Playtime and Projects

When the lego blocks were dumped out of the bag, it was like a piñata had just broke and the candy was spilling out. There were screams and then a mad dash to get as many legos as they could hold. After playing with the children for about thirty minutes, most of us went to work on the rooms. A large group went in the girl's room to paint the top part of the wall. A smaller group that I was in, went to the library to paint the top of the room. As you can see, the color scheme isn't exactly the best choice. For the library, we were going to paint the top and ceiling a cream color and put a new paint of blue on the bottom. In the girl's room, we painted the top, which was yellow, cream and the bottom, which was blue, pink. We also were to paint the bathroom pink. In the library, we had to take all the books off the shelves and take the shelves off the wall. Once the tarp was on the ground, the lines were taped, and the walls were somewhat clean of dirt and grime, we began to paint. During the taping process, the kids would tear pieces of tape and hand them to us. The children were constantly peeking in the doorway to see what we were up to. Some of them came in to offer help. One of the boys asked me if he could paint and I told him sure and handed him the paintbrush. Apparently the children weren't supposed to help us and one of the helpers told him to stop and go play. Personally, I think the children wanted to help because they had never had anyone else do something for them. They are so used to doing things for themselves that they felt obligated to help us finish the project. After painting for a few hours, it was time for lunch. This time however, the kids would not get a homemade meal, but rather pizza from a store.