Wed 2/25 @ 5PM
The Making Waves opening reception with photojournalist Laura Watilo Blake, and Drink Local. Drink Tap. Executive Director and Founder Erin Huber is Wednesday, February 25, 2015 from 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM at the Western Reserve Land Conservancy’s Conservation Center. The exhibition will feature images, plus a twenty minute documentary film from two consecutive trips to Uganda in 2011 and 2012. Laura traveled with Erin and her Cleveland non-profit organization Drink Local. Drink Tap.
The emphasis for the trip was that Drink Local. Drink Tap. was building a borehole for a school in a very rural village two hours north of Kampala. During this time, Laura and another filmmaker shot the documentary (Making Waves) to showcase how life was before the borehole was built and how life changed after it was built.
In the process of capturing the story, filmmakers documented what the daily routine of the natives was like in their pursuit to fetch water. Sometimes it was 2 miles to get water. However, if the water sources had dried up, it would be much longer. The construction of the borehole had an immediate impact on the children. They didn’t have to go 2 or 3 miles to carry huge and very heavy 5 gallon containers of water, weighing approximately 40 pounds, back to the homes and back to the schools. Instead, they could access the tap of water close by.
“A lot of the pictures in the exhibit are of kids going to get water,” Laura explains. “Mostly it’s children that go for water throughout the country, because this is the chore of the children. Yes, there’s a physical toll that this can take, but there’s also the time lost when the kids can be studying. Sometimes they can be late to school or even miss school if a watering hole dries up and they have to travel further to fetch the water.
“I really wanted to be able to convey to people here what somebody’s day-to-day life in Uganda is like. I mean, I covered everything…everything that water touches: cooking, washing clothes, doing dishes, doing laundry. Everything there takes a lot longer, but there’s always water. Water is necessary for living and yet they’re working with just 5 gallons of it a day. We can go through gallons upon gallons just in our morning shower,” she says.
Thousands of miles away from Kampala, it’s easy for us to forget that the majority of the world doesn’t have the access to water like we do in the Great Lakes region.
“We’re really lucky, especially here in the Great Lakes region because we have this grand resource right next to us…plus we have piping and modern facilities,” states Laura. She continues, “That’s lovely, but I would venture to say that the majority of the world does not have this luxury at all. We can just walk over to the faucet and get a drink of water from the tap without even thinking about it. Erin always tells me that water is life. It’s so important.”
A big misunderstanding that many of us have is that Uganda is not water-rich and that’s why there’s a water shortage in Uganda. That’s not exactly it. What we may not know is that Uganda is on a huge lake, Lake Victoria. This area has what’s called the “Great Lakes” of Africa and yet so few people have access to water.
“You go 10 miles away and you don’t have the same access to that huge body of water,” Laura states. She shares, “It’s just amazing to me that the governments haven’t put efforts in to bring water to the people. There’s water under the surface in the water table. It’s just that people don’t have the money to be able to access it, which is why you see a lot of non-profits and and NGO’s (non-governmental organization) coming in to offer their assistance to be able to access it.”
Laura is a freelance photographer and writer that works for a lot of publications around Cleveland. She has been focusing, traveling and writing stories all around Lake Erie for years.
“These publications have always documented the happier side of a water-living lifestyle,” says Laura. “This is very different in a way. We also have all the problems on the Lake Erie, like the algae bloom last summer. Yes, there’s things happening in a far away countries, but there’s so many problems here in the U.S., even here on Lake Erie. I’m not an environmentalist by any stretch, but I do believe water is important for us to continue to live life as we know it. It’d be nice if people would pay attention as to what is going on right in their backyard, too. I do this work because it means a lot to me to help out Erin and Drink Local. Drink Tap.”
So what does Laura hope people take away from this exhibit? She answers, “The goal for any photographer is to move people, but beyond that it’s just to make people think about how we use water. You look at a photo and you see someone carrying a huge, heavy jerrican (container) full of water and maybe you feel sorry for them, but that’s not the aim. I just want you to see what their lives are like and how it compares to yours, and think about things from there…and perhaps help make change. I would hope that someone would feel inspired to travel to these places and see them for themselves. That’s always been one of my goals, but this has a deeper meaning. Now it’s traveling to help people in their everyday lives by giving them things that they’ve never had before that can make their life better.”
This show is for everyone across the board. All ages are welcome. “Ideally, adults and children and anyone else can come out and look at these photos. Bring ’em all!” gushes Laura.
The exhibit will run through March 31st at the Western Reserve Land Conservancy’s Conservation Center. If you miss the opening reception, guests can also view the show from 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. The Western Reserve Land Conservancy is partnering with Drink Local. Drink Tap. and Laura Watilo Blake of Elbee Studio to kick off their celebration of Sustainable Cleveland’s 2019 Year of Clean Water.
Western Reserve Land Conservancy
Moreland Hills, OH 44022