between a taxi and a bus – but the guys who drive them go all-out to make them unique. Each one seems to have a different theme, and often the music blaring out of them will go along with the theme. It was totally entertaining, but I never did get to ride in one…


A view of Port-au-Prince from the hilltop in Bolosse. You can see the President’s mansion, and the football stadium, and the giant section of blue-ish concrete near the bottom is the cemetery – it’s enormous.


This kid approached our car as we were stopped at the light and asked us for money. This kills me when I’m traveling because I know I can’t give it to them without the car being mobbed, and so I can’t give it to them at all. I apologized, but he was a little annoyed with me…


And this is one of my favorite shots. It is exactly what I think of when I think of Port-au-Prince. Miles and miles of concrete dwellings squished together, taking over every inch of space. The reality that I didn’t get to see is that outside the city, where there’s fewer people living in such tight space, it’s very green and lush and beautiful. Maybe on my next trip to Haiti, I’ll get to experience more of that…


And this last shot is one I took on the plane as we left.


Thank you to Hope For The Children for bringing me down to see and experience Haiti and the work you’re doing there. I hope and pray that the images we captured will help you tell the story of your efforts, and of the children – and that God would use them to bless and increase your ministry.

Posted on by Krista Guenin · 5 Comments

HFC – The School

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I went to Haiti to document the work of Hope For The Children of Haiti. Their Mission is this: Hope for the Children of Haiti is called by God to give Haitian children, particularly orphans, the opportunity to become well rounded adults who are self sufficient in Christ. One of the keys to fulfilling this mission is giving these children a quality education. And so HFC has started a school that teaches not only the orphans who are part of the Pension, but many other local children as well. Here are some images from my time at the school…

When we first arrived at the school that morning, the kids were in the middle of recess, and were playing all over the place. And MAN do the they love the camera!!! I was instantly mobbed! Since I’m supposed to be documenting life at the school, I was getting a little frustrated because this was not a day in the life of the school – this was mob the photographer day :) But, come on, look at how cute they are! Who can stay frustrated for long?



Of course, not all the kids were interested…


Finally, recess was over and everyone went back to class.
This teacher was totally embarrassed that I was taking his picture (in fact, they all were), so I had to crouch outside the door and try to be incognito. Not too easy with my 80-200mm f/2.8 lens on, but it worked somehow :)


The girls taking rigorous notes on the Haitian Revolution


And one of the boys listening attentively


The little ones couldn’t concentrate that hard. Nor could they see very well. We happened to show up the week the generator died, and there was no power at all during the day. Many of the classrooms, like this one, didn’t have any windows and were almost pitch black. But, school continues…




These poor teachers! Every time I walked by the classroom, the kids went nuts trying to get me to take their picture. Kids were coming out into the hallway, getting out of their seats, and totally freaking out. It was a little funny, but the disciplinarian in me wanted to tell them to go sit back down and listen to their teachers! :)


A teacher going over homework in the light from the hallway since her classroom is windowless.


I love this shot of a teacher going through a book in class. There’s something about the way she’s holding the book and the pages that is just beautiful to me.


Lots of answering questions on the chalk board


even when there’s no light to read your work…



Thankfully, the generator has since been fixed the kids have light to read by again! Lack of power in Port-au-Prince and the cost of running a generator is one of the MANY reasons that HFC needs your support!! If you can, please think or pray about supporting this important ministry, so these kids can get a good education and grow up to be self-sufficient adults that make an impact on the future of Haiti!

Posted on by Krista Guenin · 1 Comment

Out of the country!

Well, it’s about 4 hours before I have to leave for the airport, and I still haven’t packed for my trip to Haiti! But, such is life :) It’ll all get done somehow, even if it means I don’t sleep – at least I’ll sleep on the plane that way. haha!

I’ll be in Haiti until late Monday night, June 2nd. Please pray for a good safe trip. Pray that I would stay healthy, and that this picky eater would be able to eat whatever is put in front of her ;), and pray for some awesome photographs that HFCH will be able to use to increase their ministry in Port-au-Prince!! Thanks for taking this journey with me. I can’t wait to come home and share some photos with all of you!

I will be without email & internet access until Monday (eek!), so if you don’t hear back from me, that’s why :) I’ll do my best to respond to all emails when I get back to work next Tuesday.

and because posts without photos are lame… here’s a shot from my very first missions trip to Mexico back in 2002…


Have a great week!!

