(This from a recent Mill Hill newsletter ...)
When I sauntered into the Nyalenda compound of the Kisumu Urban Apostolate Programme (KUAP-Pandipieri) I bumped into two young European females who were in the process of having their hair done ‘African style’. They noticed the logo on my headgear. “NS???? You must be from Holland!”. So, we proved to be compatriots. They were on a three-month volunteering programme at Pandipieri, young and enthusiastic. Still at the exploratory stage, looking around at the large variety of programmes and activities of KUAP, before making a choice of one to get deeper involved in. ‘Had they already made up their minds?’, I asked. ‘Street kids for me’, said one quite determinedly.
‘I’ve come to visit
the Art School’, I volunteered. At an earlier visit I
had found the doors closed but this time I was in luck. Dan Ouma, the
school’s director and, currently, the only teacher, stood there
beaming in the doorway. ‘How’s Father
Hans?’ ‘Still moving!’. Getting the
latest news about Hans Burgman, the founder and inspirer, of Mwangaza
Art School here in the slums of Kisumu, obviously meant a lot to him.
We moved from the
office into the atelier where the students were just having a break,
some savouring a generous slice of watermelon.
‘When Fr Hans left
here we had eleven students, now there are seventeen’, Dan tells me
with some pride. ‘I am the only
teacher. It is not easy to accompany 17 students divided over three
years. But I love doing this work. It is such an inspiration to see
students come in, and slowly grow in understanding and skill. Some
have already worked on their own, by pure natural talent and
inclination.’
‘From time to time I
get former students who have graduated and are now working in
schools, graphics/design or as independent artists, to come in and
give ‘master classes’.
We may get someone to
come for a longer period in June/July through the intermediary of Fr
Hans’.
I move around to take a
few pictures and chat with one of the students, Julius Ochieng, who
is due to graduate soon. He’s working on a pointillistic impression
of a hippo from a photograph displayed on his smartphone. A real
beauty!!
As we chat some more
Dan reminisces about earlier assignments quite some years back. With
the Claretians in Chiga and the church in Lemek. ‘We were lucky that
there was a Maasai catechist in Lemek. He brought us in contact with
the local Maasai. Few used to come to church in those days. But when
we painted gospel scenes and the resurrected Christ in clearly
recognisable Maasai figures they began take an interest’. ‘So, this Jesus we
hear about is really one of us!’ they observed.
Art
as Mission ! I came away inspired by the visit.
And, for those familiar
with the Nyalenda Centre and the Art School: the road getting you
there is now beautifully paved! But the slum dwellings alongside it
have not changed.
Will the one be a spur
for change in the other?
Fons Eppink mhm
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