Last Saturday morning was a normal Mexico morning, for a while.
I was up early with errands to run. I filled my car to the brim with boxes and bags and an ice chest then went entreamigos to pick up tables and ladders which were to be transported in a pick-up truck which decided it didn't want to start. I left it with its owner cussing at it and charging the (new) battery and went to the little market down the street for a five-gallon bottle of water, three bags of ice, some flavoring for the water and assorted other stuff, all of which I drove to the campo de futbol and stuffed through a hole in the wire fence for people already there to schlep over to the work site.
By the time I parked and walked to the baño building on the field, Craig had already been working for hours, the tables and ladders had arrived, and it was 10:30 a.m. That was fine, though, as the day's project was advertised to begin at 11.
At 10:32, I looked up from my preparations and saw children streaming into the field from every direction.
🎨 🎨 🎨
Craig Downs' week of painting had attracted a lot of attention from the children of San Pancho, to put it mildly. They had been visiting every day after school, carrying home bilingual flyers, eyes getting wider with every stroke of his brush.


They were so ready to participate that they showed up early, which is basically unheard of in Mexico. Fortunately, so did Indira the Magnificent from entreamigos who is a magician with children. She calmed them down, put them into some semblance of order, handed out paint smocks and explained what we were going to do.



Meanwhile, other magical adults of San Pancho filled recycled containers with just enough paint so that if one were dumped it wouldn't be a catastrophe. We put out brushes, rags and tubs of water and mixed a huge container of Zuko, which is like Mexican Kool-Aid.
Then the fun began.


As the children gave their total focus to the low parts, adults arrived by the dozens and gave their attention to the higher parts.


Before long, painters were working with enthusiasm all over the building, which, I should add, is not as small as we first imagined. As Steven Wright, one of my all-time favorite comedians, once said, "It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it." But paint they did, for six hours.


People just kept showing up. Some stayed an hour, some three hours, some all day long.













How many people participated? We don't know, nobody counted. Close to a hundred, we figure. Maybe more than that. All through the day, volunteers of every age helped with clean-up, with supervision, with ideas and, of course, with creating art where once it wasn't.









We served hotdogs around 2:00 on Saturday afternoon. The children lined up eagerly, at which point I had to tell them that the hotdogs Curt and Cele donated and Glenn cooked on Louis' grill weren't free. Each hotdog cost three pieces of trash. The kids scattered, then reassembled...and by the time the hotdogs were gone, we had a giant bag full of garbage and a clean work site.

Since Saturday, the work has continued. Friends returned on Sunday to paint high places that had been missed, on Monday to help Craig repaint and crisp up all the black lines. Craig has worked on his touch up and highlighting all week. As I write this on Thursday night, the mural needs five more hours of his work to call it finished.
Meanwhile, around town, children and adults give Craig thanks and congratulations every day. I've received so many hugs and smiles that I'm still walking four feet off the ground. How do you thank all the people who contributed their time and talent and love to this project? It would take three more pages to name and credit each of you, but you were there, so you know who you are, you know how grateful we and town are to you, and you certainly know that the joy is a lasting one.
I'll add another few photos this weekend so you can see all three sides of the building finished. In the meantime, here is what the magic of imagination and cooperation can accomplish with many hours of happy work and a lot of help from our friends.
Blessings on you all.


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