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<v 0>So when I started working at camp Atterbury, I, uh,</v>

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was pretty much immediately introduced to two guests who are artists,

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Z AMA of couples. She's a,

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a amazing visual artist and her best friend F AB Dolly, who, um,

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they've been best friends for 12 years,

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F didn't consider herself an artist at time.

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But now she certainly does after completing this project.

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So the three of us really worked together and came up with this idea.

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We planned the whole layout.

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We were working with a group of art therapists at the beginning.

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And what we did was we went through hundreds of therapeutic artworks,

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created by different guests of all age is,

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and we found different images that we're repeating throughout.

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So we pulled those and we compiled these seven circular designs that

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you see.

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So they're really representative of hundreds of guests who stayed at camp

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Atterbury. So, um, Zab and F and I,

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we compile the whole design.

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We drew it out and then we had 57 additional guests of all

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ages, children, adults. They helped us to actually paint the mural,

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um, including the, you see the footprints right here behind me.

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These are actual footprints made by our guests,

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including a little 11 month old baby. There's some little tiny footprints.

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And so we really created this together, starting in September.

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And then we finally finished it in December.

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The title of this painting is August 15th,

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which commemorates the day that the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

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The number 15 is in the direct center of this whole painting.

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The rest of the extends from that number representing

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August 15th,

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just as the lives of Afghans have unfolded from that single day.

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The biggest piece really represents their journey as well as their extreme,

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deep gratitude to the us military, um, for helping them in so many ways,

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keeping them safe, the Dils and this one symbolize new beginnings.

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There's a lot of symbolism about transformation, hope for the future.

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And one more piece on the far end,

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all the way to the left represents traditional Afghan culture.

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The beauty of Afghanistan is really overshadowed right now by the

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Taliban by war, by misery.

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And the Taliban has outlawed so many things that Afghans hold dear traditional

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parts of their culture, music, singing,

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dancing in that design.

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There's a chain wrapped around the center and that chain is breaking.

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So that piece symbolizes break be free from Taliban control.

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Tha of Dolly she's shown in the piece behind me with her fiance

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and that design addresses, broken family units.

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So many people left Afghanistan and chaos.

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<v 1>They have many loved ones left behind in F's case.</v>

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She and her fiance, both evacuated, but they're now both in different countries.

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Um,

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so they're just really hoping and longing to be back together again as are so

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many Afghans who are missing their, their loved ones. Yeah.

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My Afghan friends did this. We do henna a lot together. We, um,

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we have dance parties, they teach me Afghan dancing. We drink tea,

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we practice English. I practice my D they teach me to, um,

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so it's been a beautiful exchange of cultures and they wanted me to represent

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Afghanistan today with my henna design. Yeah.