Teaching Art In Tanzania

These are some of the students that attend school in Kigoma, Tanzania. I don't know if any of them will be in the art classes I will be teaching while I am there, but as you can see they are outgoing children. The title of the second photo is "Yeah, we love school!" I am thrilled to be teaching kids who love going to school and who are excited about learning. I decided to center my art lessons around the story of creation found in the book of Genesis. I will be doing lessons about the sun, moon, stars, planets, land, sky, sea, creatures of the sea, creatures above the sea, and morning and evening. I chose lessons that use many types of media to expose the kids to all types of art. They will be painting, drawing, doing collages, cutting, gluing, etc. The lessons are short(about 25-30 min.) and each group will have two lessons a week. Lately I have not been doing much of my own artwork so I am sure that this experience will inspire me to get back into photography and maybe back into painting. Can you imagine the opportunity to teach art to children who have only experienced coloring pages? It is like starting with a blank slate. I am so excited to see their faces as they view the artwork they have created on their own and as they see the variety of expressions of the same lessons from each of their classmates. I hope they will share them with their families and talk about what they did in each lesson. Oh, the joy of sharing about God's creation with these children. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity and to learn from them and experience these new adventures with them. I am sure I will learn more from them than they will learn from me. I am also excited to come back and share a new enthusiasm for teaching art at the elementary school here in Albany where I have been doing art with the students for the past several years. I pray I will be energized and that once again I can impart the joy of creative expression here at home. I am so happy that even late in life(they say you can't teach old dogs new tricks) God gave me this gift of creative expression. I never dreamed my life would be changed so much with the gifts of storytelling and art that came at a later age. Oh well, better late than never. I hope each of you that are reading this will discover new gifts you have been given or will be inspired to revisit those gifts you have had for many  years with a new sense of awe at what you have been blessed with.