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Marykristn’s blog ,Haïti, November 2011

(ENGLISH VERSION)

Through the broken pieces of Port-au-Prince, the color of Haïti shines brightly.  Goats hopping on the driveway and locals roving with hairstyles that would give envy to the international fashion scene.

This time, our collaboration was with the  organization, ‘War Child Canada.’  A few hours after our international clown team (US, Canada, France) had landed, we started building a show that we would perform the days after in Jacmel.   The resulting show used very few props and no sound amplification. We felt this demonstrated that you don’t need brand new juggling clubs or a sound system to perform or to be a clown.  We were also careful with the use of magic tricks or symbols that could be misunderstood because of the strong voodoo belief. (Mostly that  our project happened to be during the celebration of the Dead, one of the biggest Voodoo events in Haïti ).  We  performed three shows in the following days surround by some unforgettable moments with the kids singing, laughing and playing.  It also gave us an opportunity to improvise together and get to better know each other before the beginning of the classes.

We then headed back to Port-au-Prince to give clown&circus training in the area of Carrefour Feuilles.
Each morning we had 25 students coming from various youth centers.  Our first meeting with them  boosted our motivation as they were so enthusiastic, willing to learn, and open to try. Even with the little time we had, we still put an emphasis on going step by step for each skill, to facilitate the assimilation of it, and to help a better transfer to kids after our project ended (as one of the goal was to enable them to teach in their centers after we had departed).  We put a lot of focus on listening, breath, focus, trust and care through the exercises and in between partners.

We also developed a way to built red noses with the students using the local craft technique of paper maché.  By the end of the workshop, they all had a little clown number with their youth center team and they each made their own red noses.  We hear that many of them have already started to teach the skills we showed them in their centers and want to build shows with kids.

In the afternoons, we had 20 kids with us and five of our morning students remaining.  The goal was to support and guide the teaching methods of these five animators.  In the last days we built a show with all of them that has been performed in four different locations in Carrefour Feuilles.

It was beautiful to see more and more people curiously gathering at the performances.  There was something powerful in having locals performing in their own neighbourhood.  The looks on the audience’s faces were those of  inspiration when they would see their kids, friends or relative performing.

Two local animators working for the organisation ‘Terre des Hommes’ in Grand Goave also took part to the training for a few days. They both had received training with Clowns Without Borders in May of the same year during a previous mission and had been invited to join this one.  The impact was beautiful.  It brought a lot of motivation to our students and allowed some networking for future partnerships.

And then…it was already time to fly home with heavy suitcases filled with the smiles that bloomed through this adventure.

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Journal de bord de Marykrist? ,Haïti, Novembre 2011
( VERSION FRANÇAISE)

À travers ce Port-au-Prince tout en morceaux, les couleurs d’ Haïti rayonnent.  Les chèvres gambadent sur la voie publique and les haïtiens déambulent avec des coiffures qui rendrait envieuse la scène de la mode internationale.

Cette fois, notre collaboration est en lien avec la superbe organisation ‘War Child Canada’.  Quelques heures après l’attérisage de toute notre équipe de clown internationale (US, France, Canada) , nous avons commencé la création d’un spectacle afin de performer le jour suivant à Jacmel.  Nous avons fait le choix d’utiliser très peu de matériel et de ne pas avoir de musique amplifiée afin de montrer l’exemple que le clown n’a besoin de rien pour faire sourire.  Nous avons également été prudents avec l’utilisation de tours de magie et certaines symboliques vu la grande croyance  vaudou. (Surtout que notre projet se déroulait pendant la fête des morts, l’un des plus grands événements vaudou en Haïti.)  Nous avons fait trois représentations de ce spectacle dans les deux jours qui ont suivis entourés de moments inoubliables avec les enfants à chanter, rire et jouer.  Cela nous donna, en plus,  une opportunité d’improviser entre clowns et de se connaître un peu avant le début de la formation.  Nous sommes ensuite retournés à Port-au-Prince pour enseigner le clown & cirque dans le secteur de Carrefour Feuilles.

Chaque matin, nous avions vingt-cinq étudiants provenant de différents centres de jeunesse.  Notre première rencontre avec eux nous a complètement épatés.  Leur désir d’apprendre, leur intérêt et leur ouverture à essayer étaient si vivant.  Malgré le peu de temps nous avions avec eux, nous avons mis l’emphase sur un apprentissage étape par étape pour faciliter l’assimilation et aider au meilleur transfère de la matière. (l’objectif étant de leur permettre d’enseigner par la suite)  Nous avons mis beaucoup d’importance  sur l’écoute, la respiration, le focus, la confiance au travers des exercices et entre partenaires.

Aussi, nous avons développer une façon de fabriquer des nez rouges de clown avec eux en utilisant la technique artisanale locale du papier maché.  À la fin de la formation, ils avaient créer un petit numéro de clown avec leur équipe de centre de jeunesse respective et ils avaient également chacun fabriquer leur nez rouge.  Nous avons entendu dire que plusieurs avaient déjà commencé à enseigner les techniques que nous leur avions appris dans les centres et que certains prévoyaient bâtir un spectacle avec les enfants.  La déception première qui nous ai resté fut le manque de temps pour leur partager encore plus d’apprentissage.

