Follow the sinuous and dusty path that branches off the main road, leave the villages behind to reach, finally, behind the trees, distant from everything else, two mud houses, and plentiful of laughing schoolchildren.

Lunch break is over soon, and more than a hundred kids are playing loudly before starting their afternoon class. The heat clings on to the windowless classroom walls, not the faintest breeze is there to cool off the atmosphere. While the youngest children are dozing off, the teachers are ready to interact with their pupils again. Today, physics and maths for the oldest, around twelve years of age. Luminous bodies, light refraction. On the chalkboard, a bible quote was written days ago. We find ourselves at the heart of Catholic Ghana.

Despite the heat, the music and the noise from three teachers speaking simultaneously - not to mention my presence among them - it is time for the children to interact again and learn new things.

 

What follows is a gallery of portraits taken in May 2017. They are what those children chose to offer: a gaze, a smile, always a great sense of humanity.

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Special thanks to Jeremy Lachance for the track he composed to accompany this project.