Today we worked all day at Mount James primary and infant school. The projects are repainting the walls of the nursery area, designing and painting two murals for the same room and organizing all the schools books into a library. There was a lot of prep work that was very important before we could start work. First we finished moving everything out of the nursery area. We lay down newspaper, covered what furniture remained and put blue tape around the areas on the wall we did not want painted. We had to file down cement and stubborn dirt in the area where the mural is going to be so that the mural would not look uneven and then the area was primed. Then we finally started to get painting!
We all worked together and got the first layer completely painted before lunch! I thought we worked effectively as a team and we were good about helping each other without tripping over feet! Admittedly we did cheat a little and had some help from a handful of young students, such as Kenardo and Joshua, who showed up to see what was going on, even though it was a Saturday. They were all very excited and curious about our work. After lunch consisting of rice and peas, cabbage and chicken, we got back to work. This time we were divided into two groups. We had people who were working on the murals and a team that was working on the library. I was in the group that was working on the library. What this entailed was sorting though the piles and piles of books that had been unorganized and inaccessible on the shelves before and sorting them out into groups, such as books on science, young adult novels, and workbooks. It took a long time and we still aren’t completely done. But for the most part all of the books are sorted and sitting on top of the shelves waiting to be put away. Challenges that we faced include that a lot of the books didn’t fit into the established categories and we will need to go and find places for them later on down the road and that some of the books could belong to two or more categories so we had to decide where they would best belong.
The mural project team also worked hard today. The murals were designed by Delroy and Mica and the outlines for them are currently sketched on the walls. Because Delroy had designed his mural before Mica had begun work on hers, that mural is farther along. There were already people hard at work painting the hills and the sky. So far both look really good! They are all very child friendly with bright colors. Mica’s mural depicts a bridge connecting Jamaica and Washington DC. In Delroy’s mural there is a sunny landscape with a train making its way through the green hills. Also, there is an underwater portion with of bubbly sea creatures like a blowfish, an octopus, a sea horse, and a jellyfish. I think that the sea creatures were my favorite part; the little guys are all very friendly looking.
We are all back at the Bennett’s beautiful house right now. We are tired and those who haven’t showered yet are covered with paint, dust, and sweat. But I think that I speak for the group when I say that we are all very proud of what we did. We accomplished a lot in just a few hours, even more than I thought we would, but many hands make light work! I think what was most fun about today was playing with the kids during breaks and sorting though the children’s books. I found some of my favorites from when I was little in there. I am very excited to see what the nursery will look like when it is completed.
Abigail, 17, Parkdale High School