Egypt November/December 2007.
Elisa Lane, Gwendolyn Rooker and Dave O'Donnell
Performances and Workshops in Cairo.
Dec 2nd, 2007
Gwen:
Almost three years ago, Elisa and I came to Cairo for the
first time. Elisa had a contact here who was volunteering
at an orphanage for girls, and we thought it might be nice
to bring the place a little laughter. This is how Clowns
Without Borders: Project Egypt began. Well, this week we
returned to see the girls for the third time, bringing with
us our newest team member, Dave, and a wonderful new half-hour
long show. It was so exciting to be with the girls again.
They have all grown so much! We were also happy to meet new
little ones too.
When we first clowned for the girls they were quite shy
and unsure about all of our strange, silly behavior. Nevertheless,
last year, when we returned and performed a second time,
the girls seemed to remember us and they enjoyed our show
a whole lot more. As for our most recent visit, I am very
pleased to report that the girls were ecstatic to see us
again, and that they laughed thoroughly at our clownish proceedings.
Not only that, they seemed to have been anticipating our
return and had much they wished to share with us: particularly
acrobatics!
I wish everyone reading this message could have witnessed
the high-flying hysteria in the orphanage that night! The
girls showed us moves from our last show, like the two-high,
(which is when one person stands on another person's shoulders,)
and then pleaded with us to teach them more. The pleasure
was all ours! Imagine a smallish room filled with around
fifty girls, ages 3-14, all wearing their pajamas celebrating
with cartwheels, flipping over each other's backs, climbing
on shoulders, falling, and laughing. Such fun! Afterwards,
we were invited to join the girls for supper, and so we partook
of the most awful tasting and yet spiritually gratifying
meals this clown has ever eaten.
Elisa:
After taking an hour-long mini bus and walking through muddy
streets past working donkeys and stray dogs, we arrived at
Kuku Kaka School. Kuku Kaka School, which if I have the translation
correct means "Boys and Girls School", is held
in a building still being constructed. The upper floors and
roof are yet to be completed. We observed that the ground
floor of the building smelled like a sheep house, and I suspect
farm animals are often held there. All classes, preschool
through six grade, are tightly squeezed on the first floor.
The fifteen preschoolers have a classroom the size of a walk-in
closet. A few preschoolers were sitting on the desks because
there wasn't enough room for one more chair. To get out of
the classroom all the children had to climb over the desks.
To greet the students we had to take turns peaking our heads
around a wall to introduce ourselves because there was just
no room for one more body inside. While greeting them we
were overwhelmed by the smell of the toilet, which was next
to their class. It was a classic hole in the floor toilet.
Never had a hole in the floor smelt so strong to me, which
tells me that there were probably plumbing issues in the
building. Water and sewage from the toilet worked its way
throughout the school beneath the feet of children.
Since there was no room in Kuku Kaka for our clown show
they walked all the children and us across the neighborhood
to a large open dirt area used as public space. Here we started
performing our show but quickly were mobbed by the excited
children. After renegociating the imaginary line between
audience and actors we continued with our show. All was going
well until 10 minutes into the show the principle informed
us that a policeman was ordering us to stop our show and
for us all to return to the school. The policeman couldn't
handle witnessing 150 Sudanese children laughing and enjoying
themselves, and had to exercise his power by putting an end
to it. The teachers and principle didn't even flinch at this
order as they are used to being treated as second-class citizens
by Egyptians, (even though Egypt and Sudan have a borderless
equal rights agreement.) We were sad that the kids couldn't
see our whole show complete with acrobatics, juggling, slapstick,
music and magic, but after returning to the school we took
time to visit with each classroom. We sang them songs with
Gwen on accordion, and I showed them the magic disappearing
handkerchief.
 Dave:
The children are wonderful. It is joyous to see the little
people burst into laughter and smiles. Many times the smallest
do not know what to do with the strange fools cavorting before
them. Who would have know that being a clown could bring
joy to anyone anywhere regardless of cultural and linguistic
barriers. Clowns know this and what's more love it.
The city is dusty, dirty and overcrowded. Despite the noise
and confusion people rarely reply to a smile wink or nod
with anything but the same. Beneath the dust and dirt can
be found ancient architecture and hidden wonders. Within
the noises of streets and people hawkers repeat melodies
strange to western ears, and in places the music of these
new lands springs forth with passion and majesty. The world
is at once strange and wondrous, enticing and repulsive,
but throughout filled with little ones worth all of our efforts
including laughter love and compassion.
November 24th, 2007
Salaam Aleekum!
We have had a busy first week here in Cairo. We have visited
old friends and performed at St. Andrew's School and Modern
Education Center. We have also performed at some new venues:
The Children's Cancer Hospital, The Sudanese Future School,
Cannossian School and the Sudanese School of Ard el Lewa.
Below are updates from the three of us: Dave O'Donnell, Gwen
Rooker, and me Elisa Lane.
>From Gwen:
This week we performed for and taught play to approximately
765 kids and the 300 adults who teach and care for them.
We beat rhythms on cowbells, shook tambourines, danced, flipped,
performed magic tricks, laughed, sang, and smiled. Our audience,
the young survivors of war, poverty, ethnic discrimination,
and sorrow, laughed and smiled with each clownish act we
performed. One part of the show that really gets the kids
squealing with laughter is when our clowns have a stand-off,
Old West style, and Elisa and Dave battle one another with
rude noises and tickling. Then the scene slowly transforms
into a story of flirtation and clown-love while I play a
romantic melody on my accordion! The children think all this
is hysterical!
The play workshops are extra special this year thanks to
the rainbow colored parachute we brought with us. When we
unfurl the enormous circle of bright material, the kids get
so excited they scream! Together, Dave, Elisa, and I show
them how to roll a ball around the parachute using group
effort and patience. The smaller children love to run around
underneath the parachute, delighted by the colored light
washing through the material. The space is completely transformed
by the joy, laughter, and fun of it! We later heard through
the grapevine that one of the school coordinators said we
made the children so happy she felt like crying. We are just
that happy too!
... at the Sudan future School
>From Dave:
Good morning, good ev'nin, good day or wherever you are
whenever; a salaam malaaykum, peace be unto you. This is
the new clown in the old world with the sounds of god and
peace bouncing off the sides of buildings or spilling from
countless lips. Dust is omni present. Pollution chokes the
inner city but the air clears out into the desert where gated
communities are being built while ancient Cairo decays, carries
on, or just plain is. Block style project housing, modern
glowing green mosques and endless warrens filled with goats,
cats, chickens, mules and people rub elbows. Amid all this
strangeness; clowns three find people, displaced by war,
pain and unknown what, to try and bring laughter and lightness
as a gift to the trying children. The young people all brighten
when addressed with a courteous hello and a smile. Many of
the little ones take great joy in being offered a hand to
shake or a quick ride skyward on the palm of a foreign clown.
The children come here from once homes in Sudan and other
war torn lands, Somalia for example. It is a wonder to see
children explode with laughter as we play the fool for them.
Wandering and wondering what thoughts strange faces hide,
until a smile, a wink or leaping multicolored balls, brighten
many into smiles, elicits the conclusion, they think of everyday
things: food, water, shelter…. school, work and an
uncertain future.
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