Art School

I leave a week from today! And I'm so behind on my blog :) But I've decided to make an entry every day before I leave so get ready for some serious blog action. I'm going to have to backtrack to February 14th for this one.

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I'm a big fan of holidays so when Valentine's Day rolled around I thought I should celebrate even though people in the rural areas don't observe Valentine's Day. I was headed to my friend Grace's that day so when I went to the city earlier that week I bought some colored paper, a glue stick and some markers and planned to make Valentines with her girls.

When I showed up at the house I told the girls I had an activity for them and I asked them what they knew about Valentine's Day. They'd never heard of it so we were definitely starting from square one. So I explained that you make cards with hearts on them and they could each make one for their mother. I demonstrated how to fold a piece of paper in half and cut out a heart and I thought we could take off from there. I assumed I would help the six-year old twins and the 9 and 10 year old could make their own. There was a great deal of hesitation so I made one to show them what it could look like. We got started and I realized the 10-year old didn't even know how to use scissors! Apparently the Kenyan education system has no room (or funding) for art classes.

I ended up doing all the cutting so we didn't have to take anyone to the clinic but they started to get the hang of designing and gluing and had a blast. There was a lot of copying of my Valentine but I guess you have to learn how to do things one way before you can find your own way. We became a Valentine factory and they kept making Valentine's until we ran out of supplies.

Then we let their mom come into the room and she was absolutely thrilled. They don't have arts and crafts and had never seen anything like them so the wow factor was huge. The mom decided they were so pretty they should be hung on the wall and from the ceiling. Since the walls in rural homes are papered in newspaper they actually are quite lovely decorations.

I left that day knowing I had blown their minds with art and knew I would have to do it again!

Since then I've tried my best to introduce something new every time I visit. When I arrive they always want to know if I've brought an activity. I've taught them how to play Slap Jack, put together a puzzle (a very difficult and foreign concept), make Easter cards with moving chicken beaks, and paint.

Every time we start a new activity I'm surprised at the lack of creativity but I suppose that has to be taught as well. When I first taught them to use watercolors they only painted words, then I got them to paint pictures of what they were drawing, then they started copying pictures from a sign on the wall and finally moved to just drawing pictures they could make up.

I'm totally jealous of Shaela's job teaching art to little kids now. I had no idea how much fun it could be!