Wooooooosh

Kids art workshop no 2 down in the red light district.......



Location - ArtSpace2, St 51, Phnom Penh
Resources - Paper, paints, brushes, pencils, felt pens
Participants - 20+ kids
Volunteers - Sreyteean, Jannay, Ayse, Zoe

Started electricity-less so no fan or decent lighting.
Temperature outside about 35 degrees C.
Sweat leaking. A few kids turned up.
Sweat dripping. A few more.
Sweat pouring. Word had got out. Loads more.
First off, gentle drawings with felt pens and pencils.
Then big paper and life size portraits.
Then paint and brushes and a creative wooooooooosh.
Pictures of cars and flowers and people and houses.
A tree covered with hand-print leaves.
Paper masks and hats made from torn up drawings.
Origami swans and and flowers.
All their own ideas.
Pictures drying out on the walk-way outside.
Security guards asking to keep the noise down.
A ten year old girl collecting up the pens,
Without being asked, organising the clear-up.
Some kids running off to the games arcade
Where they will sleep the night.
Others just hanging around,
Waiting for their Mums to finish work.
So they help to put up the pictures on the walls
Until they're covered, top to bottom.
The first layer of a creative wooooooooosh.