Creative Arts Day!

To kick off the Holiday Program, Olives' headmaster Mr. Lucus designated three days of fun activities for the students. Under the command of local teacher Mr. Joseph, GVI volunteers helped put on a creative arts day, community clean up day and sports day. The first of these, creative arts day A.K.A. creative chaos (though lots of fun), required the most preparation and patience. The volunteers spent all evening cutting up templates and gathering supplies for the next day. We were each given a craft project and a room to oversee. Because it was my bright idea, I was assigned to the mask workshop. I spent almost two hours designing and creating my African construction paper mask to use as an example in class. All night I dreamt of the amazing masks my students were sure to wow me with. In actuality, the day was rather more chaotic.........

As I pulled myself out of the sparkling debris of coloured paper and stickers, I eagerly awaited to compare with the other volunteers. Shockingly, when I asked how everyone's day went, they all responded with ''really good,'' . I wondered, where did I go wrong?! Then I realized through flashbacks of twinkling clouds and effervescent children, it was the glitter. The students spent more time showering themselves in glitter than they did concentrating on their masks. As frustrating as this was, it was also pretty funny. The kids definitely enjoyed themselves, and a few good masks came out of it. After all's said and done, I'd do it again, just without glitter.

Jenn Lewis, GVI volunteer.

Creative Arts Day!