It was a Saturday at Usa River Academy, and Macon, Gigi, and I were on campus spending the day with the kids and working on an art project. We headed to the cafeteria at noon for lunch. The kids all filed in and sat at their assigned tables. Everything was very orderly, and the lunchroom was abuzz with chatter. Half an hour passed. The kids sat tight in their seats. An hour passed. No food. The kids did not seem bothered. Their patience impressed me; however, we learned that this wait is apparently the norm. Sweet, little Ema even explained to Macon that the food needs to take this long because if they cooked it in a hurry it wouldn’t taste good. Ema is six years old.

Something tremendously different about Tanzanian culture and that of the Western world, America in particular, is the pace of life. In Tanzania everything moves much, much more slowly. The emphasis is on the process. We affectionately refer to this as “Tanzanian time.”

On this particular Saturday I relished in these idle moments. As time passed and the kids’ boredom increased, I seized the opportunity to photograph our kids in a different light. Usually when I’m with the kids they’re excited, animated, and playing up to the camera. Well, about 45 minutes into their hour plus wait for lunch this was not the case. I went to town, giddy at this opportunity for quiet, grainy, black and white portraits of our kiddos.