The Final Chapter

Must apologise for the delay to the end of this blog, I am having a bit of a crisis with my memory cards and now can't access any photos from the end of the trip....So I am just going to repeat my favourite photos from the six months. So without further delay, here is the last blog in this colombian series.

Here I am. Back in London. Actually sitting in my garden in glorious sunshine with a bottle of water and a freshly eaten lunch sitting in my belly. Some might say the perfect friday afternoon. 

This phase of my project in Colombia is now complete. Two months of not understanding a word anybody said and feeling very alone, a month transitional phase and then three of the most magical months of my life. From fundraising to the final show in Colombia I have been amazed by the overwhelming generosity of everybody who laid a helping hand. For those that are just joining I have been in Combia for six months working with underprivelidged kids teaching circus. The project climatized with two shows performed by the kids.

It has been very strange being back. Beautiful to be back with my family who I missed hugely but a huge shock to leave this incredibly volatile place where even the most day to day of interactions are viceral and incredibly physical to return to the suburbia of Whitton. A place where almost all of the interactions are cerebral and eye contact with strangers is highly frowned upon. Minus of course teaching my mum and sister a street dance called Choque; a priceless couple of hours in my kitchen which I wish everybody could have witnessed.

The final show with my kids was a very special memory. We ended up doing two shows, one of them was on a friday at the professional circus school, an opportunity for the kids to demonstrate all of their skills to the professionals, and another show at the theatre in the area that they all live in on the saturday. The friday was a very nervous group of kids presenting fairly incredible skill level to an extremely lovely group of people; the show on saturday was simply electric. A theatre with a capacity of about 60 and we must have had about 100 people. It was a health and safety officers nightmare. There were kids on laps, rows of people standing up at the sides, extra rows of chairs at the front and at the entrance. It was magic. Here below is the first ten minutes of the showing at the Circus school. Keep your eyes peeled for salsa on stilts.

There is something very special about a whole community coming together to celebrate the talent of young people. At the beginning of the show the public weren't really sure what to expect but by the end they were wooping, screaming and giving everything that they could to make these kids feel good. This is a difficult area, an area where so many of these kids are left in the street all day, or where these kids never experience warmth and appreciation. So to have this sensation of value was invaluable. There was a warmth in that theatre when we finished the likes of which I will never forget.

At the end of the show on saturday we had a bit of a graduation. We gave all of our kids a certificate and a huge round of applause. The most special certificate by far was for one young child called Carlitos, pictured below.

Carlitos is about 9. I'm not entirely sure of his age because he always says a different one. He has some learning difficulties and can't talk properly. He also has severe problems with balance and hand eye co-ordination, for example when I arrived he couldn't throw and catch a ball. He would lance it up in the air and swing his arms wildly in the direction of the falling ball in the hope that he would catch something. We put him in the show, he was throwing and catching balls at the beginning, succesfuly, he then took part in the skipping routine as well. Everytime he came on there was a huge reaction from the crowd. Everybody knows this kid in this area and I hope from now everybody will look after him a bit more. But he never really took part in the workshops because of his problems with balance so we wrote him up a certificate to thank him for his assistance in the workshops. Because he always helped clean up or cook lunch or organise the equipment. When we gave him his certificate the whole audience and cast started chanting his name. All he would say the next day was "I was on stage yesterday, yesterday I was on stage" to everybody he met. It was beautiful. His parents abandoned him and his two brothers with his grandmother, who now works monday to sunday selling fruit on a street corner to try and support them, an extremely beautiful woman who gives everything for those kids. He was known by the end of my trip as my son or my security because everywhere I went he would grab my hand and go with me. Trying to explain to him that I was going away for two years was difficult to say the least.

The work was exceedingly challenging. Teaching and controlling 30 to 40 kids on your own for six months isn't easy, there are huge challenges emotional and logistical. But I just felt so alive. You are making such a difference and it is evident, you can see and feel how you are helping these young people day to day. I loved every second of it, even the parts where I just had no idea what I was doing. I think from those moments I actually learnt more.

