Tinga Tinga

Today was a non-program day. In the morning I went on a hike to a waterfall. On the drive to the hike Molly was making Mario cart noises as she got stuck driving on the sidewalk (we couldn't find a solid looking bridge to get off the sidewalk and back onto the street), flew over bumps, and chased chickens and goats off the road with the car. Also, every time that we went by cabbage fields El would yell "cabbage!" in a hilarious voice so that just enhanced the drive.

The hike was awesome. We started in a banana farm and then split off into the woods. From there we hiked up a river bed. Because it is the dry season here the river had been reduced to a small stream so there was plenty of exposed rocks to hike on. I absolutely LOVED the waterfall. There wasn't very much water flowing down the falls but it was still really nice. I climbed up as far as I could and then climbed back down, took my shoes off and walked around in the pool at the bottom of the falls. Riverside hikes are my favorite hikes and, even though I'm horribly out of shape, I had a great morning. I only fell once and barely got scraped so it's all good.

After the hike I walked to a painting shop that we had visited last session and asked them if they would teach me how to do a tinga tinga painting. To my surprise they said "yes, of course," invited me in, and set me up with a painter to teach me. They had me pick a canvas first. I picked a square one and the teacher started to sketch the general shapes for me but then I changed my mind and started another one on a long rectangle. As soon as he started drawing the giraffe outline on that canvas I knew that I had made the right call to switch canvases. After sketching a very rough outline of a giraffe, a tree and some birds the painter showed me how to fill in the painting. He would do I little of one section to demonstrate the technique and then I would replicate what he had done and finish painting that part.

First, the tree, giraffe, and bird silhouettes were filled in with black paint. Then the paint had to dry. Drying took about an hour and a half and I watched another painter work and talked to the men who worked at the shop while I waited. The painter was doing knife paintings and he worked impressively quickly. The knife paintings seemed to be all very deliberate randomness. They offered to let me try but I said I would just watch. Once my silhouettes were dry I filled in the shading on the giraffe with a line of white paint spread out with a stiff brush. Then colored in the white sections on the birds as well as the spots on the giraffe. After that I used black paint to fill in the details on the birds and outline the white sections of the animals so that they stood out against the white background. Once this was done I added grass under the giraffe's feet using the same stiff-brushed technique as the shading. Finally I signed my name.

Everyone at the painting shop was amazing. They talked to me as I worked and continuously complimented my work. I think that they were genuinely impressed (one guy asked me if painting was my profession) but maybe they just complement all tourists; either way it was really nice. They also took pictures of me working with my camera so that I would have documentation of the creation process. And they offered me food and got me a coke. I spent about 4 hours in the painting store and they entertained me and taught me the whole time.

The day ended with me running back to the cars with my still-wet painting in my hand because Molly called and said we had to go. I had a great day though. I think that if we go back to Mtu Wa Mbu I will go back to the painting place and ask if I can make another painting :]