Staying in the lines

Girl Coloring
Originally uploaded by alscalvin.

One of the funnest things about teaching the kids on Sunday mornings was how *good* they were at coloring. (And still are, I presume...) There was always a different mix of kids - I was surprised at how many very small children came, walking slowly or being carried by their big sisters, and then sometimes a half dozen mostly-naked shepherd boys would show up, and usually the kids of the clinic staff, who didn't seem to have much interaction with the village kids otherwise (perhaps because they live in better housing than the village, and not all of them are Karamojong?).

It was hard to focus on the kids sometimes while telling a story, because half the time I was talking to Lomo, both of us trying to find the right words to use ("excuse," as in make an excuse, isn't in Ngakarimojong vocubulary, I found out). But they were often patient listeners just the same, unless they started to quarrel, which did occasionally happen - littler siblings usually seemed to be the cause. And afterwards, they got to color.

A lot of these kids have had some small schooling, but probably more than half of them hadn't used crayons and paper before this. They got the hang of coloring quickly, though. In fact, I'm not sure when I've seen better coloring by such young kids! And they know which colors look good together - just like they have an excellent ear for rhythym?

I do wonder what they think of pictures of bearded men in flowing robes (like Abraham and Moses) - but then again, it's no more a stretch for them than for American kids, is it? But the concepts in the stories - God's promises to his people, to love them and forgive their sins at cost only to himself, even for the ones in Karamoja and Amerika - are the part that can cross cultural divisions. Sin and forgiveness are just as hard to come grips with here as there, but there's the same need to do so - and the same hope, in the end.