Something that I think is very sad about London is that we are all so afraid of an encounter that is out of our daily routine. A conversation with a stranger, a different route to work even a change of plan is looked on as an inconvenience. The Colombians have a lovely mindset; that you can learn something from everybody you meet and at any moment so you must be open to it. And they are, if somebody stops to talk to them in the street they stop and listen with the same respect as if it was a loved one, they love to learn and have very little prejudice as to who they learn from. This open-ness to life is a very beautiful thing and something that we are losing here in England and all because of fear. And why lose a richness to life because of fear.

I will take alot from my trip to Colombia. But mainly that your time here on this planet is what you make of it. I worked so hard to make this Colombia trip a reality and because of this I savoured every moment and took every opportunity. My life had never been richer. Why miss out on your life, why do we not take everything that is here infront of us, why do we not savour every conversation with a loved one. So often its through complacency or fear. Give everything you have. For six months I gave everything I had for those kids without thought of what I would recieve. And I recieved more love than I ever thought possible. 

Thanks for reading and this isn't goodbye, but see you soon.

El Intierno

On Sunday night a friend of mine was shot dead round the corner from where I live. He was 26.

All of monday there was an open casket with people drinking till the early hours of the morning, some people drinking Coffee and the majority Aguardiente. Then on Tuesday they buried him.

Death is a part of life here that everybody understands, they are accustomed to losing friends. Two of my friends were discussing that they go to work in the morning and never know if they are going to be coming home in the evening. This statement is true for everybody on all sides of the planet but somehow it seems all the more real here. I find it hard to grasp that for this community it´s part of life to be shot dead in the street at 26, that in the evening on the monday the majority were drinking and chatting as if it was a street party. Me included. It felt as if the majority of the people didn´t want to feel the grief, desperately scrabbling for any subject to talk about as long as it wasn´t the death. Two friends discussed grammar for about an hour with a passion like I had never seen. If they truly delved into the grief every time a friend was shot dead then they would go crazy, how would life continue. And the life here has to continue, for that everybody needs to develop a form for dealing with the losses that they suffer. But it´s a sad situation when you have to learn how to cope with forever losing friends before they´ve had a chance to live.

Everybody in this neighbourhood knows exactly who it was who shot this man dead but apparently nothing will happen. The man will go away for a while and when all has quietened down he will return. Perhaps a revenge killing but it depends who he was friends with. If anybody said anything to the police they would be killed. Neighbourhoods like these are policed from the inside and if you try and change that there are obvious repercusions. The other part that is difficult to bear is that the killer was eighteen. Where were you when you were eighteen? I know where I was and it wasn´t killing people on street corners for territory.

The grief of the family was absolutely intense. A friend of mine said to lose a father is painful but to lose a son is a pain unimaginable. He is right. Looking at the mother, father, three sisters and the brother I couldn´t begin to relate to what they were going through. I have lost some one very dear to me in my life, I have shared the grief of friends who have lost loved ones but this was a grief like I had never seen. A grief without reason.

The part that makes it all the harder to deal with was that this man was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are things here called "Oficinas" which translates as an office. But this is where gangs control an area from, where they do all of their deals etc. Apparently an Oficina from another neighbourhood had problems with one from Verhel and a man from Verhel had come this night to kill a man to try and solve the problem. But he didn´t. He fired of a number of shots and shot my friend dead where he stood. This man was in the wrong place at the wrong time and now an entire neighbourhood has lost a friend, a family its son.

I don´t know how many people came to the burial but it must have been around five hundred. They had to hire six huge coaches all of which were completely full and there must have been about fifty motorbikes all escorting us. It was a moment I will never forget, six buses, the hirst, all of the cars with the familys and friends all trying to stay together on these busy roads, I would think it impossible. They managed it in a way only Colombians could. At every junction all of the motorbikes would drive up and baracade any traffic from entering so we could all stay together. And I´m not talking about little country roads I´m talking about big busy three lane roads. It´s like driving up Oxford Circus and using motorbikes to block any traffic from entering. Traffic control Colombian style.

