San Juancito Jazz and Culture Fest

Ok so it's official I am in LOVE with my site! This weekend my counterpart hosted San Juancito's 11th Annual Jazz and Culture festival. The event took place all day Saturday and Sunday and had a variety of awesome performances, diversity of foods, and sale of art made by the students at the art school and local artisans. I am so proud to announce that I sold six paintings made by wonderful students. Two pieces were chosen to be auctioned off at the event! Below is a picture of my student's art on display.

The performances blew me away! Not only were there great jazz bands from Honduras, there was also an urban dance group, a band playing covers of Bob Marley, a drum circle with fire dancers, an acrobatic dance group, JAICA volunteers performing a dance kendo-style, and finally a fireworks show to the sound of music by Beethoven. Ahh it was all so amazing!

I can't begin to explain how great it was listening to live jazz with all the beautiful scenery in the background. Perfection.

One of my jobs at the event was to lead the painting of a mural with my students. I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like although the plan was to let the children be free and creative with what they painted. So, I started with an outline of mountains to represent the town and let my students fill it in with color and designs. All of a sudden it got crazy when random kids started showing up and grabbing paint brushes and joining in. Then random teens and adults showed up and started painting too! I was kind of stressed out at first but then I realized the whole thing went in a really cool direction. It become a community mural where kids, teens, and adults from all over could be creative and expressive together. It was a beautiful thing.

Let me also just say again how amazing my counterpart is to have put this event together for the community. She is a true believer in the power of art to transform lives and I am in awe of all she has done for the town and the results of her work. All the money raised at this event goes to fund the Escuela Magica and the Escuela Taller. I feel so incredibly blessed to be part of this organization and hope I can contribute all I can to carrying out its mission. I can't wait to keep working with my kids and helping them to develop their own individual, creative styles and find their voice through through artistic expression.

-Chelle