Posted on by Krista Guenin · 2 Comments

Hope For The Children of Haiti

One of my portrait clients is on the board for an organization called Hope For the Children of Haiti. Well, they’re not just on the board – but they’ve adopted 3 teenage boys through the ministry! To say that Hope For the Children of Haiti is a big part of their lives would be quite an understatement.

A few weeks ago we started talking about the possibility of me going down to Port-Au-Prince to document the ministry’s orphanage & school – and of course, the kids. Well, yesterday we bought our tickets and it’s official! I am so excited about the opportunity to work with HFC, and for the chance to visit Haiti for the first time! I have many friends who have visited Haiti, and this orphanage in particular, so I’m really looking forward to seeing it with my own eyes, and bringing that back to all of you. I’ll be heading down there at the end of the month, so stay tuned for photos and stories from Port-Au-Prince this summer!!
Posted on by Krista Guenin · 17 Comments

My 30 Favs

In my mentoring sessions with Davina Fear, which were awesome by the way, we decided that it’s time for me to remake my website. Such a pity, since I never was able to get this one finished – but I think it’s time! My work and my goals have changed a lot over time, and I think that’s why I wasn’t able to get down to really making it happen. To help me with this whole process, Davina gave me an overwhelming homework assignment: choose my 30 favorite images of ALL TIME and choose one word to describe each image!! EEEK! I’m a bit indecisive when it comes to picking favorites (I don’t have a favorite movie, favorite song, or anything like that). But, I did it! So, I thought I’d share them with you!! And this time, I’m going to let them speak for themselves.


(the photo above was taken as an Associate for Real Life Weddings)



(the photo above was taken as an Associate for Grazier Photography)

























What I think is really cool is that of these photos 2 were taken in 2003, 1 in 2004, 3 in 2005, 3 in 2006, and 15 were taken in 2007! I mean, I knew that I’d grown a lot as a photographer in the last year, but that was really cool to see!

So, I won’t share my words with you – but I’d love to hear what YOUR favorites are, and what words come to your mind when you look at these photographs! Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think.

And be on the lookout – a new website is in the works…. yay!!!

Posted on by Krista Guenin · 2 Comments

Zimbabwe – A Day at The Rock Church

And now, back to our previously scheduled programming… Stories from Zimbabwe!!

My first Sunday in Zim, we went to The Rock Church outside Bulawayo near where we were staying. The Rock shares a building with many other groups in the community – it serves as a mosque, temple, church, meeting hall, etc. throughout the week.


A little girl listening intently to the message.


Some of the girls after the worship service.


After worshipping at The Rock, Pastor James took us around the community to meet some of the families that the church supports with the help of Forgotten Voices. This woman takes care of her 2 grandchildren, who’s parents have died.


this is the only “chair” in her house


This is her granddaughter. She was a bit shy, and couldn’t stop laughing at us crazy white people with our big cameras


This is her grandson. He can’t go to school because he can’t walk. So, he sits here all day. If you click on the image, you can look closely to see how damaged the skin on his knees is from crawling around on the dirt. He was incredibly sweet even though this picture makes him look like he’s got quite a bit of attitude!

The kids in front of their home


A neighbor


The next woman we visited was yet another Gogo taking care of her grandchildren.


She thought I was HILARIOUS and could not stop joking with me, laughing at me, posing for me, and just generally being her spunky ol’ self. I love her!!

This is her grandson. I think it’s pretty hilarious that the most popular TV show in Zimbabwe is big-time Wrestling. Everywhere we went, kids were talking about it, wearing t-shirts, had posters on their walls, or were watching it. How random is that??


He’s a handsome kid, huh?


Here the ladies busted out singing and dancing for us


they couldn’t do it too long before they started laughing uncontrolably!


After visiting some families, we went to see The State House – otherwise known as Pastor James’ new home which will be used as a refuge, meeting place, and temporary home for people in the church. Pastor James has been building this house all by himself – even making his own bricks until Forgotten Voices decided to chip in and pay for the construction and cement blocks. James is very proud of his new home, and can’t wait to open it up to the orphans in the community who need a home. He is literally, the nicest man I’ve ever met – and I am blessed to know him.

The State House under construction

Pastor James (center) with 2 other men from The Rock.

