It just gets better and better

Today started off with the wonderful voice of Deborah Moijoi nocking on my door of the guest house I am staying in at the Pedro Arrupe Center, the same place we have stayed 2 of the last 3 years of the art program and the first visit in 2007 with the Georgetown Kenya Group.

It feels like home here and Deborah is part of coming home to Pedro Arrupe and Nairobi, and now part of coming home will be Joseph, her new beautiful son who is 7 months old. He is just beautiful and has captured my heart. Wow, and if he does not look like a Moijoi, who does he look like. Having been to Deborah's home multiple times, I know what her sisters, mom and dad and nephews look like and boy is he from this family-You shall see.

Today was the last day for the Georgetown Kenya 2010 Group being here on the same property and so Margaret and I had lunch with them at the Vernadah and dinner with them at Talisman. It was such a wonderful addition to have Georgetown friends here in addition to just Margaret and I. It was an honor to be included in their meals where possible and really want to thank Phil for always being so inclusive and making it feel like the community Georgetown is regardless if you are in Washington, Qatar, or in this case, Nairobi.

We were off and running today at school and I am pleased to say that we have the art work we need for the Art Exhibit. It is the real deal... Tomorrow we open an Art Exhibit, with a reception and an introduction and the press and 58 from St. Al's, 54 students and 4 administrators. Can you believe it???? I can't.

Today in class, the art students showed up 1/2 hour early for both Margaret and I. I did not questions why they were so early and not in another class, just glad they were there and ready. The Forms 4 class, mine, were spectacular. So focused, so quiet and so engrossed in creating great work. I was pleased. We were listening to Classical again and Castro, one of the artist, said to me "its beautiful but not very interesting...", I said that I was more interested in him being connected with creating his art and not distracted by the music, his response....good point... We walked away with a bunch of art and lots to do tomorrow to "hang" this show as they might say in the industry... Thank God Margaret spent 12 years teaching art and hung student shows each year for all that time.

Margaret's class has been amazing and they created some really different and wonderful pieces. They are talented. Her forms 1 class hangs on her every word and it is great to see how attentive they are. We looked at each other today and still can't believe how well they take to art education. They get it, they get it, they get it.... Wow, I wish we had more to give.

So tonight at dinner with the gtown group was fun and they were in a bit of frenzy to make it to the airport on time, etc. I get it. Large group type reservations sometimes have complexities....We came a little late, they left we finished and had a desert that we split and talked about how rewarding it is. How familiar and regular it feels to be in Kenya and how nice it is to be teaching (something I have never done professionally and Margaret had for 12 years) students that want to be taught. How receptive the whole place feels to us and the concept of being here and how nice it is that we are expected back. The work is hard, rewarding, restorative, refreshing, reflective and motivating for us. We get so much out of what seems like so little we are giving. I am thrilled and can't believe that as hard as it feels to scrap ourselves away from our normal lives, that we get to be here doing something that has so much to give for our artist and for us.

It is all about reciprocity....It is all about relationships, it is all about sharing your passions, it is all about going outside of your comfort zone, it is all about taking chances, it is all about doing the unexpected and it is all about believing in yourself and knowing that we have all of you that believe in us too.

The next blog entry will be about the Art Exhibit at the Kouna Trust Center for Visual Arts.....

Thank you for your support and being on this journey with us.

Charles and Margaret