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Photo credit: Joanna Tomaszewski
How does a photo capture personality and narrative?

Photo credit to Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Photo Credit: Melissa Sobin | Mbale, Uganda

Laughter

This woman is Niero.  Niero means laughter in dhopadhola, the language of the Adhola tribe of Uganda.  There couldn’t be a name more fitting for this woman – she radiates positivity and exudes joy.  I remember her as the first face I saw when we – the outsiders, the strangers, the North Americans – emerged from a dusty, worn down van after a 6-hour drive from the airport.  She welcomed all 19 of us with huge hugs, singing, and vibrant ululating.  Niero is an empowered African woman: she is a liaison between her women’s group and the UORDP (Uganda Orphan’s Rural Development Program), she is a role model in the community, and she is a beam of light.  And she is HIV positive.

Niero, who tested positive for HIV in 1995, partnered with the UORDP to jumpstart Positively HIV, one of the first organized unions of HIV positive individuals with a mission of supporting one another while educating the broader community about the dangers and realities of HIV/AIDS.  One of their most effective strategies for raising awareness in the countryside is through short dramatic plays about life in a family that has been affected by the illness.  The members of the club treated us to one such performance, demonstrating the emotional impact this disease has on a community.  Here, Niero is playing the role of a happy mother, before the illness besets and eventually kills her husband.  Dozens of community members gathered to witness their performance.  While we North Americans watched the dramatic “death” of the ill father with solemn tears brimming in our eyes, the Ugandans laughed at this scene until they cried.  This was mind-boggling to me: how could something so depressing and distressing to us seem like such pure hilarious entertainment to them?  Why did we cry at death while they laughed at it?  Perhaps they were laughing at their friends acting dramatic roles, or perhaps there was something cultural, something deeper, that we missed.  I wish I had asked what was so funny.