I should have known better

It seemed like a good idea.   Let the girls paint the lids of the shoe boxes that they are using as patrol boxes.   Later they can then draw a picture or paste one.   When I tried with craft paint I didn’t even get a spot of paint on my hands.   Anyway, I provided newspaper to protect the paving.   To be quite sure, I provided black bags and showed the girls how to cut out the neck and arms and make a protective plastic covering.   What could go wrong?
I had told the girls to wear school uniform and to look smart because I would do inspection.   The four CHH girls had listened and did look very smart.   The other two wore jeans, Laiza’s looked new and made of a stretchy fashionable denim.   I showed the girls how to paint in very thin layers which would dry quickly.   Laiza got to paint for the Flamingos and Maria for the Blue Cranes.   I engaged the 9-year olds,  Stella and Amanda, in trying to get the information from them that they didn’t fill in on their forms last week.   It turned out that Stella, for one, cannot understand English.   Minentle translated and I managed to find out that Stella likes playing and is good at drawing and Amanda also likes playing and is good at singing.   I then showed Minentle and Jeanette how to do the duties for their patrol.   Minentle got on with preparing the juice and sandwiches and when that was done I called the others to come and eat and drink.
We could see Maria and Laiza painting outside the window.   I told them to wash the brushes and come and get juice.   When they still hadn’t come after about 10 minutes I went to find them.   Maria had paint splashes all over the front of her plastic bag overall.   I was just explaining that that was exactly why we wear protective clothing when I saw Laiza’s jeans.   The girls were trying to use a scrunched up black plastic bag to clean paint off her jeans.   A lot of paint,  When filling in her form last week, Laiza had listed her jeans as her favourite piece of clothing and I don’t know how much clothing orphans have.   I felt sick.   I fetched the paper cloth that I had thrown into my bag as an after thought and went to help get white acrylic paint off navy blue jeans.   I knew that if we got it before it dried we would be all right.   Fortunately we did manage to get all the paint off.
The next activity was to find puzzle pieces of the world flag that I had hidden in the garden.   The girls enjoyed the hunt, especially Jeanette, Amanda and Stella.   Once they had collected 12 pieces per patrol, they got together in patrols to assemble the puzzle.   I noticed where the Flamingos were sitting on the back steps that some paint had been spilled.   I moved them off and told Maria and Laiza to clean up but it was too late.   A lot of the paint had already dried.
By now time had run out (the girls had once again arrived 45 minutes late because only one driver was available because of a funeral).   At closing horseshoe I noticed that Jeanette had big paint splodges on her navy school skirt.   Once more to the water and the paper cloth.   Fortunately (or was it God’s intervention?) we managed to clean that off too.  
From my point of view, not a good meeting.   Besides the paint problems, we didn’t have time to get down to the important issue, the first three Guide laws although we did cover the flag.   The girls however had a great time even if two of them did go home rather damp.