Travel & Humanitarian Photos
Just to confuse you, I’m currently in Nepal but posting pictures from Malaysia. Confuse you! Who am I kidding? My camera is set to local Bangkok time, my laptop still thinks it’s in Kuala Lumpur and my trusty GPS device is telling me that it’s in a village somewhere outside Kathmandu. Fancy synchronising the metadata on all of those? No, me neither.
These four pictures were taken in Kuala Lumpur whilst working for the Malaysian AIDS Council. Matt Brandon is working on the same project and has posted some excellent shots with a touching description of the important work that MAC are doing in Malaysia.
This project involves six photographers, each photographing somebody who is living with AIDS or HIV. The person I photographed was a young professional man. Originally shocked and depressed to learn that he had contracted HIV, he explained that he quickly came to appreciate the value of his life and told me how it has prompted him to make the most of the opportunities he has. He’s more spiritual now, makes more time for things that please him; music and books; spends more time with family and close friends. It was, rather suprisingly, an uplifting story. Of course, the only difference between that young man and the rest of us is that his sense of his own mortality has been sharpened by the knowledge of his illness. I left him feeling that we could all benefit from having that sense sharpened occasionally – if only to remind us to focus on the important stuff.
That kind of sombre talk might make you want to turn to religion. Well, I’m here to help. Before visiting that young man, the friendly MAC people and I spent a short time seeing some of the local religious buildings. Four major religions in two hours. It was interesting noting the differences between the mosque, church, gurudwara and vihara but more interesting to note the similarities. Each was very peaceful, very contemplative and very meditative. Each had large, open spaces and a cool, airy atmosphere which made it inviting. Whether or not you have strong religious beliefs, I think you would find some benefit in spending some quiet time in any of these buildings.
