Sunday 6th February: Making puppets in the Jungle

Today was awesome (I know that term is overused, but really, today was AWESOME). About 15 of us set off at 7am this morning crammed onto the back of a flat bed truck, to journey 1 1/2 hours into the jungle for an 'Art Attack' project with a charity called Trailblazers. The night before, Em and I stayed up pretty late preparing for our fish and bird puppet-making workshop. Thankfully, we also had the help of Ros and another new volunteer, Sharon. We prepared 60 of each puppet, as well as texta markers, masking tape, chopsticks (to use as rods), gluesticks and PVA glue.

On the way to the art project, we passed through the Ankor Wat temples. I found it slightly amusing that my first glimpse of the temples was through someone's legs (I was sitting down and the person was standing on the edge of the truck). The temples are amazing and it makes me wonder how many people it took to hand-carve each block of stone so many hundreds of years ago.

After passing by the temples, the road got a bit bumpier… and dustier. We soon donned our sunnies and scarves (on in my case, sarong) to try and keep the dust out of our eyes and mouths. Thankfully we also brought some cushions to sit on (to prevent what our team leader calls the dreaded 'numb bum'). The paved roads turned into dusty red trails occasionally lined with bamboo huts… and cows. Judging from the reactions of passers-by, we must have been a very odd sight (which is to be expected - after all, how often do you see a bunch of foreigners packed onto the back of a truck?).

One of my favourite moments in the journey was when we almost reached the school. We were driving along a deserted trail flanked my thick jungle hedges (do jungles have hedges?) when suddenly about 15 children emerged out of nowhere and started running after the truck. Soon there were about 50, and some of them caught up to the truck and climbed onto the sides! By the time we got to the school, we saw 300 very excited children running into their 6 classrooms. We didn't waste any time getting off the truck and picking a classroom to work in. Our class made my fish puppets first, followed by Emma's bird puppets. The kids were between 3-10 years old and they loved making their puppets and decorating them. Even with the language barrier, we understood each other and had a lovely time playing with our new creations. Another 2 volunteers ran a soap-carving workshop after ours, and everyone left the workshop smelling very nice indeed. Other classes made frogs with whistle tongues; spider puppets; as well as cellophane kites. If I could describe the atmosphere in one word, it would be joy. Everyone was smiling and the school was buzzing with chaotic creativity. Before we knew it, the hour had passed and it was time for us to go home. The children left before us - taking their colourful new toys with them - and soon the school and road was deserted as before. The whole experience was amazing and somewhat surreal - it reminded me of the desert flowers that bloom just after it rains, only to disappear as quickly as they had come. It will be another 12 months before the roads will be flooded again with children for another Art Attack. Until then, I wonder if neighbouring villagers will look up in the sky and see little pink kites flying amongst the canopy.