Reflections
Service-Mural in Hogar de Madres-3, 5, 6
Visit 1:
Today was the first visit to “Hogar de Madres” a center for teenage moms, our goal as part of the NAHS is to create a tree mural in their new library. Today we started sketching, the design within itself is simple but the wall is pretty big. Luckily, we have a big team of artists working on it. Although this is my first visit I also formed part of the planning committee that was in charged of the murals design. The whole experience in itself was very humbling and sad because I got to meet moms that were only 13 years old making them around four years younger than me and I don't think I would be ready to have a baby. Apart from this, this experience has for a moment popped the bubble that surrounds me and it has made me reflect on the amount of people living in these conditions. Finally, I hope that the mural ends up looking amazing and that it at least lets them escape even for a second from their reality.
Visit 2:
In this visit I started shading the trees trunk, and I started adding texture, working in big pieces like this can be very challenging, because the piece can start to distort pretty quickly. The good thing is that i'm not working alone and that we are all giving and receiving constant feedback. Today, we were really focused on our work so we didn't get to interact much with any of the mothers. Although, we all ate arroz chaufa that the mothers had prepared for us with them. Sharing and exchanging things at this level is really significant for me.
Last Visit:
Yesterday was the last hogar de madres visit, and unlike the other visits yesterday's visit was focused on sharing and on saying goodbye because the mural had already been completed. The first activity we did as a group was reading a picture book as a group, and I volunteered to read it. After this I decided to join the volleyball group where we played for a long time, I am really bad at volley but my team won once and lost the other. Finally, I stayed with with some ot the babies to allow some of the mothers to do painting activities. By the end of the day I feel like everyone left with a smile on their faces. Apart from this, I hope that this experience helped them get distracted from their reality if at least for one second, and that the mural we left would serve as a remainder of the good time that we had together.
Visit 1:
Today was the first visit to “Hogar de Madres” a center for teenage moms, our goal as part of the NAHS is to create a tree mural in their new library. Today we started sketching, the design within itself is simple but the wall is pretty big. Luckily, we have a big team of artists working on it. Although this is my first visit I also formed part of the planning committee that was in charged of the murals design. The whole experience in itself was very humbling and sad because I got to meet moms that were only 13 years old making them around four years younger than me and I don't think I would be ready to have a baby. Apart from this, this experience has for a moment popped the bubble that surrounds me and it has made me reflect on the amount of people living in these conditions. Finally, I hope that the mural ends up looking amazing and that it at least lets them escape even for a second from their reality.
Visit 2:
In this visit I started shading the trees trunk, and I started adding texture, working in big pieces like this can be very challenging, because the piece can start to distort pretty quickly. The good thing is that i'm not working alone and that we are all giving and receiving constant feedback. Today, we were really focused on our work so we didn't get to interact much with any of the mothers. Although, we all ate arroz chaufa that the mothers had prepared for us with them. Sharing and exchanging things at this level is really significant for me.
Last Visit:
Yesterday was the last hogar de madres visit, and unlike the other visits yesterday's visit was focused on sharing and on saying goodbye because the mural had already been completed. The first activity we did as a group was reading a picture book as a group, and I volunteered to read it. After this I decided to join the volleyball group where we played for a long time, I am really bad at volley but my team won once and lost the other. Finally, I stayed with with some ot the babies to allow some of the mothers to do painting activities. By the end of the day I feel like everyone left with a smile on their faces. Apart from this, I hope that this experience helped them get distracted from their reality if at least for one second, and that the mural we left would serve as a remainder of the good time that we had together.
Service-Fugaz-3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Visit 1:
Today was my first visit to callao as part of the fugaz club, in this visit we got to meet some of the kids we would be working with, we got a good idea of the place, and a graffiti workshop. The area we were on used to be flooded with gang activity, and violence, but now it has been restored as an artistic place by fugaz allowing for jobs and decreasing the violence around the place. The kids we talked to have a very humble background and we were told that some of them had suffered violence, and abandonment from their parents. This experience not only humbled me but it taught me how much art could change a place. At first we had the idea of making the lessons taught on the club on art history, but we found out that the kids were already involved in a bunch of artistic workshops so we decided to change the clubs focus towards teaching english through different activities.
Visit 2:
Yesterday was the first official visit where we played different games with the kids to help them learn english. One of these games involved some memory cards that I had designed. At the beginning of the visit we didn't know how many kids were going to come and we were kind of heartbroken when only a few kids came at first, but then a few minutes later a bunch of kids came. We learned through this visit that the kids had some basic english knowledge so we decided that we needed to step up the level for the next time. Apart from this, a kid started chasing another one with a chair and things got kind of crazy, but it was fun. It made me glad seeing all of the kids enjoying the workshops we had designed. Finally, we were told by the psychologist that works with the kids to keep our phones away and to really push ourselves to say things that wouldn't harm anybody in any way. Aprt from this, the psycologists told us to really try to avoid fights, and to push the kids into doing simple things such as cleaning their hands and helping by picking up stuff from the floor, because we cant really know what these kids have been through we it is very important that we think what we are going to say before saying it.
