Shoot 4 Change

This past week Yelena and Rodney from Brooklyn were here visiting EO for just a week.  Yelena is a friend of Lee's and has been here before.  First time for Rodney.  Yelena is a professional photographer and when she travels spends part of her time taking photos of local families living in the place she is visiting.  She does this for a nonprofit organization named Shoot 4 Change.  Other photographers are encouraged to join her in the pursuit of the perfect shot.  Once all the photos are taken, the best will be chosen and then prints are made and given to the families at no charge.  The photos are then posted on a web site which features families and people from all over the world.  I was invited to join up with her and Rodney and get what we could here in Esterillos.

Anyone who knows me, knows photographer is one of my passions.  To be able to go around Esterillos, have Rodney explain in spanish to the families the purpose of the photo shoot made them comfortable and happy to participate.  In fact, the acceptance was above and beyond what I expected.

The tico families that live here in Esterillos do not have very much according to north american standards, but to them, they have everything they could want - FAMILY.  This 2 day experience in my own little town, was by far 2 of the very best days EVER.  All these people knew me by name, all of them were kind and gracious.  After all these years, my spanish is still horrible - but, these people love and except me anyway.  I cannot fully explain how grateful I am, how fortunate I am to live in this amazing, beautiful place called Esterillos Oeste.
As you can imagine - I took a lot of photos.  These are a few of the favorites :)

Pura Vida