Posted by student SARA HIMELFARB – Today, I had the excellent opportunity of sharing Flat Stanley and his amazing adventures with the children of Prague. My host, Iva, is a well-known and influential painter, and she works with children on various projects ranging from sculpture to portraiture. After sharing the story of Flat Stanley with Iva, it was decided that I would visit her school and help create an art project based around Flat Stanley with some of her younger students. The school, Zakladni Umelecka Skola, is absolutely beautiful – an old villa that has been converted into an after-school center for visual arts, music and drama. Children ages 5 to 17 come to the school after finishing their daily studies and work on various projects that have city-wide recognition and national exhibitions.
I showed up at the school about an hour before class was to start and made 40 Flat boys and girls. The children arrived and after Iva announced that I spoke only English, giggling and whispering ensued and children were pushed forth by their friends to say “hello” and “where are you from?” in shy English. Though only two or three of the children spoke any English at all, after lots of smiles, goofy faces and sharing of red colored pencils, we were all good friends. Iva translated the story of Flat Stanley for them, and they were most enthusiastic about my Flat Dean Rutherford and Flat Eric Wilson, mainly because they thought it was funny that “Flat” was wearing a tie and carrying a cell phone.
After finishing their own Flats, the children and I ran around outside taking pictures of their creations – on the stairs, in the grass and especially in the trees. One student, Kristoph, climbed a 14-foot ladder to get his Flat in just the right spot. Iva didn’t seem concerned about lawsuits, so I just smiled and snapped the picture as quickly as possible. With about 30 minutes left, Iva sneakily said something to the children in Czech and we headed back to the room, where the children began drawing, coming up to me periodically to peer at my face and measure my eyes with their fingers. Each of them created a black and white portrait of me. I was amazed at how beautiful I looked in their pictures — until, of course, some of them started shading in my smile lines and wrinkles. However, the portraits are all quite memorable and I will cherish them for a long time to come. I was so happy to be in a classroom with such gifted and enthusiastic students and am so happy that Flat Stanley has so many new friends in Prague!
Sara Himelfarb is currently completing her International Public Service Project in Prague where she is helping Burmese diaspora who are living in the Czech Republic.
