Chawama Painting

Chawama

Today, those of us that were not involved in the Teacher Workshop, went to Chawama to help them re-paint their school. Tom went ahead of us, very early, to get the supplies in order. When the larger group arrived to the school, a lot of prep work had to be done, including patching up some of the outside walls with cement and sanding the inside walls. We were helped by David, one of the teachers, Lennon, Kennedy and Sengue. During downtime throughout the morning, we were all able to engage and play soccer with the many children around us and high five and shake hands with the children outside of the school who were so excited to see us that they were literally climbing the walls to try to get inside.

Comments from the group included how eventhough painting was not so successful we connected with the kids. We were able to play soccer with the children and it ended up being an exciting day.The children's level of excitement is amazing in comparison to those in America. Gideon was a 14 year old who taught us nyanja phrases and helped control the children from the community and kept others out because the space was so small. Others felt that it was a group bonding experience for the Chawama group because they worked together.

We did eventually begin painting, and although there is still a lot of work to be done, some of the group will be returning on Monday and Tuesday to finish.