Visit 5:
It's been a few visits since I reflected, and it has been really nice seeing the club grow and evolve as more people want to be part of it. Today I did a recycled materials music workshop that then evolved into a massive recycled material dog sculpture. I was a fun thing to do and the kids enjoyed it aswell. It always amazes me how much satisfaction you can get by making other people smile, learn and have fun. Today marks my fifth visit to Fugaz, and it has been nice seeing the same kids return every saturday, i'm really bad with names but I sure can remember faces. Moreover, the interesting thing about Fugaz is that you never know how many kids are going to come, and you always see new faces.
Visit 6:
Today I did a face paint workshop with the kids. This workshop more than teaching the kids something, gave them the opportunity to experience something fun that they usually couldn't experience. The day before doing this workshop I had to learn how to actually face paint and I found it very challenging at first, but then after practicing on my sister and on my own face I managed to learn how the paint worked. At first the kids were a little unsure if they wanted to get their face painted so I decided to get mine painted to break the ice. After that almost all kids wanted to get face painted like their favorite characters or superheroes. Todays activity was super fun, and we were able to paint almost everyone because of the team that we had. The kids were really happy and they really seemed like they were having a good time.
Visit 1:
Today was my first visit to callao as part of the fugaz club, in this visit we got to meet some of the kids we would be working with, we got a good idea of the place, and a graffiti workshop. The area we were on used to be flooded with gang activity, and violence, but now it has been restored as an artistic place by fugaz allowing for jobs and decreasing the violence around the place. The kids we talked to have a very humble background and we were told that some of them had suffered violence, and abandonment from their parents. This experience not only humbled me but it taught me how much art could change a place. At first we had the idea of making the lessons taught on the club on art history, but we found out that the kids were already involved in a bunch of artistic workshops so we decided to change the clubs focus towards teaching english through different activities.
Visit 2:
Yesterday was the first official visit where we played different games with the kids to help them learn english. One of these games involved some memory cards that I had designed. At the beginning of the visit we didn't know how many kids were going to come and we were kind of heartbroken when only a few kids came at first, but then a few minutes later a bunch of kids came. We learned through this visit that the kids had some basic english knowledge so we decided that we needed to step up the level for the next time. Apart from this, a kid started chasing another one with a chair and things got kind of crazy, but it was fun. It made me glad seeing all of the kids enjoying the workshops we had designed. Finally, we were told by the psychologist that works with the kids to keep our phones away and to really push ourselves to say things that wouldn't harm anybody in any way. Aprt from this, the psycologists told us to really try to avoid fights, and to push the kids into doing simple things such as cleaning their hands and helping by picking up stuff from the floor, because we cant really know what these kids have been through we it is very important that we think what we are going to say before saying it.
Visit 5:
It's been a few visits since I reflected, and it has been really nice seeing the club grow and evolve as more people want to be part of it. Today I did a recycled materials music workshop that then evolved into a massive recycled material dog sculpture. I was a fun thing to do and the kids enjoyed it aswell. It always amazes me how much satisfaction you can get by making other people smile, learn and have fun. Today marks my fifth visit to Fugaz, and it has been nice seeing the same kids return every saturday, i'm really bad with names but I sure can remember faces. Moreover, the interesting thing about Fugaz is that you never know how many kids are going to come, and you always see new faces.
Visit 6:
Today I did a face paint workshop with the kids. This workshop more than teaching the kids something, gave them the opportunity to experience something fun that they usually couldn't experience. The day before doing this workshop I had to learn how to actually face paint and I found it very challenging at first, but then after practicing on my sister and on my own face I managed to learn how the paint worked. At first the kids were a little unsure if they wanted to get their face painted so I decided to get mine painted to break the ice. After that almost all kids wanted to get face painted like their favorite characters or superheroes. Todays activity was super fun, and we were able to paint almost everyone because of the team that we had. The kids were really happy and they really seemed like they were having a good time.
Service-2016 ICC Mural-1, 3, 4
Yesterday we finished painting the mural, it turned out good. Some of the challenges we had were maintaining the proportions, creating value with the varnish paint, and deciding how to do the sky. Apart from artistic challenges, we faced the opposition of some people of the grade at the start. Although, this started changing as the mural was closer to its completion. Staying after school to paint a mural with smelly paints can really tire you, but you sometimes have to make some sacrifices for art. While working on the mural we had to plan/decide where to start painting and were to wait in order for us to work as effectively as possible. This is why the sky was left as one of the last things to do and the sculpture as one of the first things.
Yesterday we finished painting the mural, it turned out good. Some of the challenges we had were maintaining the proportions, creating value with the varnish paint, and deciding how to do the sky. Apart from artistic challenges, we faced the opposition of some people of the grade at the start. Although, this started changing as the mural was closer to its completion. Staying after school to paint a mural with smelly paints can really tire you, but you sometimes have to make some sacrifices for art. While working on the mural we had to plan/decide where to start painting and were to wait in order for us to work as effectively as possible. This is why the sky was left as one of the last things to do and the sculpture as one of the first things.