No quiero casas ni arboles ni montañas

“I want another tile”
“Okay, what’s your idea? What are you going to paint?”
“A house.”
“I said no houses. We have too many houses.”
“A tree.”
“I said no trees.”
“Then I don’t know.”
“Well, think about it, draw it out on paper, and then maybe we’ll paint a tile”

This is the translated version of a majority of the conversations I held with the kids today. The mothers helped me set up a makeshift table out on the field across the street from el comedor. We thought more kids might be able to paint if we did it near el comedor. Bad idea.

I did have the regulars show up, and they hadn’t yet had the opportunity to paint tiles, but it was a huge group—about 15 kids running around, asking for markers, paper, tiles, everything. When I tried to help one kid, the others literally climbed all over me begging for attention or another tile. I had to turn down so many kids because they either didn’t have any imaginative or new ideas for a tile painting or had no ideas at all. I finally got a few to expand their minds and we painted a total of 44 tiles (a record for a day), but it was very stressful.

I asked the mothers that I go back to going to individual homes, especially since that way we can have more adolescents paint, and get a larger variety of artistic expression. Also, then I’m not stuck with a hundred tiles painted by the same 12 or 15 kids.