16days-n-Jamaica - Pt.1 Painting of Primary School

As some may know and many may not, I have been away this month on a journey that has truly changed my outlook on life and how I see things. I was blessed to meet my good friend Zebi who grew up in the Blue Mountains of JA. For the past three years she has been going back home to throw a summer camp for children in her settlement. It has been a task that she has carried out by herself up until this year. She decided to put a team together, fund raise, and have some of her peers travel over to help out in teaching, counselling, and mentoring the youth. i started out in the first groups of heads to go over and our first mission was to paint a primary after school program for troubled teens. The boys where all about 15-17 and all came to the program on the own merit, the place Kingston, JA. I walked into this drab spot w/ a few second hand paints from the hardware store and had about an hour to get it in' since the day was pretty much over for the teens when we got there. Here are some images of what we did real quick.

1st step taping off sections so we could color black some areas and make designs. The boys where amped to decorate the space. I thought i wouldn't have enough time to paint a wall but as soon as I cracked the paint open they got to work,...trying hard not to get paint on their gear and look cool simultaneously.

At first the guys there kinda just stared at me wondering (who) and (what) i was doing but we soon bonded and paint has a way of involving people in its process. Drips, splatters, change, color, light, inspiration, energy.

When you work collectively on something, like building or painting, all involved take pride and ownership in whats accomplished. We pulled the tape back and the finished product was like a thousand times better than what we initially walked into.

We had a lil' photo shoot outside after the jump' and i got to see the personalities jump outta cats'. The lil shottas' really take pride in their poses and posture and one of the boys wanted a flic with every girl as seen here w/ Wendy, Lisa, and Zebi the first crew to hit JA and the pics turned out kinda "fresh".

Comments

Anonymous said…
....any word I can think of to describe the awesomeness of this would be an insult and an understatement, so I'll just go with *speechless*. Oh and yea, I used to live off Red Hills Rd, Half-way tree. (seeen)
Unknown said…
I AM SOOOO PROUD OF YOU!!!! ;) Each one teach one papi! Teach the yoot dem! Looks like it was a very enriching experience that they as well as you will keep with eachother for years and years and years!!! word!
Tony CNCP said…
more to come! thanx to both of you inspirations, Joya & Ace must link!

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