"What do you expect me to do? Wait until I'm 80 to do this." That was Ron Hevey's (age 66) quip when I commented on his courage andinterest in teaching painting inside Gautemala's prisons over the 2007 Thanksgiving Holiday. This was his second trip with BuildaBridge and he saw many familiar faces among the gang members in three different prisons.

In collaboration with Strategies for Transformation who hosted the BuildaBridge team, Ron was part of a developing program of direct service and training for the Central American region. Five artists, and a former volunteer (Kayon Watson) now serving in Nicaragua who flew to Guatemala City to join the team, spent the week of Thanksgiving 07 conducting an arts camp and meeting with local non-profit and government leaders to asses the needs for arts-based teaching and healing.

Perhaps the most interesting learning experience for Ron (other than avoiding drinking raw egg yolks with one imprisoned gang leader who invited him to a table conversation during a disturbance that halted his teaching) was working in a women's prison where children live with their mothers who are imprisoned for violent gang activity.

Ron touched the lives of 300 prisoners this trip. Often unpredictable, the planned teaching turned into portrait drawing sessions for him. "What are you going to do? If what you plan doesn't work, you reach into your bag and pull out another trick. You have to be VERY flexible." Ron explained.