clownswithoutborders.org

Project Haiti May/June 2011
Volunteers: Dave, Iman, Marykristn, Sarah, Julie, Molly and Billy.

About the Project:

TDH’s focus on sustainability and child protection programs led them to establish (among many other projects) nine child-safe activity centers in and around Grand Goâve (both in tent camps for displaced people as well as in communities where people are still living in their homes). The child-safe centers each have a director appointed by the community and volunteer Activity Leaders identified by the community. These Activity Leaders provide structured play and other activities to the children of their communities. The nine child-safe centers currently serve about 3,100 children.

Given the success of the child-safe centers in Grand Goâve, TDH decided to develop a similar project in Les Cayes in partnership with a local organization in Cité Delma already developing Saturday activities for their community’s children. The local organization will be in charge of the center and activities; TDH will provide support through the building of an activity space and by providing training to the Activity Leaders. Clowns Without Borders provided the first training for the Activity Leaders in Les Cayes and this is a continuation of the project.

Project Goals

CWB and TDH are working together to address the following goals:

• To offer fun, imaginative, and empowering play to the Activity Leaders, Trainers, and children relieving them from the hardships of their circumstances;
• To offer emotional relief to the larger TDH community through our performances; to empower the children and adults in the show with us through their performance experience;
• To effectively train the Workshop Leaders and Trainers so that they have the capacity to independently lead activities we have done with them in the child-safe centers;
• Through cultural exchange and through the structure of our teaching, to inspire and empower them to adapt what we have taught them and take it in other directions once we have left.

Collaboration with Terre des Hommes Photos

[Show as slideshow]

Check out this great video!

Un petit video de Grande Goave

Journal entries

LES CAYES, HAITI June 15, 2011
Julie’s Journal

I don’t know how I’d respond when, after planning a celebration for and about children, the whole thing erupted into a fight, and I landed up getting kicked in the ribs, and my co-worker takes a machete to the upper arm trying to break up a fight – but I don’t have to.  Through chance or fate, I am just an observer to this sad and harrowing tale, and not the young Haitian woman who is one of the “formateurs” – child care supervisors – we are mentoring as part of our project here in Haiti with Terre Des Hommes.  Her response when asked about these events:  “That’s just the way things are here,” she said, with a sigh, and a weight that no one that young should be carrying on her shoulders.  And yet, she does.  As do all of the adults we are teaching clown and circus skills to, so that they can pass them on to the many children living in the communities of Les Cayes and Renuad.
The more than remarkable resilience of the Haitian people will live within me forever – from the half clothed or naked children carrying water bottles back to the shacks that their families call home, to the women scrubbing their families few clothes in water that is filled with God only knows what, to the men at the edge of the community carving beautiful furniture to take to the market.  It is often said that the clown loves a problem – they live in that place where they have walked into a wall, dropped a fragile thing, or somehow gotten tangled up in a piece of rope three inches long – but a clowns “problems” are for comic effect, and there is NOTHING remotely funny about the conditions of Haiti.  And yet…
Like the sunshine bursting through the clouds after a thunderstorm, I see the smiles of the children and adults here – the contrast in their faces – one minute set in composure of disappointment and hardship, the next a smile as large as any I’ve ever seen.  The songs, the dances, the eagerness to learn the clown games and skills we have brought, that, I think, is the true heart of the Haitian people.  There is joy there – it is under the poverty, the legacy of government corruption, the history of neglect.  And it is that joy that we as clowns can minister to.  It is only a small thing, and some may think it is not worth doing – but I am a clown, not a rich business person, not a doctor, not a politician – and so I, with my brave and beautifully funny, open, and generous clown partners here will offer what we can to these people who astonish me every day I am here.

LES CAYES, HAITI June 15, 2011
Billy’s Journal

This being my first Clowns Without Borders trip, it is of course different than anything I’ve ever done before.  Travelling to other economically depressed parts of the world certainly prepared me for this trip and I can’t imagine what I’d be feeling like had I never taken those trips.  The destruction of the earthquake is still clearly evident.  Our drive through Port-au-Prince was arresting– largely due to the absence of an effective sanitation system.  The poverty is shocking.  The three of us sat in our car being driven from Port-au-Prince to Les Cayes and hit a particularly broken section of road where we had to come to a complete stop.  A child ran up to our car and began tapping on the window.  He followed us for the equivalent of perhaps 10 city blocks, tapping on the window and motioning that he was hungry.  As he stared into the car we became silent.  This silence persisted through the duration of the time he tapped and continued as we all dealt with the intensity.  He didn’t become angry or agitated.  The running, walking, and waiting that he did by our car stuck for a while, and now as I write, readily comes back.  It’s not easy to see, or to watch this despair.  To have it look you in the eye through a thin piece of glass.
I was thinking to myself about how we were probably going to go to places where I’d be hanging out kids like this and I was not sure what I would do.

