Leah Samuelson. It's hard to know what to think about the painting gangsters. They have such a strong and violent reputation here (no one will work with them), and I'm getting feedback from different outside sources:

One opinion is that these guys aren't a good use of our resources, which
would be better spent in poor villages with people who aren't murdering people. </

Another opinion is that the real enemy lies within the church- among those who don't consider these guys human.

When it comes to danger, you're not in trouble until things go wrong. But things could, and do go wrong anywhere- like they have for much of these men's lives. I have a lot of questions.

A word about me- I'm a gradual person. I think transitions take 10 times longer than they actually do. Like a bonzai tree as opposed to bamboo. Also I'm often on the solo side of what is supposed to be obvious and what is not. Combine gradual with a querky sense of the obvious and you get someone who asks a lot of obvious questions- over and over.

I'm excited about this project. This is exactly the type of learning I
was hoping for when I applied to the [Eastern Univeristy MA in Urban Studies: Arts in Tranformation] program. I need probably three more years of watching and helping before I'll begin a good understanding of what we're doing here. (But then, when I begin to understand, I tend to try something new to test things again.)

I remember what Eastern faculty and texts said about the role and reason
for the arts- but it's sinking-in in bonzai time.