In part six I skipped over the evening after our first day at Santiago Zamora. That evening was the night of the fund raiser for Antigua's NGOs. That evening was a turning point not just for the group as a whole, but also for myself on a professional level; what I would get involved with in the future.
The party was a costume masquerade, and Prof. Turners daughter amazingly was able to pull a few strings and get our entire group into the event. Since I can not speak Spanish and I was going to be painting with a young native girl who didn't speak English, one of my classmates was asked to join our group as well, as a translator.
The evening was not my favorite of the trip. The situation was very stressful and frustrating not only for myself, but for the young girl I was working with. Communication was extremely difficult and it was compounded as the evening drew on. I was also very uncomfortable with the situation as a student of art education. The four children chosen to take part in the evening were being asked quite a lot; they had to work with an artist they had only met that evening to create an art piece in under 90mins, and that piece would then be auctioned off in a competition situation between the four groups. I, personally, would not participate in a similar event in the future.
At the end of the evening our painting did sell for the second highest bid, which was very exciting for our group who did the painting and for the class as a whole. Unfortunately more issues arose after the auction, and our group had to leave early to return to our hotel.
The entire evening was a learning experience. I learned about my limits as an art educator and what I would get involved with, and I learned about the limits of those around me and how to handle certain situations with groups and individuals who make minor and serious mistakes.
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