And I´m not going to lie he wasn´t an extremely dear friend. If I saw him pass my house I wouldn´t invite him in for food but we would stop and chat if we saw eachother in the street, he used to come and watch when we played football, we drank together. My grief wasn´t one of losing a part of my life but in seeing the grief of others, watching how this loss affected a community but most of all a family. And all because somebody thought they had the right to take a life. This family will never really recover from this grief and there is no explanation as to why it is their son that is gone and not me or you. Solo La Vida Es Asi. It´s a common phrase here, roughly translated as That´s Life.

And now after two days of being together the life has to continue and everybody is joking, laughing, continuing with things as they were before. In two days. I don´t know if the family have gone back to work but everybody in the neighbourhood is continuing as normal. It´s as if nothing had happened. There is a feeling that if you stopped to mourn you would get left behind, everybody needs to put food on the table, everybody has bills to pay and if you stopped to really look at the shit I don´t know how you´d continue. The life here is delicious, beautiful and full of riches that money simply can´t buy but at the same time this is a part that I can´t really quantify or understand. I need more time.

It´s not the most up beat edition of my blog but I think an essential one if you want to understand the culture here.

Take care and live your life to the full.

Be open, caring and generous with all that you love because you can leave your house in the morning but really you never know if you are going to be coming back.

The beginning of the ending

The workshops are now drawing to a close. I have now three weeks left before the show with my kids. Bloody hell. Lots of work to do, Albert if only you were here we would make an incredible show. I cannot believe I have only a month and a half left. What a flipping adventure. The rehearsals are absolute chaos. It´s me desperately trying to control a group of about 30 kids all of different ages and giving them improvisation exercises. Yesterday we were making songs and I can safely say it was one of the most chaotic hours of my life. But I am learning. With these kids and only me we simply can´t rehearse all of us together for three hours, its absolute madness, I tried two times and both times I left completely exhausted and with lots of things broken. So now I am only calling in people who I need and we are rehearsing in chunks. We have some incredible tricks! One boy does a back flip off a giant walking ball, Another boy is skipping on a unicycle and we have lots and lots of salsa on circus equipment. Haha! There are also three or four individuals who I know could easily have a future in Circus if they wanted to.

We also have a new boy called William. Just when I thought all of my problems with Pablo were over we get delivered a fresh new box of tricks. This boy William, where do I begin. He is inteligent, funny, he can rap freestyles that I dont understand because the spanish is very fast but all of the kids find them hysterically funny, he is naturally very good at circus and with me and the other teachers he is respectful and very well mannered. My problem is that with the other kids he is abusive, selfish and very violent. Two days running I had problems with him one time threatening to punch a nine year old girl and the next day having punched an eight year old girl in the chest. I like the kid, I know that sounds strange, how you can like a child that is violent with young girls but but I do I like him. I have myself a predicament, I feel if I am too harsh with him I am afraid of pushing him away so that he doesnt want to come back but if I am too soft with him he isn´t going to learn anything. I am going to give him one more opportunity, I am going to say that if he continues like this he can´t return here full stop, one more class to show me that he wants to be here. He lives round the corner in an extremely violent area with lots of robbings and killings and he also has a strong history of drugs and gun crime. This boy of fourteen.

 Onto more jovial matters. For those who have just joined I am currently working in Colombia teaching circus to children in underprivelidged areas. But whilst here in Colombia I have also discovered a wonderful company called Doktora Klown. It´s incredible. These people go into hospitals as clowns and use laughter therapy to help cure the sick. Within moments of entering a room full of depression and people fraught not only with illness but stress and sadness they transform the space into one of joy and endless posibilities.

And two weeks ago I went with them for my first therapy as a clown. This is my final costume and a picture of a very tired and extremely excited Gregory the night before. Mum if you are reading this I am sure you recognise this expression from when I was around five or six the night before christmas. I don´t know if this is the same expression but it´s exactly how I felt.

My friend and I Fabian spent the whole night making the rocket that I have on my back from coke bottles and colored fabric. The helmet is an old bike helmet painted and decorated with a heart antena. And the wand is magic and from the moon, It brings good luck but also can control my movements, if you shake the wand you shake me.