A neighbor who came to visit

The view from The State House


After all of that visiting, we were pretty tired, so we went back to the King’s home to rest. Some of us still had plenty of energy to play on the trampoline…

That afternoon, Warren wanted to take us for a drive to see the sunset from the highest point in the area, on his friend’s farm. Well, we got a late start, and ended up seeing the sunset from the road. But, it was still beautiful…


That’s it for our day at The Rock Church! I’ve got lots more stories to share, so stay tuned…

Posted on by Krista Guenin

Zimbabwe – Day 3, part 1

It’s been 2 months since I returned from Zimbabwe! I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone – it’s just insane what the holidays will do to you… Anyway, I’ve finished my first round edit of the entire 2-week shoot – and I’ve narrowed it down from almost 10,000 images to under 7,000. I wish I could share all of the pics with you, but, um, you’d probably get bored after the first 1,000 or so :) So, instead, I’m going to go back and finish telling you about my trip. I’ll pick up right where we left off, with Day 3…

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On day 3 we headed into Bulawayo to visit the Christian Leadership Resource Center. The CLRC is dedicated to equipping local pastors. They have a library of books & videos, AIDS education resources, computers (sometimes with internet connection), and a staff to assist. They even have a section where the general public can come to get information about AIDS/HIV. It’s a partnership of the Theological College of Zimbabwe, and supported in part by Forgotten Voices International. It’s an excellent resource for the church leaders in the area.

The Christian Leadership Resource Center


The Library


And this is just the cool address marker out front

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After we visited the CLRC, we stopped by the Bretheren In Christ Church offices downtown to visit Bishop Danisa Ndlovu. Ryan calls Danisa his Zimbabwean Father. This man is not only the Bishop of the BIC in Zimbabwe, but he’s also a devoted family man with a contagious smile and an awesome sense of humor. It was great to meet him and talk with him a bit about the BIC’s ministry throughout Southwest Zimbabwe.

Bishop Danisa Ndlovu


A map in the Bishop’s office marking 2 of the BIC missions South of Bulawayo – Matopos & Mtshabezi. We visited the Matopos Secondary School briefly on Day 8, on our way to spend a few days at the Mtshabezi mission. You’ll see tons of photos from Mtshabezi in upcoming posts…


This was an incredibly busy day, so check out the rest of the story in the next post…

Posted on by Krista Guenin · 6 Comments

Shelton, Margret & Concilia – Zimbabwe Day 10

Ok, Ok! So, I’m going out of order – so sue me! :) The truth is, I can’t go any further with this without telling you about Shelton, Margret & Concilia. When I think about my trip, I think about these 3 kids. When I pray for Zimbabwe, I think about these 3 kids. And when people ask me “how was your trip?” – I think about these 3 kids.

So, here’s the story…

When the team was in Mtshabezi, at the BICC Mission, we did quite a few home visits – meeting with many of the people who they work with at the BICC AIDS Project. This particular day was quite hot, long, and emotionally challenging. We met with 4 families that day, and attended one funeral (which I’ll share about another day). After the funeral, we went to one of the local primary schools, and picked up Shelton, Margret & Concilia so we could see their home and interview them. I have a hard time photographing and being a good listener, so I have to admit that I don’t have all of the details on these kids – but that’s what video’s for! Hopefully my team can fill in some of the gaps (or correct my mistakes)

Shelton (8) & Margret (10) are brother & sister, and Concilia (11?) is their cousin. The three of them live in the home they used to share with their mothers, who were sisters. And they live alone. Shelton, as the “man” of the family, is the child head of household. Their Grandmother lives nearby, but they actually live alone. I think that both of their mothers died of AIDS, and now the BICC AIDS Project helps them by paying their school fees, providing some food when possible, and sending them to pscyho-social support camps during school breaks. The AIDS Project is supported, in part, by Forgotten Voices and is making a huge difference in the lives of these kids, and 1700 others in the area.

This is their homestead, which includes a kitchen (on the right) and a small bedroom (left) and no bathroom or other sheltered space.

The girls leading us onto the property.

This is their kitchen. Notice that there are no chairs, no tables, and gaping holes in their roof. Please also note that it is now RAINY SEASON in Zimbabwe…

This is absolutely the thing I think about most when I think about these kids. See that bowl of greens in the photo below? Those are weeds they’ve gathered from the bush surrounding their home. That’s all that they eat when they’re at home. Thankfully, their school is able to provide 1 meal per day because their school is supported by a project through World Vision. The meals at school don’t include meat, and this is all they have outside of school. This is what I’m thinking about while I’m eating my dinner, and when I see food being thrown into the garbage. And this is what makes me think that while we’re doing a lot to help these kids, we aren’t doing enough yet.


