The Gallery — Colour

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I have been meaning to write about this ever since we got back from Kenya and I think it is the perfect topic for this week’s Gallery theme of colour.

HOVIC, was a hive activity, in fact one of the noisiest and busiest projects we saw during our time in Kenya.  The boys were eating, dancing, hanging out of trees, having lessons, or just generally sitting around with their mates, safe and off the streets of Kisumu.  Or they were making these gorgeous bead bracelets which are sold for just a pound or two (not that the boys are allowed to handle the financial side of things, it is all done through one of the project leaders).

But I loved these big bowls of beads, and the earnest way the boys were setting about making them. Something so fiddly and time consuming yet the look of concentration of their faces, and the joy as they rummaged through the finished pieces was captivating.

We would never really think of our children beading as a life skill in this country, would we?  Yes it helps develop fine motor skills but as a skill to be learned, to make money in later life? Well it just isn’t something we would really promote.   Yet for these boys it absolutely was and was yet another example of a skill being taught to empower these boys to go about making their own lasting change.

And yes, of course I bought some 🙂