 What an incredible job, you are helping people by messing around in a ridiculous outfit. It´s magical. My clown se llama "Astro Boy" and he desperately wants to go the moon but he doesn´t have a rocket large enough. Reading that back it sounds like a tag line to a very bad porn film but I assure you my clown is nothing but a gentleman. He may have proposed to four different nurses on the same day but it was all down in a perfectly gentlemanly fashion.

And I have to say it is one of the most difficult things I have ever done. You are entering a space where some of these people have some of the heaviest and most distressing problems and the last thing they want is somebody dressed up as Astro Boy waving a silver rattle in their face. You have to subtly address each person and asses the best format for making that person happy. But in an instant. I found it extremely dificult at times and all I wanted to do was to leave these people in peace.

If you look at the photo above on the right you will see in the centre a man with goggles on his head. His name is Fabian. He has a rare gift. As a clown he can enter any space and within five minutes he can transform any space and any individual. Having watched it in person I was impressed but after having now tried it myself I have a deep respect for it because it is frighteningly difficult. But beautifuly so because when you leave a space knowing that in your own way you have helped someone who desperately needs it how can that not be rewarding.

 This photo isn´t the most attractive photo of me in the world but it is for a friend of mine called Bonny. Who was forever impressed by my sartorial elegance when it came to choosing clothing. And I have put this photo here for you to let you know Bonny that Colombia hasn´t changed me.














I now need to fill you in on one of the most magical birthdays of my life.

For my birthday proper I did nothing particularly special. It is a tradition here to crack eggs on your head if it is your birthday so I took my egging like a man and smelt of eggs for the next few days.

The weekend following a party was organised for me. Which was truly wonderful. What with teaching lots and lots of kids and being the only foriegner in an area with lots of poverty I have made lots of friends who have throughout my stay cared for me a great deal. But on this day in particular they surpassed themselves.

It started off with a presentation from a select group of my students, which was suitable cheesy and entertaining in equaly measures.

We then moved to the street and starting the party. There was drink, cake in the shape of breasts and knickers, lots of beautiful woman and lots of salsa. And then the band arrived. All of my friends had pitched together to buy me a Mariachi band. Mum you´ll be happy to hear that they also filmed it and gave us a DVD so when I am back we can watch it back. We then proceeded to dance all night long.

I don´t know if they know quite how special a night it was for me, I imagine they have an incling. To have a group of people whom you hold very dear to your heart organise an evening like that in your honour is a very humbling experience and one that I will never forget. Also I have never danced with that many beautiful women in all of my life. It was like a bizarre dream. I am also much much better at dancing now than I ever have been. My Salsa and Bachata are particularly good. Apparently my Merengue lacks movement in the hips and I need a few to learn more turns but nobody is perfect.

A lesson learnt. Give all that you have to all that you meet and you will be rewarded.

My time now is slightly fraught. Having only a month left I am running around like a blue arsed fly most of the day and desperately trying to catch up on sleep during the night. I am having all sorts of problems with trying to donate the extra money raised to circus and this community theatre. My Bank is changing its mind about what is possible and what isn´t every other day. Extremely frustrating.

To summarise.

The show with the kids is going to be complete chaos but brilliant, a celebration of what these kids can achieve.

Colombian women are the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life.

My birthday was very good.

The work is the most rewarding work I have ever done.

And I now know what I need if I want to do a project like this again. One more person. Because there is such a need for the work here we have approximately fifty children in the street trying to learn Circus. Which is brilliant but when it is just me it is completely insane. And also for ideas and suggestions on how to improve the work it is at times slightly taxing forever bouncing ideas off yourself. So next time, if you are reading this Ali Eisa, Vamos Juntos.

I am going to leave you with two photos I love. One of them is slightly self explanatory and the second one requires a little more information. The baby is the brother of one of my students. When I arrived the mother was slightly pregnant and she gave birth on the 26th of May at 2 in the afternoon (a time which I predicted). The whole neighbourhood has been building in excitement as the day grew closer and if you look very closely those are my trousers and that is my hand. It is an extremely beautiful baby Boy which apparently has the middle name Gregory. I don´t know if they were winding me up or not I will find out for the next blog.

