My dear friend, Julie, is an art teacher in Maui and, with her husband, she has a home here in my neighborhood where they spend about half of every year. She reads my blog and it prompted her to express an interest in going to the orphanage with me. That’s how I got lucky enough to be a part of Julie’s water color lesson.

Last Saturday she and I worked on our lesson plan and we created some samples. I learned a lot from her about how to break it down into small steps, which is what good teaching is about. On Monday, armed with courage, water colors, markers, lots of paper, and water color pencils, brushes and some containers for water, we loaded everything in my truck.

 

On the way to the orphanage, we picked up another of my friends, Stacee, who hales from Colorado, and with her hubby, she also has a home here. And so it was that we three adults got charged up and went to have some fun. As one might imagine, we enjoyed it every bit as much as the children. Receiving blessings is normally what giving delivers, right?

 

¿Qué vive en el mar? What lives in the sea?

This was the question posed by Julie to the eight, energetic, children artists in our first group. It was exciting to watch their faces light up and see how easily they took to the project.

We were amazed as we watched them dig right in, creating their own special underwater scenes.

 

 

We managed to work with about 20 of them before our time was up, and I, for one, was exhausted at the end of two hours. It was a contented exhaustion reminiscent of my years as a teacher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can’t get too much of a good thing when it comes to days like this. If you are ever in need of a “pick-me-up” you must visit the Hogar del Niño in Todos Santos.

 

 

 The kids are generous with their smiles and their talents—sharing and helping each other is their norm.

 

 

 

 

We’re already gearing up for another painting session. Next time we’re going to paint birds!