Back to the Orphanage

Saturday, November 17th.

This morning a group of IB students and I headed back to "the other" orphanage to do our mural on the wall of the girl's dorm. Once again, I am so very impressed with the talents and the heart of these young people I am privileged to work with. I did my part: got the paint and all the supplies together, drove the 'taxi' - van - full of kids to the orphanage, told them we pretty much had 'free rein' and away they went.

After a quick consultation with the resident girls, the 'owner' gave the little ones the exit signal and my students went to work. What a job!

First we tried to move the big shoe shelf so we could paint it outside, but after a quick look behind, only to discover a colony of cockroaches, we decided to leave well enough alone. While some painted this mural wall a...well let's just say...BRIGHT fushia and pink, one very talented art student quickly drew gorgeous, detailed flowers and butterflies on the opposite wall--by the girls' bunk beds--and the other students followed behind, painting.

Wow! Plain walls transformed into colour and life! All the while chatter or singing along to music...

I just found my little happy niche with a paintbrush or wipe-up cloth and soaked in the wonderful energy that these students exude.

Well...that is, until they started with the, "I'm tired. I'm hungry. When should we stop, Mrs. Fath?" Ah, yes, teenagers. The stomach is paramount!

They did work very hard and we wrapped up the project with just some finishing touches to go back and do. All this in five hours. They're a hard-working AND talented crew!

God bless them. I'm pretty sure their work will be a blessing to some lovely little girls. Butterflies and flowers to join the cockroaches. Hey, why not?

Tomorrow I take another IB group hiking up a mountain (another mountain). I must like these kids, hey?

Cheers,

Wendy