All on a Saturday Morning

It's probably not too far off to suggest that most of us fondly remember our childhood Saturday mornings being all about watching cartoons while eating ridiculously named cereal, and letting our parents sleep in a little.

Fun times.

Here, though, it's not like that.  

First, the sleep in thing is that we begin the day at 6:00 a.m. not 5:30, all adults included.  Chores are next, because it's just so much more pleasant to do them when the air is still cool.  Then breakfast, which will consist of rice and protein and some fruit or vegetable.  Thais don't seem to distinguish between meals as much as I think we do.

Chores may spill a over into the after breakfast morning on a Saturday, because we have to get everything ready for Sunday.  Having church, and the meeting room for church attached to where we live means at least once a week we have everyone over.

But after all that.  When we're done all that, we paint.

Or draw.  Or make cards.  Or string beads.  Or any other creative project we can produce with the wondrous supplies held within the mystical realms of the grey bins that live under the table in the guest house.

At the beginning, I tried to convince Yupa to keep these in a more available space so that the children can have at them whenever they like.  But she insisted they stay safe between visits, and I now understand why.  It's a bit of a crazy creative chaos deal.  Especially when you think they won't remember, oh let's say, all the beads we have in stock, so you don't put that out, but Lukmee, who's not shy about these things, politely but persistently points with her mouth to that particular bin.  

So I relent, and together we dig out those particular containers from their ever-so-neatly stored spaces, and add them to the mess.

Chaotic, but not noisy.  There's ten of them gathered around the tables and sprawled on the floor.  They are all quite focused, quite used to having to wait their turn for one of the five pair of scissors, easily moving between each other to reach for something they need.  Still, repeated snipping leaves snippets, and experimental use of paint leaves globs.  Da has even discovered the pleasing results of splaying small portions of white paint over a final project for a snow effect.  And the beads, well, they spill a lot.  Clean up will be tedious, to say the least.

Da's painting.  Snow effect is rather lost in the picture, and against white background.

Here she has recreated the art project Abby introduced when she was here last July.

I don't mind.  No one is on a device.  We don't have them here.  Everyone is focused on self expression.  They are thinking of their Sponsors, creating gifts for them for me to bring back in the large manilla envelopes with their names on them.  Beautiful, true masterpieces of childish love.  Offered as exactly what they wanted to do with their Saturday morning.  

I move among them quietly.  Cutting lengths of thread for beading.  Refilling paint cups.  Finding more paper.  Finding the glue stick.  Helping to spell out a word for writing or beading.   Receiving the finished works and gushing over them, telling them how much their Sponsor, by name, will love it.  And in the midst of it, I realize there's really no other way I'd like to spend a Saturday morning either.

At the end of the morning the paint all washes off easily.  With only the slightest of suggestion, they all pitch in to clean things up.  Even all the beads.

We operate on a shoe string budget around here.  You might think we're poor, except...for Saturday mornings.  You can't buy what happened here in the main room of the guest how this morning.  

Not for all the money in the world.

And yet....Saturdays aren't even my favourite of all the week.

Tomorrow's Sunday!!!!!!!!!!