Pintura Here, There and Everywhere!

I have been wanting to put the school through a 'facelift' since the first day and today, Cerys, Evan, a bunch of the kids and I pulled it off. We are starting a new session this next week and there are a couple of long-term volunteers that are arriving from England as well. Thus, I have been pushing for us to give the kids a visual indicator of the changes that are coming. What better way to do that than to spend a Saturday drenched in sweat, slathering blue paint on a crude building?

Getting the paint was a bit of a chore (and a personal expense...need to get donors and fast or I am going to be out of money before the end of the year if I keep this up!). The place I had originally bargained a deal with was closed so we ventured into the 'mercado' where there are variety of options (and prices) for pretty much anything you could every want or need: farming supplies, carburators, furniture, dishware, donkeys...and paint.

After checking out three places, we found a guy that gave us a bit of a discount due to the fact that it was for an educational foundation. Thus, with brushes and five gallons of paint, I ended up putting down 190,000 Colombian pesos (about 112 USD). Ouch.

Watching the big, plastic bucket of Aquamarine blue paint be lugged over to Evan's truck, I let go of the pain in my wallet and smiled at the impact this project would have on the school.

Evan, Cerys, and I arrived at the school around 2pm on Saturday. The kids were not expecting us to be there so was not the usual fanfare greeting of little munchkins running from all corners of the barrio to greet us. The fact that we were in an old Landcruiser did interest the teenage guys in the neighborhood who came over to check out the tires and look under the hood.

It didn't take long for the kids to take notice, though. By the time we had put on a couple strokes of paint, we had one of the new preschool kiddos helping out. Then came Luis Felipe, one of our older morning kids. Then Diana (who was concentrating mostly on painting the windows), then a pack of little people.















We didn't have enough brushes, so I handed out a few small craft brushes to keep them busy. Blue paint EVERYWHERE. Thank goodness most of it made it on the building, but there were definitely a number of Smurfs (aka Pitufos) zipping around the school by the end of the day.

At least we had one green giant among the Smurf population to get something accomplished by the end of the day. Evan was a 'painting machine' and was able to paint the vast majority of the high spots. We were not able to find a ladder so the fact that we were able to paint as much of the far side as we did was wholly due to Evan's contribution. 

At the end of the day, just as the sun was setting, we headed out, sweaty, tired, and content. What I loved most about today was the fact that everyone in the vicinity of the school helped out in one way or another. The preschoolers scrambled up the reja to paint around the windows and were the first to go out in search of a ladder. The older folks would walk by, smile and make comments about how much they liked the new 'look'. The older kids from my literacy group actually managed to get some paint on the building and help make the job go more quickly. The best thing about it all was that we didn't have to ask anyone to join us...they just showed up.

I found this quote the other day and it really seems to sum up the philosophy of the people involved in this foundation:

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. -Goethe

We may not have much money, but there is a lot of heart in this project. Things just seem to appear when we need them...