Colouring and Counting in Shona

Why have I been quiet of late? While, as I noted last time, my latest ATC efforts have been insipid to say the least - although I do have two rather better ones I have yet to "show off" in this blog.

But here is the project that has kept me occupied for the last two days. Ever since I received this message in my inbox:

This year the Lotus-Heart is inaugurating an annual "Gift of Love" Christmas project. Staff and customers are invited to bring a gift for the children of Zimbabwe living in poverty and place it under the Christmas Trees at the Restaurant or Cafe before Christmas Day. The gifts will be sent to Africa and delivered directly to the children in Zimbabwe by two New Zealand volunteers.

As the Lotus Heart is a restaurant I enjoy and this furthers my plans to get my art into as many countries as possible, I racked my brains for inspiration. What could I do for them? Research proved that two important things they were missing out on were food and education. Well, I am hoping the volunteer charity will be dealing with the food thing, but the education... now that was something I can do:

Using the reference of this site on the Shona Language as a reference, I have drawn up the first 10 pages of a 60 page sketch book with numbers, words and native animals (to Zimbabwe - but don't ask me what the butterflies, fish and lizards are!). The rest of the book is blank and I shall be including a pencilcase containing colouring pencils, regular pencils, erasers and a sharpener. I hope they find it useful.

Meanwhile, if any of you want to learn to read and count to ten in the Zimbabwe language of Shona, I may well upload a pdf to my website for public useage.