Now, a few days into it, I realize that there’s not much planning you can do for this type of encounter.  I’ve been figuring it out as I go.  We’re spending the week in Les Cayes, in a small neighborhood with children and adults who are hungry and have very little.  But I don’t feel anything like I did in the car.  I feel uplifted and a sort of basic satisfaction with what we’re doing.  Which is such a relief.  The contact that we’ve had with the residents of this community has been real and significant.  There are many many differences between here and home.  Seeing the old man sit by the tree and help out around the hotel where we are staying is so shocking to me.  I’m used to seeing people who ride an exercise bike with a computer hunched back watching TV and talking on their cell phone all the while knowing that they’re actually doing a mating dance with the person on the step machine next to them.  The old man sits and tends to the grounds of the hotel.  Chops a few fresh coconuts open for us with this machete and makes me feel lucky to soak up some of his aura.

We’ve been working with some community leaders, sharing our skills as teachers and performers with them so that they might have some new tricks in their pocket for their own work.  The playfulness and joy of clown work is something that they are finding enjoyable and empowering as leaders, and something that they see can help them in their overall work among their communities.  Which is great!  That’s what I think to!  And it’s great that we’re going at it with that in mind.  This clown work and the joy it brings offers some temporary relief in the moment and perhaps contributes some positive energy to their other work as well.  I think Julie said it yesterday– that this work can be healing.  I’ve definitely experienced that personally, and it’s great that they see our stupid fun honest playfulness can also feed informed proactive committed empowered work in a community.  It’s beautiful to see all of this fitting together so nicely.

Sarah’s Journal
30 May, 2011,  Grand Goâve, Ayiti

It is the rainy season in Haiti. Most nights, and sometimes during the day, there are downpours that turn the dirt roads into series of ponds and stretches of mud. Rain mixes with whatever is on the ground and runs into the water supply, and clinics are once again seeing an increase in the number of new cholera cases.

As the two local teachers I’ve been training lead their enthusiastic class of 8-11-year-olds through the basics of juggling, rain starts dancing and pounding on the tin roof of the recently-constructed recreation hall of Petit Paradis, “Little Paradise,” a small community of tarp houses and tents.

Outside the windows, groups of kids peer through the slats to watch what we’re doing. When the rain starts they stay right where they are, hardly reacting. It is so hot and humid outside that being drenched with rain probably feels similar, or slightly preferable, to not being drenched with rain. And watching the strange and energetic goings-on in the newly-trained circus teachers’ class is preferable to staying dryer in the monotony of the tent camp.

Last Thursday I arrived here to join a fantastic team of clowns – Iman, Marykristn, and Dave – who had already spent a week training a group of TDH facilitators in clowning and circus skills. The facilitators are local people employed by TDH to teach groups of children at their child-safe centers. This weekend, their clown training culminated in a series of four performances of at local orphanages. Today is their first day of teaching clown and circus skills to groups of kids in three different areas of Grand Goâve.

The two trainers I am mentoring for the week teach a good first class. They had some pretty intense clown training with the CWB team last week – when I arrived I was amazed at the level of clowning they’d achieved after only a week of work – and they manage to translate a number of the breathing and focus exercises Iman did with them into kid-friendly games. The kids are paying attention and enjoying themselves, exploring the difference between breathing high up in the chest versus low down in the belly. When the trainers have them breathe down low, feel their weight in their legs and hips, and walk around the room, they giggle at their own exaggeratedly-grounded, powerful steps.

Often, on Clowns Without Borders trips, we do a big tour of shows in schools, villages, and orphanages, reaching as many children as possible in crisis-affected areas. On this trip, a partnership with the Swiss organization Terre des Hommes, while we are performing, we’re doing much more teaching. We are spending a lot of time with the TDH facilitators, training them in the teaching and performance of clown, juggling skills, stilt walking, and acrobatics, so that they can continue this work later without us.

