Alexa and Darcy in Kenya, Sanaa Project

Last day of individual painting!

Today was a gratifying last day working on the small-scale art projects! We wanted to be sure that all of the students could finish their work on time and have art that they were proud of to bring home at the end of the day. We haven’t told them yet that we hope to leave an arts program in place after our departure, because that plan depends on so many factors yet to be worked out – finding someone responsible and interested enough to lead art club meetings long-term, funding, enthusiasm from the students, being able to continue using the church space, etc. The people of Huruma seem to be so accustomed to people coming and going that they probably don’t expect to see permanent changes from each group of young foreigners that come their way and we don’t want to get their hopes up just to disappoint. We want to let them know we are trying our best, but feel that we should wait until we are certain before we make any promises. However, there was plenty of paper, brushes and pencils left for us to leave with Headmaster Ben, so we are feeling optimistic!

We told the art crew we’d be gone until next Tuesday and they seemed disappointed – many had been expecting a class tomorrow – but as soon as Darcy announced our plans for the mural, which we had mentioned only briefly before, everyone was happy again!

We took more photos of the students and their art. They wanted pictures by themselves, with each other, with us, of their favorite Monet or of their palette where they had mixed the perfect skin tone. Our two New Dawn graduate students approached me, said goodbye, promised to be there early on Tuesday to help prepare for the mural, and gave me their paintings to keep. Both had been sketched out and delicately painted in great detail. Daniel had spent all that day painstakingly mixing oranges, browns, yellows, and reds to create the appropriate effect of feathers on an eagle’s back. Samuel had drawn, erased, re-drawn, erased, and re-drawn the front left leg of a horse copied from a small Cezanne watercolor. Irene had mentioned these two men to us before, saying they were two of Huruma’s most serious artists – serious in their practice and serious about pursuing art in their futures. Headmaster Ben had similarly discussed them with us and told us how much he hoped Daniel and Samuel would be able to learn from us. I’m not sure how much we taught them, but at the very least we gave them a peaceful hour and the necessary materials each day to do what they enjoy.

Now the weekend, and next week: The Mural!

Alexa

Alexa and Darcy in Kenya, Sanaa Project

New Dawn Art Students

Photography by Darcy

Alexa and Darcy in Kenya, Sanaa Project

Africa Redefined: United Balozi Group

Darcy

Having our Sanaa Project meetings with the New Dawn students every day at 4:30 means we have our mornings free. Our first week was so full of running errands, organizing plans and adjusting to Kenyan life, that it never occurred to us that there would come a single moment when we had no plans until today. The Tongoi household headed off to work – some people went to the preschool in Huruma, some to talk to the high school students at New Dawn, and Darcy and I were left to catch up on emails, buy new supplies, and figure out how we can best take advantage of our free time.

We had decided early on that we wanted to be as active as possible during our time here. Staying with Sammy Tongoi and his parents has been excellent motivation. Aside from Irene’s complete commitment to the Huruma community through the New Dawn Education Center, the New Dawn Clinic, and a church nearby, her son Sammy and friend Alex Choi have been hard at work on their project, Africa Redefined (check out their site! www.africaredefined.com). So far their work here has revolved around a group of young men from Huruma who, despite some having graduated from high school and others being trained in practical professions, have been unable to find sustainable work and worry about never making it out of Huruma Village. Sammy and Alex have been coordinating group meetings, helping the men organize themselves into a formal committee, and giving them the encouragement they need to keep working and hoping.

The other day, while we waited for 4:30 to arrive, we went with Sammy and Alex to photograph and film the election of the committee officials and the drafting of their constitution. The meeting started off quietly. A young graduate of New Dawn Education Center named Jimmy stood in the center of a circle of thirty-five men and told them why they were there – to come together and start taking action not just to change Huruma, but to be rid of it altogether. The village of Huruma is built on government land and can never become a permanent community. The residents see no reason to beautify it, to built more stable houses, or to create a job market there with work stalls and shops – they realize that they can be kicked out of their homes at any moment. The handful of Huruma residents who came out to this meeting to take initiative and change their lives and the lives of their loved ones have the shared dream of seeing Huruma disappear forever. Their constitution did not state this mission, or any other mission. It focused on the practical and the immediately necessary. It demanded that all members be represented and respected. It required that those in attendance be sober for each meeting and that the actions of elected official be monitored carefully to avoid corruption. Jimmy was elected chairman, two other New Dawn graduates were elected secretary and treasurer, and two friends volunteered to be joint disciplinarians. Membership fees were agreed upon – 100 Kenyan Shillings each, about $1.15 – and Darcy took photos of each member to be used for their identification cards. At the end of the meeting a group title was selected: “United Balozi Group”, ‘balozi’ being Swahili for ‘ambassadors’. Finally, Jimmy asked the group if they “unanimously endorsed this constitution”. When all agreed, we parted ways.

Over those two hours, Darcy and I had watched the men transform into vocal and enthusiastic participants in a project that we, Africa Redefined, and the members themselves believe can make a difference. We hope to spend as much of our free time as possible being actively involved in projects such as these. The people of Huruma are so full of hope that what they seem to need most is a push in the right direction and inspiring words to reinforce their optimism, which Darcy and I are more than happy to give.

Alexa

Alexa and Darcy in Kenya, Sanaa Project

Sanaa 101

Today we were up early and on our way to Huruma by 8:30 for our first meeting with the New Dawn Education Center headmaster, Ben Khalonyere. We presented him with our plans to implement an “arts club” for interested students, teach them some color theory and technique, create individual works with them all during the first week, and paint a mural on the face of the school itself during our remaining time. Ben told us that their school had never started an official arts program as part of their curriculum, not due to lack of interest but because arts teachers were expensive and hard to come by. He seemed thrilled by our eagerness to help and excited to share our plans with the students. We scheduled our first art club meeting for 4:30 that afternoon in the church nearby and left him to go explore the village until then.

We met with Pastor Sammy at 4:00 to set up for the 25 students Ben had promised to recruit and send our way. The church is made of tin with wooden shuttered windows, rows of plastic chairs and three large wooden tables. We rearranged the furniture and set up paints, pencils, brushes and water on each table. We also had a series of images – a few books on various artists/movements and two-dozen postcards of MoMA masterpieces – to be laid out for inspiration. As soon as the students arrived they began studying the works by famous artists: Matisse, Gaugin, Van Gogh, de Chirico, Kirchner, and Mirò, among others. They passed them around and traded before beginning to directly copy the images they finally settled on. We tried to encourage them to create original paintings and suggested that they just use the postcards for inspiration but quickly began to see how they added their own spin and style to the famous paintings, making each work completely their own. A Rothko was given a floral boarder, a Modigliani woman was painted in a colorful patterned dress, and a de Chirico piazza painted in bright yellows, pinks and purples.

We taught them about mixing colors and Darcy circled the room with a palette of baby-blues and oranges to share. Not one of them was willing to settle and paint a dark swatch of a Mirò generic forest green, or leave a slightly tan square of a Rothko white. Some students finished faster and were eager to start a second painting. Others flipped through the books and asked questions about various artists or works. One of our students was a young man named Daniel, a recent graduate of the New Dawn Education Center who dreamt of becoming an artist and came to practice, sitting peacefully in the back row with a pencil, sketching Cezanne figures silently and with great precision. But for everyone it seemed, above all else, to be a fun, relaxing hour of peace and quiet.

At the end of the hour, the students reluctantly put down their brushes and pencils and handed over their unfinished works only after we promised we would return at the same time tomorrow to keep painting!

Check back soon for pictures!

- Alexa