The Writing on the Wall

Even before I arrived in Mexico, I looked at images of the Tepehua Community Centre on google maps. The beautifully painted mural on the outside of the Centre was badly damaged. There was a lot of written graffiti in permanent marker.
When I arrived, I saw that a lot of paint had been peeled off and an attempted repair resulted in a color mis-match on some parts of the mural.
I first wrote about the plan for the mural repair on January 23rd, here: The Teens!

Although the repair started out with several enthusiastic guys scraping off loose paint and washing off the permanent marker, it dwindled down to nada in the days to come. Sometimes I would catch the teens walking by but only one, Junior, would stop. Even if for a moment, he would at least stop to tell me he could not stop- ha!
In the meantime, I was sourcing out paint, finding a paint store that could match the green we needed, gathering plastic bottles for mixing other colors and collecting drop clothes and cardboard to protect the sidewalk.
One day Junior agreed to meet with me. I asked him to come by himself. Mom and I got to work but Junior didn't show up. Hmmmm. As luck would have it, some of the young kids came and helped for a bit.

Sisters: Bere, Lily and Chuya couldn't resist helping us out! Thanks girls!

Mom agreed to buy the green paint and repainted the big parts of the mural with a roller. Pretty amazing!

The next day, a teen named Bryan showed up. He said he was an artist and would like to help out. I gave him one of the hardest tasks of fixing the sign. It took him a long time but he did it well. I was very grateful. While he was painting Junior came along. He is a nice kid and always ready to entertain the 'foreigners' but when I asked him to help, he said no. I asked both he and Bryan to come and help me at 1:00p the next day. It would be my last day in Chapala. 
Mom and I showed up early and got to work while it was still cool. To our surprise, Junior came as soon as he saw us and worked tirelessly for hours! Wahoo! Bryan came at 1:00 and the 4 of us managed to get everything repaired. A celebratory pose and photo was a must!
The writing was now off the wall!

Junior, on the ladder, was bushed by the time this photo was taken. He and mom mixed all the leftovers, and painted over the graffiti on the riser of the sidewalk.
 By 1:00p it starts getting really hot. Bryan puts on the second coat of yellow to complete the sun-repair.

Before and After of the side of the building.

Before and After of the front of the building.

Not to be Outdone!

The boys really wanted me to pose for a photo.
So, I did! ha ha ha
They laughed a lot and I don't know what they were saying. They really, really wanted mom to pose too, but she just laughed and said, no, no, no.

Later in the evening the girls showed up. They saw the alligator so, I had them pose. They were screaming while I took the photo...ha ha ha

Kids Work Hard

 

 The children here work hard. Like very hard!
I have never seen kids so aware of their adult surroundings. Once, mom and I were about to lock the storage door where the art supplies are kept, and the 2 girls who were helping us stopped us immediately and frantically reminding us that our purses were inside.
You can't carry anything. Kids carry everything for their moms. Even their little siblings! If they see you carrying something, they will insist to take it from you and carry it for you. This took time to get used to. Especially if I was carrying something very heavy. I'd have to insist on carrying it myself, much to their disappointment.
Last Saturday we ended art class with juice and popcorn. I gathered empty dishes up and put them in the kitchen. Mom went in to the kitchen to wash the dishes and they were all cleaned. We were puzzled for a moment until a little girl told us she had washed them all. What? Wow!
I learned just how hard they work when I was repairing a few other tiles on the floor. I had to chisel off the old cement and mortar. Jonathan's mom, Alma, cleans the Centre so he was hanging around. He's not really interested in my art classes. He saw me gathering up the tools. I asked him if he wanted to help me. He quickly took the tools from me and prepared the surface.

Then we went outside and broke some tiles. Each time he smashed a piece he exclaimed, "Perfecto!"
I showed him where the cement adhesive was and he prepared it by himself without hesitation. I was just watching to make sure it he did it right and while I stood there in awe, his mom walked by and told me he helps his dad all the time. Oh! But still! He's just a kid...
 

Then he helped do the mosaic tile.
Perfecto!

Gotta Love Collage

 Thanks to a donation of magazines from Sandy and Bud, I was able to do a Collage with todays group. I asked them to start with a simple shape. A star, a house, a flower. I used a star for my demonstration and started with 5 triangles of color, azur, roho, blanco, verde and negro. A great way to practice my colors in Spanish! Then I added images. A strawberry for the middle, giant lips and teeth eating the star. That's all I neede to do and thier little minds understood. They dove in and the results were amazing. They were at it most of the morning and most kids made more then one. So much happiness on thier faces!

Everyone seems to be completely engaged!

 Fatima and Ramses and Fatima again, showing off their collages. I'm pretty impressed with both of these kiddos!

Mom/Grandma/Mella/Meya is always a big help. After I got the kids started, she took over while I left to do a repair in the Centre. With no Spanish, she just speaks in English. I am sure they have no idea what she is saying, but they love her. She always gets more hugs!

Chuya REALLY, REALLY enjoyed this project. She is a little unconfident when drawing, but this one brought out such pride in her. Makes me happy!

 

Repairing the Tile Floor

One of the first thing I noticed is some of the small repair jobs that were needed around the Centre. As Moonie gave us our tour, showing us all the programming, sewing, computers, dental clinic, women's clinic, etc, etc, I noticed the beautiful tile in the main thru-way was damaged.
Throughout the weeks I have been figuring out the repair job. One of the challenges was finding the correct supplies. With very little Spanish, at one hardware store, a guy sold me a small bag of, what I thought was the cement adhesive. It had no label. But...after I mixed it...something was wrong. It ended up being plaster. I had to clean it off the floor as much as possible, let it dry for a few days and chip out the rest. Lesson learned! Sometimes 'signing' what I need (yes, I carried a tile with me) just doesn't cut it.
A few days later, I found an actually tile supply store in Ajijic. I was already with my translated- words and practiced my Spanish. I was telling the guy what I was looking for and he spoke perfect English. He was raised in Ohio! Oh, ok...I got the proper cement and I chose black grout.
I repaired the largest area with a spiral. Some kids showed up the day I did the grout. I was almost finished, so I didn't see any harm in letting them help me do the last two cleanings of the grout.

 

A little craft enjoyed by All!

When I was sorting the art supplies I found a large bag of wine corks. We turned them into little necklaces.

The kids really enjoyed it.

 

I'm talking to Junior. He was raised in Ohio, so he speaks English and Spanish. He's a really nice boy. I wish he came to all of my classes so he could be my translator. But, I got the impression that he is put in this position a lot. Fair-enough.
 

I think I am asking for the Spanish word for mouth. But, I still don't remember it...tsk tsk.

What a nice bright room to teach in!

This girl was very shy and very hesitant to try.

Sonrisa! (Smile!)

 

Learning the word smile was muy necesito! Muy necesito isn't perfect Spanish, but if I say 'very necessary' to most Spanish people, they would understand.
Sonrisa por favor! as I am talking a photo. Most kids are not used to having their photo taken. I always show them the photos. They all giggle and want to see themselves.
These kids were all at the breakfast program, and I taught a little art project on mosaico. On the board I drew a spiral, but my demonstration was the letter G para Gail. I tryed to explain that they can do anything design they want. Tu decide! You decide. A few kids started to draw the letter G. I caught them and one-on-one they understood. But one guy, I didn't catch him... His was the letter G. When I told him, we both laughed. J para Jose!