After beginning our morning with a chat and painting some primer on boxes we would complete later, Maya gave the girls each a piece of paper and asked them to wander around the room and look for words. She told them to try to find their words in unusual places and write down at least fifteen. Then while we were eating our snack, we began to play exquisite corpse the way it was originally played in parlors long ago--as a writing game.
Maya asked the girls (and Ruth and I) to take their first five words and write a wildly imaginative sentence or sentences to start a story. Then we passed our story starter to the left and the next person used the second set of five words to add to the original story, and then we passed again, and so on. At the end of the session we each got a chance to type our last line on the typewriter and then we read our stories. They were hilarious and creative and so fun to read. A few of my favorite lines were:
The words said: Your hidden future is about to become a reality.
Then the girl made a simple wish. She wished that the blue creature would go away because it made no sense. So the creature went away. In its place was a sparkling colorful monster.
We are all the same form the very beginning, before we ever wake up, before we say hello, before anything.
She grew angrier and angrier and all her wishes left her mind. The girl was left all alone with oil on her belly and snakes around her waist. She started to breathe and with each new breath she took, something special started to happen. I am in charge of my own destiny, she thought. I can change my story.
Feel the light on your face. Watch the birds take flight. Stop moving. Let yourself be filled with the art that is Earth, which would not fool the top happiness people.
While we ate lunch Maya told the girls stories from her trip and shared some of her photographs and videos. They loved looking at the map to see how far she had gone on her bicycle and wanted to hear more about the campgrounds and share stories of their own adventures. They talked about fears and how fear can stop you from doing things you want to do, or make you try it just to get over them.
The girls typed secret messages and wishes for themselves and for strangers on the typewriter, and then we went outside on the patio for some spray painting! Always a camp favorite (and admittedly my favorite, too). They spray painted the boxes they had painted this morning, their journal covers and some tags and rocks to use as a super secret surprise project we are planning for tomorrow.
Phew! It was a jam-packed day. I was exhausted after all that typing and storytelling and writing and painting. Not to mention hula hooping! I said goodbye to the girls and came straight home to take a nap.
Stay tuned tomorrow for our adventures in Guerilla Art . . .
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