1999 Gjakova. the whole historic center of this town had been destroyed, burnt down by the Serbs the same day-right after-Nato started bombing Kosova (Albanian name) or Kosovo (Serbian name). Moshe spent two weeks in Gjakova with the Spanish arm of MSF (Doctors Without Borders) working with schoolteaachers and their students using Clown and theater training to release Post Traumatic Stress. It was quite something for the teachers there to learn Tai Chi exercises like Wolf Howling at the Moon, and quite something for the students who loved raising their voices really loud. That also caused many neighbors to pop their heads over the fence of the schoolyard to see what was going on. Moshe also performed in numberous schools and visited mine victims in the hospitals. This boy poses in front of a house where mines had been found the day before-luckily no one got hurt. ©moco

 

Kids pose for the camera. Gjakova 1999. ©moco

Kids watching Pepe perform on the basketball court just outside as Moshe waits in the school hallway for his cue to re-enter. Note the boy in the right of the photo. Gjakova 1999.©moco

 

Moshe and Tortell in 2000. We were to perform in the prestigious national theater in Pristina that day. We were not too keen on it as we were there to perform for refugees. However it was the politically correct thing to do. So we were a both relieved and dissapointed when the show was cancelled. We called up Phillipe from Triangle Generation Humanitaire, one of our main contacts, who proposed going to perform in a small Rom refugee camp-Zitcovac-on the Serbian side of Mitrovica. The camp turned out to be a small grouping of UN tents stuck in an industrial wasteland between a World Food Program Depot, with the one water spigot supply for the camp in fornt of it, and this bus graveyard. ©Phillipe Martinez

 

We started the show with almost no one watching. Eventually we performed for some 75 of the Rom who did enjoy the show. However, afterward Moshe was mobbed by the kidswho all wanted the coins that he had used in his magic trick, even after he explained that they were old and worthless. ©Phillipe Martinez