Ensuite, dans l’après-midi, nous avions vingt enfants avec nous et cinq des étudiants du matin.  L’objectif était de supporter et guider la technique d’enseignement de ces cinq formateurs.  Dans les derniers jours, nous avons bâtis un spectacle avec tous et performés dans quatre endroits différents de Carrefour Feuilles.  Il était impressionnant de voir de plus en plus de personnes se rassembler autour des performances par curiosité.  Il y avait quelque chose de très puissant dans le fait que ce soit des performeur provenant du même secteur.  Le regard de l’audience était différent lorsque il voyait leurs enfants, amis ou famille performer.

Deux animateurs locaux travaillant pour l’organisation ‘Terre des Hommes’ se sont également joint à la formation pour quelques jours.  Ils avaient participé à la formation de ‘Clowns sans Frontières’ en mai dernier et avaient été invités à se joindre à celle-ci.  L’impact fut puissant.  Leur présence à apporter beaucoup de motivation aux étudiants et a permis un réseautage dans l’optique de collaboration futures en enseignement ou performance.

Et ensuite…c’était déjà le temps de s’envoler à la maison avec des valises très lourdes remplis des sourires ayant fleuris au cours de cette aventure.

Selena’s Blog Dec 30th, 2011

For this project, Clowns Without Borders partnered with War Child Canada (WCC)  in Haiti where WCC has been working since February 2010, focusing on child protection and gender based violence. WCC doesn’t work directly in the field but through local partners and community projects. Their staff is composed of technicians, trainers, and psychologists and everyone is Haitian except for one french employee and one employee from Sierra Léon.

There is not a strong humanitarian culture of protection work in Haiti and few funds are allotted towards protection work.

In Port au Prince, WCC works in the neighborhood of Carrefour Feuille with 5 Youth Clubs (Cleaced, JEZI, Ajevich, GEM, and EKT) and with a local organization called APROSIFA which has 4 centers. In Jacmel, WCC works with 3 Child Safe Centers (in Cayes Jacmel, Marigo, and Coq Chanté) and with a local organization which focuses on sexual and gender based violence called Femmes Décidés.

We are four clowns: Béné (French), Jeff (American), Marykristn (Quebecquoise), and myself, Selena (American, living in france). We perform for children from the 3 centers and we do a performance for an adult audience of mostly women at a community event organized by Femmes Décidés. Perhaps Clowns Without Borders will return to Jacmel for a residency another time.

We also perform our show upon our return to Port au Prince at the lunch break on our first day of trainings. It serves as an introduction in clown, both to the group of 24 activity leaders we are training and to the community where we are in residency for 7 days.

War Child Canada has invited Clowns Without Borders to Port of Prince to train members of the youth clubs who teach activities in their communities. WCC wants out training to give these activity leaders skills to have fun with the children they are teaching. These activity leaders are volunteers and will be intervening 1-2 hrs a week, or up to 4 hrs a week depending on their availability and commitment. WCC wants to bring something new, special, and different to the communities via their project with Clowns Without Borders. Their director tells us they are proud to be bringing something new.

Our training is over the course of 7 days with 24 activity leaders, 4 from each of the 5 youth clubs and 4 from APROSIFA. These activity leaders were chosen by their respective youth clubs after a big meeting explaining the project with photos and video of past Clowns Without Borders work in Haiti.

Parallel to this morning training we lead afternoon workshops with 20 children (4 from each of the youth clubs) assisted by 4 activity leaders (1 from each of the youth clubs). These 4 activity leaders are also part of our morning group. In addition to having an all day schedule like us, they are responsible for picking up the 4 kids from their center at lunchtime and bringing them home at the end of the day.

At the end of our residency we will create a show with these 20 children and 4 activity leaders and tour the show in the neighborhoods of the different youth clubs.

October 29-Nov 13, 2011
The clowns will first perform with WCC camps in Jacmel, and then return to Port au Prince for concentrated teacher training workshops with youth leaders that work with the children War Child serves. The clowns will also be collaborating with trainers they have met and worked with from the organization Terre des Hommes.
The goals of this trip is to bring as many performances as possible, while also continuing to lay more sustainable foundations of clown, theatre and play training with local NGO leaders.
Our collaboration with War Child has come indirectly from our successful collaborations working with Terre des Hommes. Funding for the majority of this trip is directly from War Child Canada through larger funding they received from UNICEF.
http://www.warchild.ca/

The group checked in today. All is going wonderfully! With several shows completed in Jacmel, the group is now back in Port Au Prince. Today they ran a workshop for 25 participants, along with a performance. Later this week they will be joined by participants from the project with Terre des Hommes – an exciting continuation of a collaboration from earlier this year and in 2010!

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