at first, the town's men came and told us we could not paint their #mosque #yellow. they said their mosque has always been white and green. when we explained that we were all working together to turn houses of worship in the neighborgood yellow in the name of love they walked away with a confused expression on their faces. minutes later, they came back and they were twice as many. they were here to tell us that in the #quran it says that women are not allowed to paint. we asked them to show us that text or to bring a Sheikh or Imam who would share these text with us. for an hour we painted in #peace. they came back, and again they had multiplied. they said #muslim women should not be painting among men and among christians. among the back and forth mama putuku juma (pictured in blue) put her paintbrush on the floor and walked towards us. she screamed in swahili for a good seven minutes. when she was done, all the men had dispersed. one by one they looked down, looked away, wordless they walked away. when i asked stephen to translate for me he summarized seven swahili minutes into a few english sentences: "she asked them if they were bored with nothing else to do. she said if they are looking for heat they should pick up and paint. the sun would give them the warmth they were looking for. she said 'don't you undersatnd we have a job to do--we are painting to show we are all the same here in mombasa--and that is everything." #amen #colourinfaith (at Mombasa, Kenya)
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