Just one?

Alicia Hamming-Assistant Music Teacher



How can I just pick one child or one story? When out of the 15 children in our class, each one has shown an incredible amount of change over the past three days. On Monday, when the children arrived to the camp, they got off the bus with eager anticipation but yet with a look of uncertainty on their faces. All were very quiet and behaved themselves very well. However, this produced very shy, timid voices for our children's choir. I had to strain to hear the soft voices of the children.

As the week progressed, I saw noticeable change in the demeanor of the children and their excitement for class. They smiled when they entered class, answered questions eagerly and were excited to sing. They sang with their whole being and so much emotion. At the end of each song they asked to continue singing or wanted to practice another song.

One young girl, Maria Fernando could hardly open her mouth without giggling. But by the third day, she stood with confidence, a huge smile on her face, singing with lots of passion. Modesto, sat down in choir on the first day and looked like he was going to fall asleep because of boredom. He even admitted to us that he was bored on the first day. However, on the third day, he was practicing his songs with lots of intensity and singing with a smile on his face. He willingly participated in class and said how much fun it was to sing.

There are many other examples that I can think of when I imagine the faces of each child. As we practiced our piece for the final show, I stood proudly in front directing our small children's choir and listened to the voices of these small angels. William's face was aglow because he had been allowed to return to Arts Camp, Edipcia sang with confidence, Erick lead his line up front showing his strength as a leader.

For me, it was a blessing to be part of this Arts Camp and to participate as a leader in one of the classes. I had the honor of working with the children and teach them a new Art form. This was a new experience for me and even though it was a challenge, it was very rewarding to see the results. I will always have the memories of children coming up to me and calling me profe, giving me a hug and thanking me for teaching them.

Try again

Lily Emo- Assistant Teacher of the Painting Class



It seems to be that small things or achievements are able to leave enduring impressions. That has how it has been for me helping out at the Art Camp in Nicaragua this year. Observing the delight of children as they learn for what seemed the first time how to mix basic colors, seeing how they grow a little more confident as they explore with different techniques to make small improvements to their pictures. Small improvements to a painting can quickly become bigger noticeable changes to a painting.
I think it is an instant reaction for children all over the world to throw away paintings that are only half finished and start on a new one when the painting is not working the way that they had wanted it too. This was the case for Modesto. When he came to me with his half finished and obviously un-cherished painting, he was asking for more paper, which I refused to give him. Instead, I sat down beside him and showed him that by adding a few different colors and using his brush in various different ways he would be able to resurrect his painting and not need to throw it away and move on to something else. I left him intently working on that picture for the rest of that class period right up until recess time. During recess I saw him protectively guarding his painting while it dried. It had become a treasure and source of pride, instead of becoming a thing to be discarded and forgotten as quickly as possible. This is just one of the small things that had left its enduring mark on my memory.

Kenya: On the Rocks

Rebekah Wilcox and Moses Okonji, the leader of Inspiration Center Mathare

On today, our final day of camp before celebration, we ran into a few glitches. Though the weather has improved and is more beautiful than ever, we lost the space we had for drama and poetry class. We looked around and found a space behind a pile of rocks and a space on top of the rocks to hold class. Though not an ideal or easy place to have a class, the children and teachres were very flexible and simply adjusted their lessons to fit their new environments. Gideon Ochieng, one of the photography teachers, reflects on the day:

Yesterday our class went through what we have learnt since Monday. All of them can now take us through the basic steps of the art of peace building. Their lives are full of brokenness but this does not deter them from seeking peace not just for themselves but on behalf of boys and girls in their communities as well as those they hope to meet elsewhere. We call our class the ambassadors of peace because of how serious they have taken up their roles in Mathare and Huruma. In the beginning my challenge was to incorporate the elements of peace in photography. It seemed as though we would just talk about peace and then take pictures on the side, however, to my surprise, I realized how possible and now easy it is to bring the two together in a classroom right on the corridors of beautiful Mathare. Suleiman and Salim, brothers, who are in our class have gone full throttle, thinking about nothing else but camera, it is not just an obsession. The two and Suleiman in particular loves to bring to the attention of the class all that we have been learning, I keep on teasing him that he is the captain, and indeed he is. The future is bright and filled with hope as the many children in our camp, who are mostly being raised by single mothers, leaves tomorrow with a message of peace to their communities. I have definitely learned as much as I have had an opportunity to teach these children.

Moses Okonji, the leader of Inspiration Center Mathare

Philly's Phenomenal Potential...

Sarah Thompson

Walking from my apartment in South Philly to 30th St. Station the day before Thanksgiving, I take the ‘scenic route’; the Schuylkill River Trail. The nominal trees scattered along the bank sway their naked branches (save a few threadbare leaves) and I revel at their altered physique. Weeks ago, they were flaming reds and brilliant yellows. Months previous, they had the fullness of green, dense and vibrant. Preceding even that, they were blossoming fragrant with fruitful blooms or bursting from buds and new shoots. And yet, falling farther back in time, before all of the visible seasonal checkpoints, they were..

