Art Class

Today I got to go to the deaf school, where Mercy Ships goes every week to give an art class.  I'm not an artist, but it was pretty fun anyway.

Harry leading the macarena 

Harry doesn't often lead the art class.  The last time he went was six weeks ago, when he taught the class the macarena.  Apparently, it is now an expected start to the art class.  So we started out with a silent macarena.

I was one of ten people from the ship, and we sat with the students.  Thinking back on it, I think that Harry and I were the only ones from the U.S.  That's not unusual since there are 35 countries represented on the ship this week.

There were about 30 kids in the class, sitting two or three to a bench. The room is open to the outside with concrete walls and floors, similar to what we saw in Guinea.  It was pretty hot, but we got a breeze every once in a while.


We all had a pencil and a sheet of paper, and Harry showed us how to draw a leopard head, step by step. There was no sign language interpreter, and although these kids are old enough to write, none of us speak French.  But it really didn't matter- everyone seemed to have fun.

A previous visit when they painted

When we signed our pictures at the end, the girl I was sitting with was named Debra.  I told her that we had the same name!  She drew an American flag on the back of her paper to show me.  She guessed right!

Debbie