Touch up!

It was exactly two years ago that I spent, with my team, a whole week in San Martín Jilotepeque (Chimaltenango, Guatemala) to paint an enormous jungle scene at the wall of the patio of the school for children with special needs. It was a fun project and it left me inspired to paint the outside wall too. That mural was created in the beginning of this year, and sponsored by the Dutch Foundation Colour4Kids. While I was painting this mural, we were in the process of planning the construction of a second floor at the school. The roof was already there, it “just” needed a ramp, walls, doors and a railing to convert it into a proper place for the kids. Colour4Kids provided the funding and by the time I finished the mural in February of 2024, I knew I would have to come back one day to paint the addition they planned to put on top of the existing walls, as well as some touch ups, because the mural would surely get damaged during the remodelling.

The construction went as smooth as could be, well within the time limit and even with a little money left over! But what surprised me most was that the murals were still in perfect shape. The builders had gone out of their way to protect them.

I recently went back to the school to continue the mural of the jungle above the ramp and do some minor touch ups here and there.

For the outside, I had asked the director to hire a local painter to cover the new cinderblock wall on top of the mural with some colour. I had a few coloured horizontal lines in mind, nothing special, just something to cover up the grey.
To my great surprise, the director sent me a picture of the painting in progress, asking me if they were doing okay. I was flabbergasted: not only had they plastered the new wall, they had repeated the geometric design from the bottom part of the mural, in the straightest of lines! It looked fantastic! I couldn’t have done it better, especially since we’re talking about 3.5-5 meters up in the air!

A week ago I went to San Martín Jilotepeque for the last time this year, as a guest to the inauguration of the expansion. It was a wonderful event with all the bells and whistles. The patio was beautifully decorated, the children performed dances, there was food and cake. What a nice project to be part of! 

Upstairs there’s still one grey wall left at an open corridor. Who knows, maybe next year this could be a dining hall for the kids, with a gorgeous mural about nutrition…???