Uganda part 4: A world wide connection

With the grid now complete we were ready to start drawing.  The murals we would draw would be educational so that the teachers could use them as a teaching aid for the students.  The pupils don't have a lot of resources, they don't have lots of textbooks like we do in the UK and this is why it would be helpful to paint educational resources on the walls.  The first mural we were to draw was a large world map.  It was a very new experience...the paint was unlike anything I'd ever used before (for one thing it was incredibly runny!) and we didn't know how many coats it would take, how well it would mix, how quickly it would dry or how far it would go!  We just had to play the whole thing by ear really.  

The drawing out was quite a time consuming part of the project.  James and I both took part in this stage which made it go a little bit faster!  Although drawing is not a skill James uses often, he was very good at drawing the map because he has a great interest in world geography and with the grid layout acting as a clear guide, it was hard to go wrong!  After a while we got a good system going - James drew out vague shapes where the land masses should roughly be, I followed behind him altering the shapes slightly to give a bit more detail and make them slightly more accurate, also giving them proper coastlines and then Cannu and Morning started on the colouring in of completed land masses.  James marked the countries so that the boys would know what colours to paint them; we had 4 colours to work with (yellow, orange, purple and green) and we tried to make each country a different colour to it's neighbour.  This was purely to make it easier to tell each separate country apart and  we soon painted the border lines between each country black which gave further definition.

We wanted to have Uganda stand out from the rest of the world and so James had the great idea that we should colour it red and that it should be the only country of this colour.  This suggestion was well received by Bishop Peter who went on to tell us about the red in the Ugandan flag.  He said that the red in the flag represents blood, which is the same no matter where we are from.  He said "My blood is red, your blood is red, we are the same and we love each other."  This confirmed to us that red was a good choice;  not only is it a good bold colour, it's a colour which connects people from all corners of the earth.

Over the next couple of days we continued the drawing process with out faithful painters following close behind.  We were visited by children and adults alike, all pleased to see the progress.  One afternoon, however, Bishop Peter came to us with news:  
"Sister Jennifer, I have had people come to me bringing complaints."  
My heart stopped for a minute and I panicked - what have we done?!  
He continued "Some people are complaining that the picture should have been painted on the outside of the building so that more people can see it..."  
Well, if that's the only complaint there was then I am happy!  He asked if it would be possible for us to do some paintings on the outside of the building too but unfortunately we didn't have the time on this trip.  He understood and concluded that we'll come back again and maybe we will get the chance to do work outside then!

The weekend came and we were onto painting the coastlines and sea.  The blue of the sea worked beautifully with the colours of the land, it really helped them to stand out!  Martin arrived and kindly gave us a hand with the sea, painting the high coastlines that were hard to reach!  He also painted the second coat of the sea for us while we were teaching the children's art class on Monday morning which was very appreciated.  The blocking in of the sea did not take long at all, I made a start on it while Martin took over the top coastlines and James continued with the last couple of countries.  The difference by that afternoon was incredible!

James used the next couple of days to label each country and I went to the classroom next door and set to work on the second mural.  We decided to write part of John 3:16 above the map.  We felt it was the right verse because it is about God's love for the world and also about how Jesus' blood has paid the price for all to be set free.  When talking about this verse, Bishop made an interesting point.  He said "What does it mean 'God loved the world'?  It means He loves us, the people.  Why does he call us the world?  God first made the world, then he took some dust and he made us from it.  He made us from the world."  I thought that was an interesting point, I knew that the verse means God loves the people, but I had never really thought about or connected it to the creation story of how God first made Adam. 
I liked how the verse continued on the link of connecting blood that was mentioned earlier about the Ugandan flag.  Just as the red in the flag symbolises a blood connection of people, the blood of Jesus connects all the people of the world too as it is the price that has been paid for our life and freedom.  It's a connection of love, a connection to God, and it's world wide.