Finger Painting with Lumad Kids :)

A 30-minute trek led us to a lumad school nestled in a spacious meadow surrounded by overgrown trees. Mixed feelings of anticipation and trepidation filled me as I saw the kids I was about to facilitate for the finger painting activity. 3-7 year old indigent kids who have yet to discover the joys of putting their fingers in a canister of paint in order to build masterpieces that will beat a Picasso any other day.

To be honest, I never had any prior experience with finger painting and I am not also adept even with brush painting. I tend to have poor color coordination and mixing skills. Hahaha. But still, when the invitation to facilitate the activity came, I just said yes.I love kids and I love to get down and dirty, and well, finger painting with kids encapsulated it all. 


Together with Kara and armed with cartolinas and boxes of yellow, green, and brown poster paints that were given by various oh-so-generous donors, we entered the classroom where we are going to hold the activity with kids. At first, we were fumbling on how to go through the activity, but after we had ourselves introduced, everything followed through. We did some icebreakers and energizers to set the mood for creative juices to flow and to build up excitement. We then distributed the bottles of paint and I demonstrated how to go through the activity. 

For the first phase, we teamed them up by 3’s and taught them how to make trees, while in the second activity, we had them paint Christmas trees individually. It was there that I saw how awesome, abstract, and oddly-shaped Christmas trees and fruit trees can be. LOL. Kids really. As they were doing their artworks, Kara and I were also busy assisting them in mixing their paints and washing their hands. Everything was just fun! When they were done, we had their artworks dried up in the field so it can be displayed later on in the grand finale. It was there that you can see a wide array of trees and Christmas trees that can beat any other Van Gogh painting.

One thing I learned in Social Work is the importance of community participation, for through it, we do not only attain our objectives but also learn from the community. Which is why after the art activity, we had the kids entertain and teach us with children’s songs that are sung in their Lumad dialect. We also had them lead action songs and dances. It was really great to see kids and teachers dancing together to teach us their Lumad songs. When all was done, we had the kids gathered up for snacks and short films from Youtube (thanks to Kara’s Globe 3G for a VERY FAST AND RELIABLE internet connection. Swear. It was REAAAAAAAALLY FAST!)

Overall, we all had fun!
Kara and I, the kids, their teachers and parents… Big smiles were plastered on their faces after the activity. And if I were to do this finger painting activity all over again, I would say yes over and over again without hesitation. :)

Monday, December 16, 2013

Pens of Hope Davao, Volunteer Works