Calheta de São Miguel, Cape Verde - The birthday party (cont.) - the afternoon of the 16th of September 2012

(...)

Images are sometimes worth a thousand words and I feel the ones taken at this party are such a case. The children sang, ate, danced, laughed and did all the things they were supposed to at a party especially organised for them.

Marcio, Marquinho ans Edeson (from left to right)

Nolita (left) and Delmizia (right)

Eveline (left) and Josefine and Jussara (right)

Cynthia, Mena, Ana Galina and Eneida (from left to right).

 

Jocelyne (left) and Melissa (right).

Claudina (left) and Jussara (right).

 

Diva (left) and Josseanne (right).

Juliza, Ana Galina, Elcy and Delmizia (from left to right).

Amidst the joy and contagious laughter two young ladies seemed  to be distant and although one (Ineida) who was in mourning clothes and later spoke to me of the difficulty she had to conciliate the joy she was feeling being at the party and the pain she was going through because of the recent death of a grandparent, the other one (Artemisa) didn't utter a word and I didn't manage to find out what was wrong, though it was clear she was not happy and was certainly going though a difficult moment. I felt sad for not having been able to break through her silence and pain.

Ineida (second from the left).

Artemisa (on the right).

Justina, on he other hand, despite the miserable" and difficult life she has to endure always takes advantage of the little moments of "freedom" and joy she is allowed to have. She danced right to the last second and never did I see her not smiling or "enjoying" herself, as if she hadn't the slightest worry ...

Justina

(to be continued)

Calheta de São Miguel, Cape Verde - the birthday party - the afternoon of the 16th of September 2012

We organised a second birthday party for the children of Calheta, whose birth dates were from May through to September. This time we had a group of 26 children (Ineida, Juliza, Claudina, Melissa, Jussara, Mena, Justina, Nolita, Marcio, Marquinho, Elcy, Diva, Rosana, Artemisa, Josefina, Cynthia, Edeson, Josseanne, Delmizia, Jocelyne, Erica, Ana Galina, Eviline, Evilise, Eveline and Veronica Conceição), who started  showing up at the pension, where the party was going to be held, by midday.

Some children came around with their mothers, so as to collect the money for the school. I still had time to film a few, but not all, as we had to try to start the party on time. Most children (not to say all of the children) were wearing the new dresses or outfits which had been handed to them before and they all looked beautiful.

Nolita and her sister Maria de Jesus came around with their mother, who was handed out the photos, as well as the money sent by Filipa and Maria Felicidade respectively. Maria de Jesus was at the previous birthday party but Nolita would be at this one.

 

Nolita (left) and Maria de Jesus (right).

Similar situation happened to the sisters Eunice de Jesus and Claudina, who came around with an aunt, as Eunice had been to the previous party, whilst Claudina would be attending that one. Claudina also got a birthday present and card. The money sent by Henriqueta and Mafalda (respectively) was handed to their aunt.

 

Eunice de Jesus (left)  and Claudina (right) with their aunt.

Josefine also came around with her aunt to collect the money sent by Cecilia and stayed at the party , as she belonged to the group of those who would be celebrating their birthdays.

Josefine with her aunt.

Erica and Justina walked in together and if the first had been entitled to some extra presents sent by Noëlle the previous night, so did  Justina, having got some extra T-shirts and a photo album sent by Isabel.

Erica (left) and Justina (right).

Just before the party was due to start I noticed one girl  (Artemisa) was missing, so I had someone walk quite a long distance to go and search for her.

They all seemed excited and so were we. We at least expected the party to correspond to what we had envisaged it would be. I filmed the party and in between tried to photograph them "capturing" their facial expressions.

The boys seemed a lot more sparse in regards to expressing their feelings  and I don't believe it only had to do with the fact they were outnumbered by the girls.

 Edeson (left) and Marcio (right)

 

 Evilise (left) and Veronica Conceição (right).

 

Eveline (left) and Jussara (right).

 

Diva (left) and Jocelyne (right).

Elcy (left) and Claudina (right).

 

Melissa (left) and Josefine (right).

Erica (left) and Rosana (right).

Ineida (left) and Mena (right).

 

Cynthia (left) and Ana Galina (right).

Justina

(to be continued)