You might remember this post from a few weeks ago, titled “D4RT: Kickstarting art in Peru”, announcing a fundraising campaign for a mobile art workshop aimed at bringing classes and public art projects to impoverished communities worldwide. Thanks to a staggering outpour of support, this dream materialized and D4RT took its first flight three weeks ago.

Aspiring volunteers, take note: bringing 200 pounds of art supplies into a country with rigid customs and bribe-hungry officials is not as fun as it sounds. Before we ever left American soil, I paid an exorbitant sum in American Airlines luggage tolls in addition to the mystery fees Lima customs charged us upon arrival. Still, this was less heinous than what would have transpired had I tried shipping everything ahead of time – namely dubious safety of the goods, taxes, taxes, taxes and steep storage fees, to boot. In the end, after a series of comical, Kafkaesque events, my donations and I made it to Moyobamba unscathed and the fun began.

Coming to rural Peru was a transformative experience in itself – being immersed in Nature with a capital “N” had been a dream for this life-long city dweller. Waking up to the Amazon jungle on my doorstep, the din of cicadas swelling all around and mystery insects setting up camp in my half-unpacked suitcase served as daily conduit to the Nature we forget – supreme nature that, here, can swallow us whole. Despite such temptation, I couldn’t allow this trip to become a week-and-a-half-long vision quest – after all, I had a class to teach and a mural to paint. Calls of the wild had to be placed on hold until another time.

D4RT in Yantaló consisted of three 2-hour workshops and three days dedicated to creating a mural. As I’m told is the local custom, not everything went according to plan – the school closed unexpectedly and an elaborate ballet of key acquisition was performed daily, so that my students and I could use the campus. And have you ever heard of “Peru time”? It’s real and at least thirty minutes slower than American time, which took some getting used to. Minor inconveniences aside, though, the kids, ages 7-13, took to my lesson plans [which I was lucky to have translated into Spanish and printed in advance] with much enthusiasm and diligence.

D4RT, part one: the class. Our first lesson focused on self portraits. To my surprise, none of the twenty kids in my class had ever drawn one and my request of them depicting how they feel, rather than how they look, was a welcome challenge. Several students even asked for second sheets of paper, stayed after class and created two drawings. Memorably, one girl drew herself as a bleeding she-Jesus on the cross, followed by a drawing of herself as a happy flower.
On our second day together, we explored comic books – I brought All-star Superman, Mafalda, Calvin and Hobbes, Marvel’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The first half of the class was spent reading and after, the kids learned how to tell 4-panel picture stories. Among my favorites: a man saved from drowning by a bear, a dog punished for eating a guinea pig, a seed growing into a tree and bearing fruit, then dying.

The final workshop was all about masks and painting. We passed around mask books and I asked the students to think about what they wanted their mask to represent, then to spend the rest of our time together creating it with acrylic paint.

D4RT, part two: the mural. It took one day to prepare the wall, another to sketch out the design, and then, through another series of circumstances beyond my control, I found myself with just one day to paint the thing, start to finish. I was flying out the next day and thus in for a serious art marathon, arriving at the school at 6:30am and beginning the outline just as the chickens began to stir.

By 2pm, I had five extra pairs of hands helping* – even the school guard joined in. Friends and neighbors brought by sustenance as we sweated our way through a humid jungle afternoon and into the evening hours. As the sun set over the forest at 7pm, the mural was as done as it was going to get. We toasted and dispersed, full of fumes and the sense of accomplishment.

It’s difficult to crystallize the breadth of impressions I’m left with, but as of right now, it looks like I will be returning to Yantaló next year, to do it all over again!

*A note of thanks: D4RT couldn’t have happened at all, had it not been for the help and translation skills of Milagros – a kindergarten English teacher who works with the Yantalo Peru Foundation.

Words and photos by Zoetica Ebb