The Teens!

 

 

 

 

When I arrived, Moonie told me about an incident where she found a group of teenage boys on the roof of the Centre smoking pot. She could have called to police but instead, she wanted to negotiate with them and have them help her with the Centre. She told me they have a hard time attracting teenagers.
On Thursday we had a little breakthrough. The teens were hanging around outside and I got to meet them. Moonie had Sandra, the caretaker of the Centre to translate for her. After some discussion, the boys agreed to repair the mural on the building. It had graffiti all over it in black marker and some of the plaster was peeling off. The boys and I discussed some of the things that need to happen. There were 4-5 of them talking to me at once- ha! I used google translate for a few words like paint, cover, marker. Two older men wondered over and were talking to the boys explaining how to repair it. One teen was writing down ALL the colors on the mural, but I could tell, that one of the older guys was telling him he only needed the primary colors and black and white. He and I motioned a few things, pointing to the primary colors on the building, and we understood each other. It was good. I will teach the teens color mixing and color matching.

Sandra from the Centre gave me her keys and mom and I went on the hunt. I found the outdoor key-vendor. "duplicado". He made my copies in minutes and it cost $1.90 cnd for 2 keys. Then I found the paint store. I was looking for a product that would "cubrir marcador" (cover marker). The woman suggested a wash that was used to take it off. I bought some to try. It was $5.00.

Yesterday the teens were already way ahead of me. After I taught the little ones, mom and I discovered the guys were already scraping the building. I gave them the product I found and we tried it. It didn't work effortlessly. We had to scrub it with a brush. And it didn't remove all of it, but I hope it takes out the potency of the permanent marker. One teen was telling me to just paint over it. I tried to explain back that paint won't cover permanent marker. I'm not sure he believed me. But, when I left them at it, they were using it and scrubbing away. I hope it works! My John also suggested an un-diluted wax stripper. When we start painting if permanent marker shows through, we'll try that.