clownswithoutborders.org

February 16-March 3, 2010

Volunteers: Elisa Lane, Nathan Dixon and Gwendolyn Rooker. Joining Jakob, Maysara and Nora -local artists in Cairo.

Elisa’s final letter:

We have just returned from an unforgettable two weeks in Cairo where we performed for Sudanese refugees, street children, hospital patients, and a juvenile delinquency center.

We performed for over 2,800 children with the help of our local clown partners, Jakob, Nora, Maysara and Marwa. This trip marks our first collaboration with local artists in Cairo and I’m happy to say it went extremely well. The six of us created an amazing original 40-minute show in just one day.

We were fortunate to perform for about 500 people at the 7th annual Egyptian Day of Solidarity for street children. UNICEF estimates there are 1 million children living on the streets of Cairo. These children are often runaways who have escaped abuse and violence at home only to deal with poverty and neglect on the harsh Cairo streets. With the help of local NGO’s like Plan International, we were able to reach these populations who have little access to psychosocial support.

One section of our show is about littering, a serious problem in Cairo. Each show we invited audience members to teach us and the other children how to properly dispose of trash. This little boy from the Zabbaleen trash community showed us how to correctly dispose of plastic bags.

The Zabbaleen (Arabic for garbage people) are a community of mostly Christian Egyptian who survive by collecting garbage throughout the city, sorting through it and recycling, but they also live in it. Most children in this community are surrounded by trash 24 hours a day, living in it, working with it, and even playing with it. Many Zabbaleen suffer from health issues such as Hepatitis from this constant contact with waste.
Go to: The New York Times for more information

Performing for people of other cultures can be challenging. Not everything translates as you expect it to. Egypt is an extremely religious country where many men often didn’t want to shake my hand because I’m a woman, there’s even a separate car for women only on the subway. In some sections of the show I straddle Gwen or stand on Jakob with one leg wrapped around his neck. I couldn’t help but feel a bit self-conscious during these parts. After all, men and women treating each other like trampolines in public isn’t the norm here, and my clown costume exposes my forearms. I’d keep my eyes on the adults for any show of disapproval. But to my joy, the children always seemed to love this part of the show. Boys often came up to us after asking that we teach them how to perform these moves on their friends. Then they’d show me some move they had been working on themselves. One of which, was a complicated three-person stunt that Gwen and I had performed three years earlier with our third clown partner, Dave. I couldn’t help but wonder whether this move had been working its way around the Cairo streets since that time.

At the end of each day Gwen, Nate and I made the long walk home down this very busy street with our five bags of clown gear. By the end of our two-week stay, we became a familiar scene, the beloved resident freaks from a far away land; at least that’s what I like to tell myself as we’d try, usually unsuccessfully, to mime our days adventures to our neighbors. We struggled to put in our orders everyday at the local bakery and would try to dodge Hassan, the local pharmacist who had taken to forcing food and shea (tea) on Nate for hours at a time.

After 18 shows in our two week stay, we had to say goodbye for now to our great new friends in Cairo. Hopefully they will be waiting for us next year when we return. And of course, we are encouraging them to perform here in the US.

This is the 5th year in a row that Project Egypt, a Clowns Without Borders expedition, has been able to perform for the children of Cairo. Each year we see old friends and make new connections. We were especially proud to collaborate with our Egyptian clown counterparts in what we hope will be the basis for future cross cultural clown shows. If you’d like to make a contribution to support these international exchanges, we would greatly appreciate it. Please click here. Be sure to write that your contribution is for Project Egypt.

From Gwen: 26 Feb. 2010

The evening is cool in Cairo. Today’s performances were really amazing and beautiful. I’m feeling deeply content relaxing in one of the two wicker chairs that sit in the front room of the apartment where we’re staying. It’s an old, peaceful place with high ceilings and dusty tile floors, and it stands in a section of the city called Bab el Khal. The area is surrounded by giant walls and is named for the many doors that grant access to the medieval city within. Our familiarity with this neighborhood increases exponentially each day that passes. The sweet bread we tentatively point to and purchase on our daily walk home just caught our eye for the first time last night. We returned to the bakery today. We’ll likely go again tomorrow.

A few nights ago we took a walk deeper into the maze of narrow ancient streets around our place. This was after a really good dinner that included a very rich, strong broth of mutton and bowls of freekha, buckwheat in sauce, and we came upon a very noisy outdoor performance alongside a grand old mosque. A whole band and a giant PA blasted the small audience with its ring of red plastic chairs and many sheesha pipes. Singers took turns wailing emotionally with the reverb cranked up all the way. The MC, a domineering man with an orange tobacco stained mustache, invited/instructed us to sit, and a round of Egyptian whiskey (black tea) was ordered. A beautiful young man with sad-eyes and missing fingers sang first. Then the most accomplished performer of the evening stood before us, wearing, presumably, his favorite pinstriped suit. We were a captive audience, to be certain, but the experience was mesmerizing, none-the-less. We walked home afterward giddy and laughing at our good fortune at having stumbled upon such an entertaining scene.

Then we get up, and we carry our costumes, sets, and props down to the Metro. The process is physically demanding and a bit awkward. Locals watch us with curiosity. Tuesday, on our way to one of the Sudanese schools, our taxis were in a fender-bender with one another. Arabic cursing ensued. Thankfully, everyone was all right. Then we were at St. Joseph’s School (returning after visits in ‘06, ’07, and ’08) and performing before the sweetest group of about 50 children. They squeaked and giggled raucously at our gags and especially loved the part of the show where the clowns wave fly swatters playfully at the audience as they hunt invisible flies buzzing through the air.

