Our plan was to divide everyone into 5 age groups to rotate through the various activities each led by a different member of our team. That sort of worked, but clearly these kids were not used to staying in their assigned groups and we rapidly lost the timing between rotations since we were all starting and ending at different times. At the end, I have no idea if we saw all the kids or not.
Despite the mayhem, there were a number of meaningful moments and connections with students, all of whom have suffered significant trauma. These children have been abandoned and brought to the center by police, or rescued from abusive home situations or from the street. It is likely 80% of them have been abused (in multiple ways).
This little white board has come with me every trip to Kenya. And of course I started with the basics of line, and then let them practice making patterns and designs. We then moved on to creating our main project using a simple art therapy prompt.
Fortunately I had access to two classroom spaces and our friend Joseph from Nairobi to help me. One room was for the watercolor stations where the kids added color to their drawings. We discussed different kinds of feelings and emotions and thought of colors we associated with those. This was completely an individual choice. Some students associated yellow with happy and some said it was an angry color. They chose how to paint their drawings, adding colors that represented the emotions they most felt.
Proud of our work! One of the caregivers, Jayne, who attended this group and helped translate, really got the benefit of using art to help children express their emotions and find some relief. She promised to continue with some of the ideas I shared. We left most of the remaining art supplies that I collected from my teacher buddies in Sherwood for them to use in the future.
The rescue center is actually a fairly large compound with several building. It is mostly funded by a British charity and has several Kenyan partnerships that help bring children there. Some children are able to return to their families after some intervention. Some find placement with relatives, foster care or on rare occasion are adopted. Many, if not most, spend their whole lives there.
Kids lined up in small groups outside the room where we were dispensing shoes and clothing.
All smiles with Inge after getting new shoes.
Matching shoes to over 120 kids was a time consuming and often arduous task. Fortunately we had lots of extra help. Miriam's friend Emma and her two daughters were invaluable. Lindsey Chamberlains parents and their friends were also here from Oregon visiting the Chamberlain's new baby and they also joined us! Turned out Vasiliy used to work with their friend Jack and his wife Mary is a former elementary teacher whom I had met years ago at math trainings. It really is getting to be a small world when you can reconnect with people half way around the globe.
Saying goodbye. Always hard to do. We were spent after seeing so many needy children.
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