Of Hunger and Travelling

It seems to me that travelling has always been the means to still some kind of a hunger. To still the hunger of people and animals the nomads have invented travelling. To still the hunger for adventure and knowledge people have always travelled and do it to this day. It's this hunger that drives us to remote places and the money that makes it possible.

We, Westerners, go places to see and enjoy. We stop to look and snap pictures. We do not hesitate to walk close to people - locals - and take pictures of them. In their face, invading their space. The photograph is the modern trophy, the photographer - the modern hunter.

Yet when the locals come and surround us and stand there watching us, even staring at us we don't like it. Yes, they are probably hungry when they stand watching us at lunchtime but it is not this hunger that drives them to do so. It is their form of travelling, of stilling their curiosity and interest in the world and their hunger for entertainment and novelty.

For every single one of the children we've encountered in Ethiopia the night spent around our camp must have been or become a memorable event. An occasion to see and learn about the other world they can't go see but comes to them through us, its representatives. It is, in the end, the poor man's form of travelling.