Tigray

The news coming out of Tigray continues to be heartbreaking and I can’t help but think of the individuals who are caught up in this latest conflict. The scale of atrocities has been slow in coming out since access to international observers has been severely limited. The most alarming of these reports was a recent one by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff members attesting to extra-judicial killings taking place on a road from Mekelle.

I edited a small set of images from a trip in April 2010. I happened to be there for the arrivals of the first Spring rains.

April 2010, Hauwzen Woreda, Tigray, Ethiopia. A Priest of the Orthodox church helps his brother put the roof on his house. The roofs are made in the traditional way of the region, with layers of wooden poles, soil, curved slate and hay. Soon after this photo was taken, the heavens opened.

April 2010, Hauwzen Woreda, Tigray, Ethiopia. A Priest of the Orthodox church helps his brother put the roof on his house.

April 2010, Hawzen Town, Tigray, Ethiopia. Kemlem Waldegerima (60) with her daughter, Tsiga Alem (22) and granddaughter, Kissanet Kiday (5). They make sua to sell to townspeople and serve coffee.

Kemlem Waldegerima (60) prepare coffee.

April 2010, Hawzen Town , Tigray, Ethiopia. Water is a precious commodity in this arid region.

A barber shop in Hawzen Town

Pool players in Hauwzen, Tigray, Ethiopia.

April 2010, The village of Gerealita Mallintan in Wukro Woreda, Tigray, Ethiopia.

Meles Gebregzhiabere, 84, can remember a time when his village, Tsahilo, in northern Ethiopia, had many indigenous trees and there were rivers flowing.

April 2010, The village of Gerealita Mallintan in Wukro Woreda, Tigray, Ethiopia. Interior detail of a Tigrinyan homestead with an "injera" teff bread, oven.

The honey sellers’ house, Wukro, Tigray.

April 2010, In the village of Chila, Tigray, Ethiopia.

April 2010, Hawzen Woreda, Tigray, Ethiopia. The spring rains finally arrive.