Spectacles

Pictured above is a little photo shoot we had with some of our kids last Easter. It all started when Aristead (top left) pulled out the sunglasses and struck a great pose. It evolved into a wonderful time of laughter. I loved sharing these moments with my Burkina family, and today I am so grateful I get to share special moments with my family here as we celebrate Easter.

Easter Sunday was not our only glasses photo shoot. One afternoon as we sat under the hangar I got some shots of the boys in the other glasses. The story behind the other glasses remains slightly more complex.

For a while I thought they were someone's reading glasses but eventually I found out they were prescription-less and no one seemed to know where they came from.

Some evenings one of the boys would push the glasses up on his nose, pull out a book and study. Other nights the glasses would travel from face to face multiple times. Often, I wouldn't see the glasses for several weeks and then all of a sudden one of the boys would appear with the specs and a studious look in his eye, or a giant smile. I grew to love the glasses in a silly way partly because the kids enjoyed them so much. Mostly my love for the glasses stemmed from the fact that they were a thing that the children had together: the glasses were a small bond they’d created themselves in the most brother-like of fashions.