Watercolors

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Thanks to the generous donations of some wonderful people back home, I was able to watercolor paint with 40 children today. To spread the fun over time, I only brought 12 of the paint sets and a stack of paper with me today. They shared the paint and paper beautifully; not one bit of what I normally see when there is not enough to go around. The children were just so happy to have an activity on a Sunday afternoon. There is only one adult staffed at the orphanage on the weekends. There are 80 children there. Although I brought extra brushes there was not enough to go around. They quickly started using their fingers and created the most amazing art. Picture 40 children spread out on the floor just painting. It was beautiful.


This boy here is five. He didn't speak much but did paint many pictures.

Some children choose to copy from books. You can see on the right of the picture, he is drawing Simba. Most other children made creative drawings. One boy did the most amazing Spiderman. He has been wearing a batman shirt; he likes the superheros.



This was the "girly" group.
They all took their paintings to decorate their space.









The boy on the left is named Srey Pov. He is 14. In this photo he was just getting started on what turned out to be an amazing watercolor painting. I asked him to sign the bottom, and gave him a black pen. He was a little confused and spoke only little English. I told him that artists sign their work. He signed it and then presented it to me as a gift. I insisted that he keep it and decorate his room but he wanted me to have it. It is an amazing watercolor of the Cambodian country-side. I plan on having it framed and display it proudly. This a souvenir not sold in any shop.

When we were leaving, several of the paint containers still had a fair amount of paint remaining. I found Srey Pov and gave him some watercolors with several pieces of paper and told him he should continue to paint. He replied, I will, "acucharan" (thank-you in Cambodian) teacher.

I have learned three Cambodian words. My favorite I used over and over today..Suhad.which means beautiful.