Uganda part 5: Living water

The second mural we worked on was based around the water cycle.  This classroom had a small blackboard that would hang on the wall allocated for the mural so in choosing a cycle based image we were able to make sure that all the key areas of the mural would be kept visible around the board.  We placed sky and sea behind where the board would be hung so that if it was removed it would just look like a completed landscape.  Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the mural with the board hung up as the paint was still a bit wet when we finished, but you can see it would fit just to the left of the mountains in the big square of sky.

I made a start on this mural while James finished the labelling of the map.  The cleaning and cream base coat had been done at the same time as the first classroom so I was able to get stuck right in.  Firstly, I did a few sketches in my book to work out the best composition.  Originally I wanted to have the sun in the right hand corner of the room and I drew out a couple of versions this way, but when I checked the measurements of the blackboard and found it sat slightly to the left of the room, I realised it would be much better to flip the composition so the sun was in the left corner.  The 'mountain' half of the mural has a lot more going on - mountains, forests, lakes and many more arrows and labels!  If we had tried to cram all of that on to the left hand side of the wall before reaching the edge of the blackboard, it would have been too busy.  It also would have left the right hand side of the mural looking even bigger and emptier!  So I scrapped the first idea and flipped the image round.  I drew a light outline around the blackboard and took it off the wall so that I was left with a square and I could frame the details of the mural around it.  It didn't take too long to draw out the landscape.  There was a lot more freedom with this drawing because it didn't have to be gridded out like the map...good thing because we didn't have nearly so much time to work on this one!  I decided to keep things simple by drawing in a cheerful cartoon style.  This would hopefully make it easy for the children to understand or copy as well as helping to make the room look nice and bright.

I think we had roughly a day and a half on this mural from start to finish.  It was very straightforward and it was great because at the very end the whole team was available to add in the last few details like labelling, painting raindrops, lining clouds and turning the big bands of dark green into a forest!  (To be honest, the forest hasn't really come up very well in the photos...but I assure you they now have little brown trunks and are multiple shades of green!)  We had to double coat the sky and sea as one coat was a little see-through but that didn't take long.

I think my favourite part of working on this mural was talking it through with Bishop Peter.  He said he knew what the painting was of but he didn't know about it, so I got to talk through the different stages with him.  I felt really excited that what we were making was being used to teach even before it was quite finished!  

The water cycle is actually something which I'd been looking at earlier this year for my own interest.  At that point in time I never would have guessed we'd end up painting it large scale on a school wall!  I had been looking at it because I felt God had shown me how it related to prayer.  Here is a very quick sketch and key to explain:

Evaporation:  The Holy Spirit helps us pray (Romans 8:26)

Transpiration:  The prayers and praises of God's people rise with the prayers of the Spirit.
Transportation: God hears the prayers and gathers them into clouds.  He moves them to where they need to go.
Precipitaion:  As a result of the prayer and praise, God pours out His rain.  He moves on the land, pours out His Spirit, refreshes, strengthens and cleanses us. He gives us what we need to grow.

And so it continues.  I wrote a post a while ago about seeing Heaven on Earth (reflections in the rain) and it was around that time I was looking at the water cycle in this way.  It all ties together really, looking at the water and rain as living water from God, His Holy Spirit or His Glory.  The village of Buwasunguyi is situated right up on Mount Elgon and Carla was excited about this because on the mural the rain is falling on the mountains....right where we are praying for!  When it rains in Uganda, it REALLY rains.  I don't think I've ever experienced anything like it!  So let's pray God pours out His blessings with an intensity and volume that perfectly matches that of the physical rain.