Meeting

I went to Kenya on a whim. An opportunity presented itself, and I uncharacteristically said yes, when my new friend Jen asked, my answer was yes, I would like to go to Africa and paint a mural.

I surprised myself, and everyone close to me. Vaccinations, malaria pills, visas and plane tickets, I navigated all of it by myself on the East coast, without a car, while my fellow travelers got ready in CA. I rejoined the group eventually, and we all flew out of LA

Some choices change you. I didn’t go with that in mind. I went for reasons I am still not clear about. I went with an organization called Kids for Peace to help finish a school they had helped school children raise money for and then had built in a tiny remote town in Kenya.

I designed and painted a giant mural in five days for the multipurpose room. The entire village hung out in the one room while we worked. There was so much love, so much awe, so much going on, I still don’t have words to express the beauty of the experience. We then were taken to a locally run massi safari camp. From there I caught a small plane on a tiny airstrip in the middle of wilderbeast migration back to Nairobi. Stayed in a luxury hotel, kissed a giraffe, and flew back to Boston.

This was the beginning of my association with Jill and her non-profit, Kids for Peace. I delivered on deadline. I had a band of Kenyan kids helping me, hanging out for hours. I was a teacher back in CA, so art and kids were something I was comfortable with. Everything else was a crazy out of my comfort zone experience. I have stories!

All of these years later I still can’t believe I did that. G who at the time was furious with me, loves that I went, and then went a second time.

Jill is a maverick. She makes big things happen in the world. Being a part of anything Jill is doing is the biggest and best adventure anyone could ask for.

That’s how it started. Jill and I have since shared many fun experiences, who knew art would make me so adventurous!