We interviewed them in the kitchen and asked them all sorts of questions about their life and about what they want for their future. I can’t for the life of me remember what they each said they wanted to be when they grow up – but maybe one of my team mates can leave a comment below letting us know? I was so distracted by that bowl of weeds that it was all I could do to keep taking photos and not start bawling – so apparently I didn’t listen to the whole interview.


After the interview, we were also able to pray for the children, and then take a tour of their homestead.

This is the room that they share – which has a leaky roof as well. The girls sleep with Shelton in the middle (on a pile of blankets on the floor), and the oldest sleeps closest to the door. You can see how much they protect and take care of each other.


And this is their garden.

With very little rain so far this year, and seeds hard to come by, you can see that not much is growing in here.


Near the garden, just outside the fence of the homestead are 2 graves. The kids’ mothers are buried here.


But, these kids are still just normal kids. Laughing, playing…

The girls thought it was HILARIOUS when Obert (who works on the AIDS Project, and who you’ll hear much more about in another post) tried jumping rope too.


But these kids don’t just get to laugh, and play, and do homework and have fun – like most kids in America. These kids have to take care of one another, take care of their home, do all of the chores, gather food, collect seed pods to use as candles, bathe themselves, wake up on time, walk 2 hours to get to school each day, and know that their parents are gone.




My heart aches for these kids, and I pray for them every day. Would you join me in praying for them as well?

Posted on by Krista Guenin · 1 Comment

Zimbabwe, Day 2

On Day 2 in Africa, Adam & I arrived in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. We were both a bit nervous about going through security & customs with all of our gear. The Zimbabwean government doesn’t like journalists very much, and we were just praying that they wouldn’t think we were journalists. Praise God, we made it through without any trouble!! Ryan & Trevor met us outside customs and welcomed us to Zimbabwe. It was nice to finally arrive at our destination after 40+ hours of traveling! Ryan & Trevor had been in Zambia checking out some potential new projects, and had just driven to Zimbabwe the night before – so they were pretty excited to be there as well.

Ryan drove us into Bulawayo and explained that we couldn’t photograph any government buildings and should be careful not to let anyone see our cameras. Anyone in the CIO (Zim’s version of our CIA) could be on the streets in plain clothes, and would probably assume that we were journalists. So, for the most part, I kept my camera down and I never really got many shots of the city :(

Our first stop was at a friend’s place, where we gassed up the car and exchanged some money. Check out this fat wad of cash he gave us!! Don’t get too excited – that 50,000,000 Zim dollars only equates to $50 US! It was just crazy carrying around that much cash – even though their largest bill ($200,000) is only worth about 20 cents! Zim is currently at something like 13,000% inflation! It’s just nuts!



After a quick lunch, we headed to the Theological College of Zimbabwe (TCZ – or TCZed as it’s called in Zim). TCZ’s Hilltop Campus is located in an old hotel and includes housing for some of the students. It’s a very cool facility, and the college and its graduates are the core of Forgotten Voices’ work on the ground in Zim.


Ryan had a meeting with the president of TCZ, Victor Naka and John Stomboli. So, Adam & I got straight to work, filming and photographing everything that was going on. They talked for a while, and then took us on a tour of the campus. Out back behind the housing, they’ve begun a garden based on the principles of Farming God’s Way. FGW was started by a man named Pierre (who you’ll see later in the trip), and is an amazing farming technique that produces an insane amount of food in a small space. It’s TCZ’s goal to teach their students Farming God’s Way so they can take it back to their churches and communities. The gardens can then be used to feed families, and even make money on crop sales. It’s a geniusy plan, if you ask me.

Adam at work:
Victor Naka:
Ryan, Trevor, and John touring the Farming God’s Way plot (check out the sweet light and the crazy sky – it was gorgeous!!)
After our visit to TCZ, Ryan took us “home.” We stayed at his friend Warren King’s home outside Bulawayo. We like to call it the “King Compound” since Warren’s parents and siblings also have homes on the property. It is a gorgeous place (more pics later) and was a welcoming and warm home base for us while we were in town. The Kings were still in South Africa when we arrived, but their housekeeper, Miriam made us feel very welcome and made us a delicious dinner. That night, we were able to relax, charge batteries, rest and even have a bit of fun. It was a good first day in Zimbabwe.

Here’s a shot of Ryan playing in the King’s backyard…