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Other entries in Takeo

dreaming elephants

went back to the orphanage as planned and got the little kids to color up the elephants. what a relief, everyone actually shared the pens! a lot of them had a hard time deciding what to do so I gave a few ideas (who says elephants can't be covered in polka dots, stars n swirls?) a few of the kids REALLY got into it. (very un-khmer-like to show such independence and creativity. of course I loved it) they filled in the elephants with tons of color, had dudes riding on top, gave them necklaces, socks - it was all good.

then, and how can you tell these kids to stop creating, they took over most of the rest of the wall. the elephants all had thought bubbles (they're dreaming) that I was saving for the big kids in the painting class. but as soon as the little kids finished off  the elephants, they went for the thought bubbles - when they ran out of those, they made their own  (sweet - clearly not enough dreams for those elephants). there's the apsara dancer, the sleeping food-cart guy, masks, stilt houses,  hills...some really original stuff was coming out - no way was I going to stop it.

course, after an hour the pens started disappearing and the attention span was going, so mural day came to a natural close but I think everyone had fun. some of the most timid kids (at first) came up with the best stuff. overall, my hope is everyone feels proud of what they did - I tried to stay out of it as much as possible.. the next day a lot came up to show me what they painted the day before so seem like they dig it....but the best part was coming back to see a couple of the little kids with stuff drawn on their legs. thats what happens with unsupervised markers,  I guess. very tribal.... yet non-toxic.

after this, I checked out of AC heaven at okay guest house and  moved back in with cathleen, dale and family - my friends of friends from home living here. for those of you who know me you'll know how strange it is for me to say it is great to be surrounded by kids, but these guys are fantastic! will get fotos up soon. oh yeah - but get ready for random pics for a while. I accidentally smashed my digital camera screen. I  can still take pics, but can't see of what until I plug into a computer. less than ideal, but maybe I'll get better shots because I have to think less....and I'd just fixed my fritzed out ipod. me n technology aren't doing so well right now...

today I hopped a 1.5 hr bus to an hiv/aids center south of town. the center is run by 2 amazing peeps who left the states years ago and never looked back. the center is full of families, singles, kids - either with aids or impacted by it (ie: orphaned). this is the end of the road for most of them so the goal is to create as plesant an environment as possible.  I met a boy that arrived 3 days ago and shook hands with a wheelchair-bound man with TB & a rash -the last stages of AIDS taking over - he and his wife just showed up. TB is the typical "last phase" for a lot of people with aids. heard loads of nasty stories of what happened to people before they arrived - doctors refusing to test for aids so they can make more money treating symptoms, husbands rejecting wives that THEY infected (from prostitutes), kids rejected by entire families.  it's all so heartbreaking...but again, the resiliency of children - of people  - despite the cruelty of others. smiles were everywhere.

I brought pens and paper and got the kids drawing in the afternoon. there was more of that unsuredness around creativity (or more likely, just around me - this strange new person).  the kids want so badly to please, they will all draw the thing that gets praise. phases would sweep the table - the heart phase, the flower phase, crosses,  mangoes - remnants of other art classes? not surprisingly, the little kids had the most creative stuff. why is it we grow up, start thinking too much and muck up so much. but after a while, most kids warmed up to moving past the typical stuff and dug into it. once again, so much pleasure in just watching kids create - it's like they loose touch of the world for just a second. it was great to see a few more smiles. so I'll probably go back next week for 2-3 more days - this is a pretty remarkable place. 

but my days in cambodia are numbered. starting to think about vietnam. will be strange to get back into traveler mode....

ps - I uploaded more pics to the last 2 posts - click back to see em

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