Watoto Wote Wazuri

Jordan Acres and Brooksville students, I want to tell you about what is happening with your art! I have completed one part of the art exchange. I brought all the prints, the “snake” books, and many of the drawings with me to Nyumbani Village when I was there over the last few days. The orphans there live in tiny, very simple, stone houses in groups of 10 with a grandmother. There houses have plain brick walls and no windows. They were very happy to have your art to hang on their walls.

Shosho looking at JA art hung in Nyumbani village home

I also brought your art to the school in the village and hung it on the walls in the classrooms. They are just starting to have art in school so their teacher was very excited that they will be able to learn from you and very impressed with the work you have done. All the children were very curious and interested in looking at what you sent for them. They did not have any supplies so the teacher and the students were really excited to have all the different kinds of supplies sent by you and donated by Blick Art Supplies. I worked with a group of students to make art work to bring back to you that will tell you about Kenya. They had never worked with paint, pastels, or watercolor pencils before and rarely get to use colored markers so they had a lot of fun and they did a really great job. Everyone told me again and again to thank you and tell you how much it meant to them that you had done this for them and what a special gift it was for them to receive your hand-made art with all the friendly greetings. I will try to insert some photos here later but now working on the computer with really slow internet in Kenya isn’t letting me do that. I’ll also have many awesome pictures to show you when I return.

Nyumbani Village orphans working on artwork to send to Maine

On Saturday I will be sharing the rest of the Jordan Acres artwork with the orphans at the Children’s Home and will be doing art projects with them. I will also share the Brooksville art with the AB group at the Children’s Home. That group is the same age as the Brooksville students and will really appreciate the work that you have done. What’s really great is that you have sent just the right amount of blanks books so that they will be able use them for their project.

I am really looking forward to doing this on Saturday. I’m sure that the kids in the Nyumbani orphanage will be just as grateful as the kids at the village for your art, your willingness to share and your caring. I will tell you more after Saturday and later I will tell you more about what life is like for the kids I have met in Kenya. It’s very different from life for kids in the U.S. and I think you would be really surprised and interested to hear about it.