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Broummana High School (BHS), Beirut, Lebanon Sally Abikhalikil I had arranged to meet with the school principal, Dr. Walid Khoury, to discuss KEEPS and arrange for me to get BHS kids involved in the project. It was very nostalgic walking through the campus; for it had been years since I’ve been back. Dr. Khoury was so excited about KEEPS. He was also so proud to have a BHS alumnus attending the LSE and being involved in such a wonderful project. He took me around the office introducing me to the staff and telling them why I’m here. It was a very nice feeling. He set up a meeting for me with the elementary school principal. Miss Moukarzel was very nice and just as excited about the KEEPS exhibition and promised to arrange the workshop before the kids where due to break for Easter vacation. She said that the 10 kids she will chose will be between the ages of 8-10. It was a Wednesday morning, again a gorgeous day, where I returned to BHS, this time to actually meet the kids and paint. The art room was offered as the best place to have the workshop and I had 45 minutes to prepare. It was great to be in an art room, I always enjoyed art class, however, when I was attending BHS, we didn’t have art class—it was a different time, and it made me very happy to know that kids these days at the school have what we didn’t at the time. The kids arrived in 2 groups of 5. I started, in order to get things going and explained the KEEPS project to everyone. A few of the kids had some questions about it, like which other countries are involved, and when will the exhibition take place. Will there also be an exhibition is Lebanon? They all seemed to love the idea that so many other kids from around the world where doing the same thing. The painting started out slowly. Some of the kids really couldn’t think of anything. One of the kids asked: “Miss, aren’t we too young to know what the most important thing on our life is?” I responded by telling him to just think of something, or someone, anything really, that means a lot to him… that he would be really sad if that thing/person where no longer present in his life. He still had trouble coming up with something. Most of the kids did not have a hard time coming up with something and where just enjoying painting. Some asked for my help in drawing/paining, which I was more than happy to do, and others asked for my opinion; whether I think it looks nice and I taught them how to mix certain colours to get others. I thought it was going very well at this point. Once everyone finished, it was time for the surprise I had promised them initially. They each got a lollipop and a chocolate kinder egg. They were SO happy! Then I handed them their KEEPS certificates. I was really pleasantly surprised to see the kids’ faces when they saw the certificates. They were more excited with them than the chocolate! The certificates gave us an opportunity to bond again as a group. We took group pictures, and again I answered some of their questions which included: did the other kids get these certificates too, will our paintings be put in the school newsletter. Will you write about this…among others. I was relieved at this point, because I felt that the kids were genuinely interested and really enjoyed the experience, which I had doubted at some point during the workshop when I had lost control. I was actually sad to say buy to the kids once the workshop was over. They were so sweet and would repeat their “thank you” and how much fun they had. On my way back home, reflecting on the past few hours with the kids. I realized that other than the fact that I had a massive headache—I really enjoyed myself, and it was an honour in way that the kids eventually felt comfortable with the project and with me to paint something that means so much to them. |