The show we built with these new clowns is much less skill- and trick-heavy than most CWB shows. The facilitators haven’t had enough time yet to become strong in juggling and other technical skills. But their short, original clown bits, mostly involving imaginative transformation of objects, have been affecting audiences in a sweet, beautiful way. While crowds aren’t always screaming and roaring with laughter at Thierry’s motorcycle mime, or Brionvil’s fisherman act, they are watching with concentration, maybe smiling, and whispering to each other, “Oh! Did you see? He just caught a fish!” Watching their elders explore a world of discovery and imagination has a different kind of power than watching white people walk on tall stilts, juggle five clubs, or perform more polished clown acts.

Marykristn’s journals

18 may DAY 1

Today is Dave’s birthday, we jumped on the bed in Miami to wake him up before flying to Haïti all.  Even with few hours of sleep, everybody in the team is enthusiastic about the project and about meeting each other.  It was a good thing that we landed together in Port-au-Prince as it is not so easy to find the ‘Terre des hommes’ driver at first.  Dave make us notice the great improvement of the airport compare to last year.    The road to Grand Goave is our first adventure.  Soon after our departure a motorbike driver chased a thief running bare foot in Port-au-Prince.  Many houses are still destroyed on the way, thrashes gathers in the river and pretty much all over, broken or accidented cars are left on the side of the road or most often at the exact place where they stopped working.  There is load of tent site filled with people and we learned that many of them don’t even want to live in a house anymore as they are still scared of earthquake.  On the way, one bridge has a huge dirt pill at the entrance to avoid cars or at least too many cars to pass at the same time on the bridge cause it is not strong enough to support it.  The driver tell us that they often cross by the river with the car.  While waiting, five people on one motorbike passed us…The organisation of ‘Terre des hommes’ in Grand Goave is really friendly and well organised.  We are sleeping in a wood bungalow with each one a little room.  They introduce us to the place and the project and warn us about hygene procedure due to an increase of cholera case.  Our main goal for this project is gonna be to train future circus trainer in order that they can form other circus instructors to teach after .  We will also perform a show with them in the coming week-end.

19 MAY-Day3

This morning there are meetings with members of TDH, then a visit of the site where we are going to teach.  In the afternoon, we start the teaching with the people TDH selected.  Today five students, and more are coming tomorrow from Les Cayes. Our training space is located in ‘Petit Paradis’  (Little Paradise).  The space is great and covered, located in a field where many kids come and play soccer.  At the back of it ,  there is a tent site loaded with people.  We start the afternoon with a game to put everybody in the atmosphere and then,   some clowning and juggling .  Our CWB team is really skilled !! Many curious kids and adult peek through the window, some even stay there for the length of the class.

20 MAY-Day 4

Heading early to ‘Petit Paradis’.  This morning, clowns class with  Iman that I am translating in french.  The trainer learn fast, are motivated and open which lead to beautiful result.  Some of them even understand a few words in english. We do a rhythmic game which work really well,  they quickly start to improvise vocally on it.  Then, we walk back to TDH to exceptionaly teach there, by the beach side in the afternoon, as there is something else happening to ‘Petit Paradis.  Learning some creole words on the way, greeting people and talking with goats..are’nt goat amazing !!  I leaded a partner acro class .  We start by a warm up together and I asked everybody for an exemple of warm up exercices and the result is not what I was expecting.  They mostly come up with little dance move or mouvement sequence probably related to Haïti dance style.  After that,  juggling class with Dave.  This afternoon, focus is a bit harder by the beach side but we still did good work. Heading to TDH house for dinner avoiding the tarentula on the way.  Gather with the amazing TDH team in evening is always a perfect way to end the day and good opportunity to catch up with the project and the schedule update.  Mostly with flying gecko around..Tonight we also visit IOM a neigbourh NGO where we will be invited to perform a show in Friday to one of there tent site !

21 MAY-Day 5

Today is Saturday and day off of teaching.  We still get up early to work with the local carpenter in order to create a pair of stilts with local product.  It is a but tricky and everything takes time.  It is Saturday so as many people are on holiday at TDH, access to the storage and resources are more complicated than during week time .  We work the whole day and really well, we end up building a pair of stilt, rola bolas and a set of juggling clubs. We are invited to perform in a music festival tonight in ‘Petit Goave’.  Even if tired, we are all pretty excited, we just have a few time to pull it out. When we get there, the place is inappropriate for us to perform and we end up cancelling the majority of the show.  I’ll just do a little fire manipulation number with someone from ‘Oxfam’ organisation which is really well received.