The second show of the day took place at Sayeda Zeinab Park, the children’s park we visited last year. It was Egypt’s 7th Annual Day of Solidarity for Street Children, and the park was hosting talks and events for the day. There were approximately 40 Non-Government Organizations (NGO’s) participating as well as UNICEF and the National Council for Childhood and Womanhood.  Throughout the day they had food, face painting, film screenings and performances for the street children.  We played in the park’s large, outdoor theatre before an audience of approximately 300 people.  Maysara, one of our local clown partners, works with street children, and we talked about these kid’s situations. He explained that many of the kids who live in the streets have fled from violence and abuse, and that others have been thrown out of their homes because of poverty or divorce. In Cairo, food is incredibly cheap and independence is exciting, so these children naturally avoid the few institutions that are in place to house them. Their lives in the street are not idyllic, however. Many are the victims of rape and physical abuse. Glue huffing is common, as well as other drug and substance abuse. Maysara also explained that not all children are ruined by the street-life. Some become very smart and self-reliant. Some make large profits from begging. Some are leaders to the other children and keep cell-phones and appointments with NGO’s.

We are still raising money for this expedition.  Please consider making a donation!

From Gwen: 19 Feb. 2010

They call New York the city that never sleeps but the people of Cairo live throughout the night. Right now it’s

4am here and I can’t sleep. The call to morning pray should begin any minute on loud speakers throughout the city. The roosters are already awake. Under one of the street lamps outside our building I hear street children talking, playing maybe. Just a couple hours ago some local workers just finished working. The sounds of ancient machinery, grinding, hammering, and yelling kept me up and now someone near by is playing music to keep me company as I write.

We are staying in Islamic Cairo, a medieval part of the city. To get to our apartment we walk 10 minutes down a very narrow dirt road. This part of the city is like a maze, paths winding in every direction with shops and workshops practically stacked on top one another. The architecture is very old, crumbling and dusty. Scooters honk to tell us to move as they zip past us, donkeys with stacks of goods pass us, men on bicycles balancing trays of bread on their heads. They all just miss us by a few inches as they pass. A man takes a chainsaw to some stumps of a tree as sheep eat the bark off the stumps three feet away from him. Walking home is a hazardous adventure. As Nate put it so eloquently today, it’s as if bombs keep getting dropped all around us. But we and everyone else on this dirt road keep walking as if everything is calm. It’s hard for me to believe that what seems like chaos to me is normal, everyday life to the people here.

Cairo recently kicked Mexico City out of first place for being the most polluted city on Earth. The air is clammy, dusty and you can’t inhale without getting a good whiff of car exhaust. The pollution makes me very tired, and a large family of very dirty boogers constantly inhabits my nose.

Okay, I’m done complaining…This is Gwen and my fifth trip to Cairo to clown. But this year is the best by far all ready. We are partnering with three local artists. They perform around the city together with a group called El Khayal El Sha’bi, which means, The Folkloric Imagination. They have also performed with Clowns Without Borders France. It’s wonderful to be working with them! In addition to being great people full of light and warmth, they are also wonderful clowns. Although we just arrived on Tuesday already created and performed our show twice.

Our first performance took place at the Children’s Oncology Department at Nasar Hospital. We took over a tiny office and quickly prepared for the show. We raised our beautiful new backdrop and put our musical instruments and puppets in their places. (Yes! We are incorporating puppets into this year’s show!) At first, only a few children came to see what was going on, but when Maysara and Gwen played music and danced up and down the halls, nearly every child got out of bed to come see the mysterious and joyful spectacle unfold. Everyone had a great time. The distraction from the daily pain and boredom of life in a hospital receded and kids danced!

The second performance of the day took place at a youth center for children from The City of the Dead. This is a poor community built among the graves, crypts, and mausoleums of Cairo. The small, precariously placed houses and businesses here have electricity and running water, but the community itself is definitely regarded one of the more marginalized and poor in Cairo. When we arrived at the center about 100 children were eagerly awaiting us. We were on a hill a little bit above Cairo’s downtown area where the wind tried unsuccessfully to lift our sail-like set off the ground! We secured the set and began the show! At one point we dance with a giant scarf that Gwen discovers in Jakob’s ear. Two wonderful little girls joined in and really showed us how to move!

Morning prayer is over and now the birds are awake. I’m delighted by our first few days in Cairo but I know I should really try to get some rest because we have a very busy schedule ahead of us and so many shows to come. I can’t wait to write more to tell you all about it.

Local Volunteer Artist Bios

Maysara Omar:
Around the age of 15, Maysara began the kind of journey with performance art which resulted in him becoming today the greatest performance artist of all times!!! :O)
He then participated in a special training project by an Egyptian folk theater band called “El Warsha”, meaning “the Workshop”, and was trained by folk artists on several theatrical subjects, including acting, folk singing, traditional drumming, and traditional puppet performance. He did this for two years, during which he had the chance also to travel with the members of the troupe to train other children in different areas around Egypt, particularly rural provinces in southern Egypt. Since that time, Maysara has been working continuously with children in difficult circumstances, including working children, street children, and marginalized children in general. Maysara became ever interested in juggling the two subjects of art, and child development [seems he cannot juggle more than two items, bad for the circus!!] and this is what he’s doing now: he works on the development of social, intellectual, and emotional capacities of children, by means of working with them on manifold art subjects.
Maysara studied piano and composition at the Cairo Conservatoire, and currently studying English literature and linguistics in Cairo University. Maysara first came in contact with the red nose and his somewhat schizophrenic clown character in January 2009, when Clowns Without Borders France started the Egypt project in which he participated. Ever since then, as you can see, he’s become mad!

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