Painting Lightning in July

This autumn I showed the Catatumbo lightning to children in thirteen primary schools. Every time the video started, I thought of a morning back in July, and twenty children with black card and chalk pastels, painting it for the very first time.

On 7 July I spent a morning at Star of the Sea for the Globetrotters Cultural Summer Scheme, run by Ballymoney Community Resource Centre with Radius Housing. There were about twenty children, aged 6 to 11. We called it Venezuela Day, and for three hours I brought them my country.

Where in the world?

We started with the map. Venezuela sits at the very top of South America, and it takes a whole day on an aeroplane to get there from here. We found the mountains, the coast and the capital, and then we looked at the flag.

I love teaching the flag. Yellow for all the wonderful things Venezuela has. Blue for the sky and the sea. Red for the brave people who fought so that everyone could be free. And then I tell the children what I want every child to hear: that today, they are free to dream, to grow, and to be the best version of themselves.

Then came the animals. Toucans, jaguars, howler monkeys, scarlet macaws. I have learned to stop explaining and simply let the children shout.

The scavenger hunt

Before the children arrived I had hidden Spanish word cards all around the room. Each card had a picture, the Spanish word and the English word. The children went hunting in pairs and wrote down every word they found. Mariposa, butterfly. Loro, parrot. Colibrí, hummingbird. Relámpago, lightning. Familia. Corazón, heart.

Everybody got a sweet at the end. There were no winners and no losers. Everyone who found a word had learned a word, and that was the whole point.

Maracas and joropo

Next the children decorated their own wooden maracas in yellow, blue and red, while I introduced them to the joropo, the music and dance of Venezuela, with its roots in the great plains of Los Llanos.

Then we made music together. I played a rhythm on the maracas and the children played it back to me, and we built it up layer by layer until the whole room was shaking together. It was loud. It was glorious. I would recommend it to anyone.

The lightning

And then we went quiet, which is my favourite part of any session.

In the west of Venezuela, over Lake Maracaibo, there is a place where lightning comes nearly every night for most of the year. Hundreds and hundreds of flashes. It is so faithful that sailors have used it for centuries to find their way, and people call it the Lighthouse of Maracaibo.

We watched it together on the screen. Then every child took a sheet of black card and some white and yellow chalk pastels, and painted their own Catatumbo storm over the lake at night.

That was the standout moment of the whole day. Twenty children, from six years old to eleven, each holding a little piece of my country's sky in their hands.

Why I keep bringing it back

I think the Catatumbo lightning works because it is wonderful in a way every child understands straight away. You do not need to speak Spanish, or know where South America is, to be amazed by a sky that lights up all night.

And once a child has been amazed by something from my country, Venezuela becomes a place they have painted. A place with a flag they can explain, words they can say, and a rhythm they can play. Somewhere they have, in a small way, already been.

That is what I hope every child took home with them from Globetrotters. A little more curiosity about the world, and a little more confidence in their own place within it.

Thank you

To Gosia, Fergal and everyone at Ballymoney Community Resource Centre, to Radius Housing, and to the whole Globetrotters team, for the invitation and for making space for my culture, my stories and my love for the country that shaped me.

To Star of the Sea, for having us.

And to the children, for the noise, the maracas and the lightning.

After all, we are all humans, no matter our size.

Humanitas Initiative delivers intercultural workshops for schools, workplaces and community groups across the Causeway Coast and Glens. If you would like to talk about a session, get in touch at contact@thehumanitasinitiative.org.

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