The Parrot

In June of 2007, I traveled to Guatemala to do some work with Habitat for Humanity's Global village program. I had ended my common-law marriage of 9 years the previous winter and felt that, since things had kind of fallen apart, it would be good to 'build' again - literally and figuratively. People in North America, I think, can tend to hole themselves up when a drastic life change or potentially depressing event happens in their lives and I didn't want to start feeling sorry for myself at 40, still childless after a long infertility struggle with my ex and suddenly single again. I decided I would go somewhere that would remind me how blessed my life actually is and how very lucky I am. The experience taught me a lot. You go down there thinking, "I can help these people, make a difference." And what ends up happening instead is that they help you. And what a difference this trip made to my life! The people of Guatemala were gracious and warm with wondrous senses of humour. Yes, they had hardship and I wouldn't want to romanticize their poverty in any way. They worked long and strenuous hours and lived in very poor conditions. But they also made the most of what they had and found ways to eke out their own small sources of pleasure to access Joy. This photograph is one example.

While my team were on a rural construction site outside San Marcos, a mountainous region in the West not generally visited by tourists, many of the local children would come to the site to watch us. This girl's name was Lesbia and she brought her parrot one day to the site. This photograph is one I am particularly proud of, especially as I'm strictly an amateur at this game. Animals are so unpredictable and they're very difficult to photograph. They move suddenly and often can end up a blur in an otherwise great shot. I was talking to Lesbia here and asked her if I could take her picture. She was thrilled to have herself and her parrot the subject of a photo. The timing was uncanny because just as I set up the shot, her parrot turned to look at me and the sun came out from behind a cloud and lit them both up. You just don't get the opportunity for a shot like this every day and I admit it was a fluke the way the parrot suddenly turned to look right into the camera as I took it. I'm sure any photographer will tell you that, where photographing animals is concerned, sometimes luck supersedes pure skill (which I don't pretend to have plenty of either). Lucky is how I felt - to have visited this beautiful country and met its amazingly kind and generous people. Generous of heart. Generous of soul. I tried to capture a bit of that in this girl's eyes. I think it worked!