22May- Day 6

We are meeting at 8h15  with our students to head to ‘Petit Paradis’ .  We have started collecting the cell phone of our students before class in order to keep focus.   As there is new people in the group, our students already start to teach each other during the classes. Today people learn clown, juggling, rola bola and stilts.   The reaction of locals that see the trainer stilt walking is beautiful mostly when they see a girl standing on them, as we a one female trainer from ‘Les Cayes’ in our group.  People stare, follow, smile, ask if they can try or they clap hand on walking rhythm. During the day, I get into a discussion with Sophie from TDH and we get sorted out a new way to restructure the schedule so that the trainer gets more formation which makes everybody even more happy.

23 MAY- day 7

Today, training with the whole team again.  Starting every morning with clowning.  We start going deeper in the teaching and it gets really interesting .   Then acro which felt unfocused but ended up leading to the final number that we are gonna use this week-end in the show with the student.  A little number involving clown, juggling and acro.  During lunch time, one of our student take us apart to share is inspiration of building a circus conservatory for street kids in his area.

24May-day 8

An other great day of teaching.  In the afternoon, we splited the group in two to work on specific sketch while other practice juggling and rola bola.  After the day we work on the certificate for the students and flyers for the coming shows.

25 May- DAY 9

Today is time to prepare juggling equipement with the team. To  start we have about  150 juggling balls to prepare…all pink color !  Iman and Dave leads this activity and I deal with logistic and carpenter as it easier in French.  Getting the team to stay focus is harder today but we still will end up with few rola bola, juggling clubs, juggling balls and material to make stilts. Our bungalow get filled with circus equipement and even better, our trainers knows how to built them !! After the class, we got to visit ‘IOM’ tent site where we are gonna perform Friday.   Dave perform a few tricks that brings huge smiles to the kids.  We are walking throught the site with many kids holding on each hands.

26 May- DAY 10

This morning we are getting in show preparation mode.  We split the training space in two so that we can work one bye one on specific number and that  people can keep on practicing  on the other side.  Sarah gets here today.  She brings a beautiful energy in the team.  We quickly blend her in the show we are gonna perform at ‘Petit Paradis’ tonight for the community.  This show is only the four of us and got some great laughs.

27 May- DAY 11

This morning everybody is late but we end up doing a good run through of the show we are gonna perform with our students tomorrow.  We are involving Sophie from TDH inside which brings a lot to the show.  She is such a natural clown.  In the afternoon we do a pedagogy exercice and we lead a discussion about how to built the activity they are gonna do this afternoon.  They are having a first meeting with there kid’s group for the supervised stage they are doing this coming week.  The result of the discussion is great, they have a lot to say about what they learn during the training with us.  Then we let them go by themselft for their introduction activity as we head to ‘Petit Goave ‘ to perform the show at the tent site.  We will do a show of over 1h30 long for about 300 persons.  So fun!

28 May- DAY 12

Today is the first day of show with our students, everything is messy.  Transport wasn’t well organised and neither communication with the places we are visiting which is disappointing as it was our trainers responsabilitie.  We make our first show in an orphenage in ‘Grand Goave’ which went pretty well.  Then in the afternoon, we go to an other orphenage.  Dave is sick so won’t join us for this one. We have a good talk about the morning and Iman makes a lot of appropriate notes to adjust the show.  The other orphenage is gorgeous.  All the kids are in their nice outfits on small chairs by the seaside.  Pretty poetic ! Everybody is pretty happy.   It is a gentle atmosphere, all the performers are more confident and playful.  The show was really fun. Then back to TDH with the trainers, we give them their CWB certificate.

29 May-DAY 13

Today I’m leaving back to Canada.  It is a pretty hard separation as we all got pretty close to each others.  As much as in between performers of CWB, with our students and the TDH team.  Through this journey we have seen and learned more about the actual situation in Haïti.  There was some facts really hard to acknowledge.  I’m leaving here beleive in the power of Haïti people and that things can change for them, and mostly, through them.  I’m also feeling optimistic that the goal of our project will be reached and that our students will help spreading smiles all over in Haïti !

Be Sociable, Share!

•