As I write this Ashley and I are currently in Mdumbi, Eastern Cape, South Africa. We are volunteering our services to TransCape, an organization which helps the Mdumbi Community with Education, Health and Livelihood issues. It’s been three weeks of our four week stay and we have loved it. Of course it has come with high and lows. But living in a mud hut, collecting water, managing food and electricity (when it works) has slowed us down and really appreciate what we have in our lives.
Four years ago, we visited the Mdumbi Backpackers as guests, after 4 days we both agreed it would be ideal to return for a longer stay and possible help with the community which is in desperate need. It really feels like the country has forgotten about this land and it’s people.
Being South African, I grew up in a suburb, in Cape Town, I thought I knew a lot about the Xhosa life. Since I have been here I have learnt more in the past few weeks that any amount of time at high school. Community living where everything is shared has been one of my biggest lessons to learn. We had a BBQ the other night, before the food was off the grill we had 4 brothers from our host family standing around the fire. We catered for three people and then ended up sharing it with seven. It feels good to share, coming from the western world mentality, we hardly share with strangers, even look up from our screens to greet them with more than a “Hi!”. People stop to ask how you are doing, how your day has been before continuing.
Our good friend Ant from Ant Hoard Films flew out for three days of shooting, we didn't get the weather we hoped for and only lost the drone once due to strong winds, but collecting some stunning footage with what we had to work with.
Hope you enjoy some of these shots, from the past few weeks. We have been updating our Instagram account @thephotofarm, if you want to see more images from our journey, hit follow.
