First Day of the 4th year and by the way, its winter here

All,

Before I talk about the first day of class, I want to share something I forgot about; the realization and absolute pleasure that it is winter here!!!! woo-hoo....For most sweltering places in the US, like the city both Margaret and I live in, it is nearly 100 degrees and really humid. Nairobi, a place most people always think of as Africa hot, it is not! Its sub-saharan and in the summer is like 85, no humidity and in the winter its like 65-70 and beautiful... I say this because I just remembered when we had dinner last night with the Jesuits that we are so lucky to be staying with, the fireplace was lit in the common room. It was so great and seems so homey and to think that it is sweltering in DC.... I am sorry Washingtonians.....

So our day started off at the school and Phil Boroughs, if your reading this, 5 years later, your saying is still true, "it is never as you expect". So there is a whole process related to securing our time for this trip and scheduling with Headmistress Beatrice and she said, we welcome you the 8th of August 2011. Well, we got to the school this morning and it was nearly desolate, to find out that the students were still on break. I was perplexed for the first time in the years we have been doing this program and to the contrary Margaret was not. She said to me, there are students in the art room.... Yes, we are fortunate enough to have an art room.... We went up and it was a upper class and graduate students waiting for our arrival, going through the supplies and preparing for our arrival. Beatrice has insured the senior students and the graduates were here this week because she knew we had intensive study for them and when all students are back next week, we will be able to focus on our general curriculum with the broader group. She was brilliant and it could not have been a better result.

All the students prepared this room for the week, we went through all the supplies and we talked about the 2 special projects that we will do with the senior students and the Graduate Institute. We are introducing Oil Painting and the Graduate institute will do art work for a children's book written by Anna Celenza that will hopefully be published the following year to help support the Foundation of Hope in Kibera founded by David Dinda, St. Al's grad and someone I call my Kenyan Son.

Our students were amazing....they were so excited. We did a round table discussion of what they have gotten out of the art immersion program over the last four years and it felt like Margaret and I might burst with excitement, hold back tears, and humbly have pride. I cannot believe that we have been with some of these students for 4 years. These amazing artists use vocabulary that only people that have studied and create art know. They talked about the different genre's that they know, the mediums they most learned, they talked about how this opened up there eyes to some of their personal stories and abilities they have and they demonstrate such tremendous pride in their capability. They talk about the different feelings that they have when they are creating art, the absolute growth that they can acknowledge in themselves. Jacob said like a true artist " I can't explain this feeling that I have when I create art, its not something I can put in words". Spoken like a true artist, he went on to say that I always did drawing on this own, but never knew that he could paint with water colors, or other mediums. They were the true embodiment of growth and learning and passion. When we talked about an exercise we gave them to do self portraits today, they did not only draw pics of themselves, they also drew pics of other objects that represent who they are. Francis, who as Margaret say and I agree, seems more like an architect than someone who would love art, said it brings him absolute peace and he loves being able to create natural settings and landscapes. Of course his portrait was of a forest. This is all so amazing because 4 years ago, when we outlined our class experience, and talked about dialog and reciprocity, the prefect of the class told us it was unacceptable that they do anything more than listen and take notes. Now they speak out, talk to us about their feelings, and make it as if we brought then a voice that I always believe we could and one they already possessed. Art can give you another voice and it is so evident that these students have it. I am not sure it gets more rewarding than this. We were nearly speechless. We met with Beatrice and she said that for many of these students, it changed their academic lives, they improved in other subjects and those they thought would not be continuing with St. Al's were able to stay and they are helping to research universities where they can go and study art.... Wow.....

After Class, to lunch and the to buy our supplies. We nearly bought out all the oil paints at Text Book Centre and their generosity 2 years in a row showed up, they gave us a substantial discount because we teach in Kibera.

After Text Book Centre, back to Pedro Arrupe for rest before we went to have dinner at Osteria with a friend, Natalie Vicas, the daughter of friends Bob and Martha Vicas. She has been in Kenya for 7 weeks, 3 at Red Rose School and 4 at the Nyumbani Village and Home. She leaves on Friday. Having dinner with her was amazing, she told of her great stories, talked of her college plans, we phoned and talked to her family that are vacationing in Rome (She is not at all jealous !!! smile) and had a wonderful dinner. The irony of being in Kenya at the same time and having the pleasure of spending time with her was amazing. She is brilliant and I look forward to seeing her changing the world. She will!

Although logistically challenging to get here and make all this work, it is so worth it. It is one amazing experience and I cannot believe how fortunate we are to be able to take part.

Thank you for being on this journey with us.

Be well,

Charles and Margaret