The Accompong Riverstone Project - Part 1

[T&A]

The smiles say it all!! What a wonderful story you shared. Thank you again!

[Guirigay]

Thank you Accompong, this does my heart good.

[Smokin Kevan]

I have not smiled so much in awhile...

Happy travels...

Skb

[pointvillagepete]

Nice to see a project come full circle, the kids participating in a program, and seeing the final result with a sale on January 6

Bless Up to all those who made this program happen

[Markospoon]

Man, Thanks for posting.

The sight of the wooden desk just makes me think of how timeless some things are.

Those pictures and the pure joy and love of life in the eyes of the kids is so precious.

Thanks for caring.

[Accompong]

Soon the success of the Riverstone Project became widely known by the residents of Accompong Town and the young and older adults would ask to paint. This was an unexpected event and one that the Project welcomed with open arms. Again, a small roadblock to using the school for painting because they were adults threatened to delay the project but in true Maroon spirit, a shop owner offered to set up a place to paint inside and in front of her store.



Her father-in-law (whom we call “Uncle”) stepped up first and painted the lizard (shown above) and then roared with laughter when someone pointed out that the lizard had 5 legs!



Marshall joined in the fun and painted his masterpiece. Soon, everyone was picking up a piece of Blue Mahoe and joining the fun. To our surprise, we were soon hosting 10 adults in the group.



Scean (pronounced See Ann), our neighbor and fresh egg supplier, pulled up a chair and showed her talent to the delight of her son who attended our first class. It was starting to look like the generational connection from child to parent was taking hold. Hopefully, for a long time to come.



Another mother in my neighborhood sat down and sketched a picture to paint on her wood slab.



Shane, a 23 year old man whom I have known since he was 7 had been anxiously awaiting this day as he sketched and paints with colored pencils all the time. When he was shown a picture of a lion he knew that is what he wanted to paint.



In all my many years of traveling around and living in Jamaica, I can honestly say that I have never seen so many adults relaxing and thoroughly enjoying art for the sake of art.



A couple of adults painted an extra wood slab to bring us to a total of 18 pieces of art that they readily offered to be sold at the January 6th Celebration with all the proceeds going to help school children pay their way back and forth to school. Tonight, the second week of classes for the younger children (8 - 15 yo) will be finished and the adults were voicing overwhelming support for another evening of painting and, the next time, bringing some smaller children to a class to learn the fundamentals.

This experience has been quite humbling for me personally. With a small amount of paint, brushes and thinner the artistic talents of these former Maroon Warrior descendants are being reawakened and blooming from a struggling bud into a beautiful flower. As always, Jamaica and especially the Maroons in my hometown have risen to the occasion and reaffirmed my long held belief that anything is possible here.

I hope you have enjoyed this thread so far. Perhaps next year you can join us.

Peace and Guidance

[Biggs of the week]

Thanks for sharing Bill sure brought a smile to my face today !