A debacle of almost catastrophic proportions occurred a few days before the painting event. I went into the town south of the border (South African, not Mexican) with Mrs. Broodryk to buy supplies. After ordering the colors I needed mixed and working it all into my grant’s budget, I went out to do other errands. The last stop of our day was to pick up the paints, but what we found at Build-It made my heart sink.
Friday April 30, 2010
4:13pmThey had not mixed any paint and were stating that the previously discussed prices for those colors were WAY off the true cost. As it was explained to me, brighter colors need more expensive bases to put more expensive dye colors in. :-( I was bummed and short on time. Mrs. Broodryk was super patient as we haggled, concocted cheaper colors with the wrong but less expensive bases, and in the end had a load of all kinds of paints (including roofing paint?!) with some donated ones and an advertisement poster to boot! Dropping the materials in their previously arranged storage room on the school grounds made me blissfully giddy, because in the end we got a lot more paint for less than I was going to pay that morning.
April 22nd was when I scheduled the event, because this was the day the students at Hlushwana primary school were being let out for their first term break. The night before the big day my friends, Nancy and Chris, came to enjoy my hospitality and great cooking… HONESTLY… I made couscous and brownies! Buya! :-P We had a blast, but did not turn in early as the next day proved we should have.
At 6:45am we got on a bus to take us and a few more materials to the tar road. Background coat was on and drying when another two AMAZING friends, Laura and Brandon, joined the painting party. Kids jumped onboard a half hour earlier than discussed, but we were pretty much ready for them! One class at a time marched out to the road, accompanied by their teachers, with the giddy expectation of getting to do something fun with the crazy white people and paint!
Another volunteer and I made the first introductions and gave an educational spiel on the importance of hand washing. We tried to get across when, how, why, and for how long you should wash your hands. Explaining continued, and hopefully was understood, that the paint that was soon to be all over their eager hands represented the germs that make people sick, and the time and energy to get it off was the same needed to get off the invisible germs. With winter soon to be hitting here, thus flu season, I pray that this information produces some behavior changed. Also, I absolutely HATE littering, for which there isn’t a concept in Swaziland and thus garbage lines the roads and piles around the bus waiting rooms!! Grrrr.
The children were convinced (or bribed) to pick up 2 pieces of trash as quickly as they could and return to form a line. These were collected (to be lugged back to my homestead later and burned) and the kids took turns putting their handprint on the mural. The school ended up closing 2 hours earlier than we were expecting, but we just did a MASSIVE last group, and many kids got to participate more than once. Once they went home we worked on and completed the health message itself, “Parents – The sooner you get us tested the longer we LIVE” and it’s siSwati translation. All was completed just before the sun went down at 6pm. We were exhausted and wanted nothing more than a bucket bath, food, and bed.
Since then, multiple community members have commented on how beautiful they think the murals are! I am planning on doing at least 6 more with the ideas gathered from the Health Slogan & Art Competition conducted at the other two primary schools in my community. The submissions are a hoot! These will be completed, though, one a day and without the “assistance” of 311 kids. :-) Yay to a successful art project!
No comments:
Post a Comment