“This is our Girls Leading Our Word (GLOW) club working hard on our school and village’s first ever world map mural! This is just a glimpse of what these going ladies are capable of. Malo galue(good work), ladies!”
“Never did I imagine being THIS tired after a weeklong project. Tomorrow our world map project will be completed. Lessons learned? Things don’t have to be perfect. My kids love their masterpiece, and so do I,” says Krystal, a Volunteer in Namibia.
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I am continually impressed and honored to work with these women — they are resilient, creative, resourceful and, most importantly, hopeful as they find ways to stand up and work towards rebuilding for their families, community and themselves.” - Peace Corps Georgia Volunteer
Darlene Ugwa
Just over a month ago, I finished my Peace Corps service in a peri-urban fishing community located 25 minutes north of Cartagena, Colombia.
I’m still thinking about scenes that I need to draw—the lime green cart filled with fritos surrounded by red plastic tables and chairs, the aggressive hat vendors in the Centro and the bustling, chaotic Bazurto Mercado. Cartagena continues to inspire me.
Throughout the last 27 months in Colombia, I documented my experience through a series of full-color illustrations and daily drawings. During training, before I knew much about Colombia, I began making collages of scenery from the beaches outside of Barranquilla, typical meals, and street scenes with kids riding bikes and playing soccer. However, on a trip back to the States, I discovered a set of Prismacolor markers that I hadn’t used since high school. The fuchsias, turquoises, and bright yellows reminded me of the colors I saw everyday in Cartagena, and I hadn’t realized the extent of their absence until I was once again surrounded by the calm blues, whites, and muted tones of a New England summer.
Last week, on a whim, I stopped by the nursery school in my village. A box full of coloring books, pencils, and pencil sharpeners from people back home overflowed my living room, and I hoped to share them with someone who might enjoy them the most. While I hesitate to give out material goods, fearing it may create certain expectations of my work here as a volunteer, I explained to the teachers why I had come, the gift I wanted to share, and how it could be an opportunity to teach the kiddos a few skills along the way. This morning I returned, box in hand, to a class of nearly 60 children all under the age of 6. We learned about the importance of “sharing,” how to ask for a pencil with good manners, and how to take care of our new gifts, gently turning the pages in our coloring books, replacing our colors back in the box, and learning how to use a sharpener. It was also a chance to let the kids flex their creative muscles, some having never been introduced to the idea of coloring before, and each pupil will get to take their artwork home to their parents this afternoon. Aunt Julie and Auntie Koley, thank you so much for your wonderful gifts - getting to share them with my community is a gift bigger than the packaging the books could ever come in.
“Through art, I was able to show the complicated beauty of my Peace Corps site, a community struggling through cycles of poverty while trapped in the midst of a rich, booming tourism industry.” – “Documenting daily life in Colombia through illustration”
Neither camera nor paintbrush can aptly capture the majestic beauty of the sun rising over the coastal lowlands of Madagascar with mist hovering over rice fields and clusters of ravinala trees.
This Peace Corps Nicaragua Volunteer uses painting to integrate into her community–and we’re in love with all these gorgeous, bright colors! See more of Char’s paintings here.
The students in my school’s art department are talented! #art #fashion #china #chinese #gowns #peacecorps #peacecorpschina #gallery #exhibit #talent #modern #style #potd
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart”– Helen Keller
This mural was one of 17 painted by The Gambia Education Volunteer Laura Lyons along with her community members during her two years of service. http://bit.ly/1NAfdCi
Yesterday I participated in an event hosted by a grassroots Nicaraguan NGO in my training town called “Arrimate” (roughly translated as “get together” or “bring close”). They focus on educational opportunities for youth and host events to encourage creativity and non-violent/competitive games for kids. Their fourth annual event “Arrimate Jugar” (Get together and play!) was a huge success. In Masatepe there are limited resources and few opportunities for kids to express themselves creatively or participate in educational games. Several hundred kids showed up to the park to get their faces painted, play Bullying Bingo, walk on homemade stilts, ride the zip-line set up by the firemen or paint. I volunteered to help with the event and was assigned to the painting station.
For three hours I manned the booth: handing out canvases refilling paint pallets and washing paint brushes and kids clamored for a chance to slather a canvas in paint. At moments it was quite overwhelming: mothers got pushy and kids impatient for their turn. But overall it was a fun afternoon and the entire event was really spectacular. The fire-department strung a zip-line from a tree to the central kiosk and strapped kids into a harness to send them whizzing across the park. The firemen also brought their truck and let kids take turns holding the high-pressured hose and point the stream of water. At other stations kids earned prizes for spelling, practicing their times-tables or answering questions about bullying. Kids got a chance to be kids.
“The geology of the National Park where I worked is an important part of its history and background. I created an educational program about the park’s geology that culminated in a project that was enjoyed by kids at summer camp and in the ecoclub. This picture is from the first summer camp, in July of 2011. The kids worked in small groups to make a paper mache volcano. They painted it and then each kid had the chance to create an eruption with baking soda and vinegar, which happened with great screams of delight. Because there was no Spanish language information available about how to do this, I videotaped the kids explaining the project. That video now has 78,000 views on You Tube.”
Over 50 people a day come to this community water tap. Over time, that’s a lot of folks who will be inspired to join the fight to stop HIV in their community! #peacecorpslesotho #peacecorps #mural #HIV
