Week 2 Day 3

Dear Grace Art Camp Parents

By Wednesday, at Grace Art Camp everyone feels comfortable and settled in.  Our campers were filled with energy as they greeted us this morning and they began to feel the spirit behind the words we’ve chosen for El Condor Pasa. I am looking forward to hearing them sing it for us on Friday evening.

The studios continue to dazzle us with their inventive works…today our POD campers visited the culture studio to learn how to weave, Peruvian style.  Fiber Arts created traditional Peruvian stitchery calledArpillera and lovely stuffed llamas, each with their own personality.  Ceramics worked with tiles, creating Peruvian landscapes on glazed tiles and used a glazed red tile technique.  The results were stunning.  

The Illustration Studio captured the attention of our boy campers with their hand-illustrated board games illustrating Maccu Piccu and various aspects of Peruvian culture.  Visual Arts boldly produced the Peruvian sun!  Well….suns, that is.  Shiny, reflective golden suns.  Theatre Arts played emotive games….recalling the many moods of our story, especially our tearful llama.  Our glass “weavings” came out of the kilns today and they are gorgeous.  The culture studio really did weave....weavingon little handmade looms and creating woven bracelets.

And…in Music and Dance and with the help of Musician Gerardo, the first pan flutes of camp were created by very talented young campers who not only made them, but actually played them for us at our afternoon assembly of campers today. In Paper Arts we created “water” with tissue paper…multicolored water rising higher and higher…..    We created the sound of all that water falling from the sky with Storyteller Anne’s help during our story time.  We sounded like heavy rain and thunder alright.  Good job it was inside and not the real thing outside our windows!  Gracias Paccamama!

T-shirts are showing up around camp, being created by campers, waiting for campers and on campers with lots of variations on the theme of this year.  Our resident Week 2 Dance Artist, Lucian Proano, danced for us at our noon-time assembly today and we were thrilled by her fast intricate steps and elaborate costumes especially a magnificent mask she made herself and with which she was so transformed we hardly knew it was Luciana dancing!   

Here is a little reminder that on Friday evening at 6:30 we will be holding our “Carnival Parade” into which all are invited to participate…yes…even parents, grandparents, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles and old friends!  This is a great time to be wearing our new T-shirts!  The parade will wind its way from the basement of the community hall, proceed up into the community center, through the breezeway and into the sanctuary where we will gather for a few minutes and you’ll be on your way, complete with all the art your camper has produced by 7:15.  I’ll have more to tell you about that tomorrow and we look forward to seeing you there

We all loved being with your children today, and we are looking forward to another creative day at Grace Art Camp!

Until tomorrow,

There’s a lotta Llamas waiting to be painted….

Buenas tardes,

Esme

And now….here is the continuation of our story, told by our Storyteller, Anne Rutherford….

….The Llama’s Secret, Written and adapted by Argentina Palacios.

Instead of eating, the llama moaned – “Een, een,” – and tick tears rolled down its face.

“None of that moaning and crying,” shouted the man. “I am tired of your stubbornness. Must I whip you with this cornstalk to get you to eat?”

                The llama looked up at its master. Quickly, the man stepped back, expecting the animal to show its annoyance by spitting, as most llamas do. Instead, to the man’s amazement, the llama spoke to him. “My master, I cannot eat, for I know what I know. It is a great, great sadness.”

                “Aaaayyyy!” the man cried. “What do you know that makes you so sad?” he said.

                “A terrible thing is going to happen. The world, as we know it, will come to an        end.”

        “How do you know this, llamingo?”

                “Mamacocha, the sea, has warned that great changes are coming,” the llama replied. “She has threatened to flood the earth. She will drown and destroy everything in her path.”

                “Is there a way to save ourselves, llaming?” the frightened man asked.

                “Huillcacoto, the highest peak in the mountains, will escape the flood,” said the llama. “Listen carefully, and do as I tell you. Go and get your family. Ask your wife to take enough food for five days.”

                The man ran home. The llama followed

                Outside his stone house, the man could see his wife spinning cloth from the llama’s wool. The children were playing.

                “Wife, we must stop everything,” cried the man. “We must leave our home. A great flood is coming!”

                “How do you know this?” she asked

                “Our llama has told me. Mamacocha is angry. She is going to flood the earth. We must go to Huillcacoto. There, we will be saved.”

                “Our llama has spoken?” cried the wife. “My husband, you have been too long in the hot sun.” But when she looked into his eyes, she knew her husband was telling the truth.

                So the man, his wife, and his children hurriedly dressed for their journey. Just as they were leaving, the llama reminded them to bring enough food for five days

                With the llama in the lead, they started their journey. (to be continued…..)