Seeds.

Lowly and small, deep in the earth, displaced. Sleeping and secretive, they waited. Time capsules of potential. Yearning to be awakened and jump start the cycle that gradually proclaims their purpose for the world to experience. And so there it was. Right before me, the apparent truth that even in this city seeds can take root, grow and multiply. And so can we.

For the Diaspora of Hope Philadelphia, our team (a group of five visual artists, practicing and retired public educators and dancers) is using this metaphor - that of the seed and it’s possibility of growth and becoming - to speak hope into the lives of children living in a Domestic Violence Shelter in North

Do all things with Excellence

After planning, evaluation and debriefing with the artist and class helpers, the team was ready to start the day with new energy and ideas. Before we left, I walked along the beach located behind our housing and picked up shells from the shore that inspired a dance exercise for my students. For the painting teacher, the ladies walking down the street selling fruit from a basket on the top of their heads was the analogy for life bearing good results in the painting class. In the music class, a piece of red string was the connecting source in finding that in a choir, all are an important strand of strength to the group. Our camp theme song is Como tu no hay( There is no one like you)
Sabias que eres especial,
sabias que tienes un lugar
aqui en la tierra,
no hay nadie como tu tan especial,
con tu desfectos y qualidades, como tu no hay.
Do you know that you are special
Do you know that you have a place
in the earth
there is no one like you as special
with your defects and qualities like you there is no one

We sing this song every day, but in the afternoon, I heard the song a bit differently. As I was typing the blog and I overheard a brother singing the song to his sister in the other room. It was the most beautiful version of the song that I had ever heard.

Kenya: A Drenching Rain

This morning we were greeted with space complications and drenching rains. In Kenya, rain is a major issue because many of our classes meet outside. Despite the weather, and one of our teachers loosing their cell phone in the public bathrooms (think squatty potty), we had a productive day. We heard stories of family, community, and national conflict. Many children shared stories of witnessing violent crimes including murders. Art was used to teach them peaceful steps to deal with this conflict. Said and Jackson, two Kenyan teachers, share their reflections:

"Todays class was interesting we learned some Latin dance and taught about peace through it.Today's step was talk it out. my high point was that every thing went as planed low point was one of the students decided to go to another class." ~Jackson, Dance instructor

"Today was good day. We enjoyed the day. It was interesting after seeing what the children had done as an assignment. The shocking work of them all was one child had written about how his parents one day had an argument then the mother stabbed the father with a knife on the chest. All in all the class was fun despite the sad stories." ~Said, Drama teacher

Pictures are taken by Gideon Ochieng and Godfrey Boi

The Fairy Tale of Peter, Poussy and the Evil Mask – a moment of transformation.

It was the first time practicing their story in drama form all the way through...

The plan of Peter and his friends to thwart the villain Shahir was to have Poussy, their cat, slip under the door while Shahir was sleeping, flick the evil mask off with his paw and escape with it out the window.  The two boys playing the “door” and the “window” moved quickly and proudly into place; the masked Shahir fell asleep, tired from ruining the good work of the Peter’s team.  The little boy “cat” moved quickly through the legs of the “door”, snatched the evil mask from Shahir’s face in a nano-second and leaped out the four-armed “window”.  The children on and off the stage erupted in spontaneous applause.  The adults felt chills! This was the transformational moment of the camp – a first dry run rehearsal of a play the children had just orally written.  But this moment would not be repeated with the next rehearsals or the performance to come on Wednesday, the last day of the camp.  The magic was in this time when a cat, on behalf of his friends, turned evil into good, and allowed Shahir to be reconciled to Peter.  The students knew something great had happened, and that they were a part of it.  It was as if it was purging all the bad from each of them in one cathartic gesture.  Forgiveness occurred and they went on together doing good forever.  The play didn’t start out this way.

Asked what we might write a story about – something about their lives – the students offered themes about a bad person on the street.  Asked how to stop that person from doing bad things, answers of graphic violence came:  beat him up, kill him, throw him where the fish swim, spear him.  These answers come from children who live with violence on the street and who have escaped from war torn countries like Sudan that train them to kill.  “What else can we do that is not violent or physical?”  Their imaginations began to work.  They introduced a mask that makes him do bad things; maybe tie him up.  What if the rope doesn’t hold?  Drop a net on him from a airplane.  What if the net breaks?  Ahhhhh.  Get the mask!  What happens when the mask come off?  He turns good.  With that suggestion from the children, the process of playwrighting succeeded in facilitated the transformation of their minds in the symbol of a fairytale.

This week in Cairo, the arts are helping children remove the evil masks inside that burden them.  If this isn’t hope, we don’t know what is.

The full Fairytale will be available soon.

Vivian