Enjoy and as a dear friend of mine here called Platano said to me the other day. "dont worry about what others think about you, this is your life, if you want to do something then do it because who knows, tomorrow you could be dead, enjoy yourself and live your life how you want to".

Buses and Motorcycles

I have to quickly say sorry.
Sorry to everyone who I have not been in contact with over the past two weeks. I´ve got a bit lost in it all and forgotten to keep in contact with alot of people. My mother told me today on skype that she was very close to booking a ticket to Colombia she was that worried about me. Mum I am really sorry I will keep in better contact from here on in. I am diving head first into this culture and am in a bit of a bubble. I am teaching all the week, helping with three different foundations and teaching on saturday and sunday as well. And partying as and when my body allows. The part of Cali where I am living is called El Poblado. Whenever you say to anybody I live in Poblado their initial reaction is one of shock and closely followed by the phrase oh no caliente! Its rough!. But I have to say I have never met a more welcoming, humble and generous community in all my life. I have been living here for three months but I have a family here who care for me as if I was one of their own.

Every night out on the street everybody who wants to meets for drinks or just for the company. But it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to go just for company. They work so hard here and there is a real athmosphere of the here and now that drink is a big part of the culture. With generosity also a massive part of their life here combined with me being a foriegner means everybody is desperate to give me alchohol. Which is great but it means that I am having to say no to so many people in a culture where saying no is bloody difficult.

But I love how it is nothing fancy, nothing over priced, no pretence its just music and good company sitting in the street and having a good time. We laugh alot. This is Julian. He has been like a brother to me here in Cali and is a dear friend. He takes the piss and cares for me in equally grand measures. The other day when I needed to go to a particularly rough part of Cali for a workshop he drove me all the way there in his van accompanied me all the way to the door and then went and spoke to the doorman and organised for somebody to help me out on the journey home as well. He is forever generous and forever on the wind up.

 These are the wives of three of mi amigos neuvo. From the left Martha, Yenny and Viviana. They have been pivotal in my salsa education and are protecting me from any potentialy dangerous women.

 This is Francisco who has been pivotal in my swear word education. There are two football teams in Cali, Deportivo and America and when the two play there are usually at least four deaths. It is literaly a die hard rivalry. But he and I are both America fans, the red devils. He lives in the house opposite and is very very funny. He works like a dog and partys equally hard, he is an incredible salsa dancer and is teaching me too.

 This is Lucho the brother to Andrez, who is the father of the one of my students and the reason that I know all of these people. He invited me to play football with them all one night and took me under his wing, I don´t have a photo of him but he is a real character. Infact his whole family is really beautiful.  But these two, Lucho and Andrez are the two who first started looking after me here. Lucho is an ace footballer, Andrez not so much.

Here is Julian and his wife Martha.


















And here is Yenny and Alex or Platano. His nickname is Platano or Plantain in English. He is a huge man but with a heart of gold. Whenever everyone is trying to pull my leg about one thing or another he is always the one who reassures me, Don´t worry they are just joking. And Yenny and her family are being absurdly accepting of me. I have started teaching Yenny´s sister english and every time they give me a huge plate of food and let me use their internet. I am currently sitting in their living room writing this and have been for the past three hours. Staying well over my welcome but I need to finish. Platano as well is a very good friend.

This is the group. Not everybody is here and I am sorry to any of you who are not here, it is not because I don´t like you. With time I want to get a picture of all of my friends from Cali up on here.

I so wish I could bring you all here to Cali for an hour to taste this athmosphere. There is only so much you can communicate with words. The feeling when we are out in the street dancing and laughing. It´s beautiful.



I wanted this picture in here because in this exact moment Francisco is teaching me a particularly vulgar swear word.










So the new foundations. The work with Doktora Klown has taken off. It is a truly beautiful foundation. Their aim is to enter a hospital and to try and give everybody in that hospital a few moments when anything is possible, they don`t have to worry or stress about their problems; simply enjoy three clowns being absolutley ridiculous.

And they are absolutely ridiculous. It´s beautiful to see a room transform from a sullen and melancholy place to a room full of joy and make believe. I have now been into two hospitals with them and helped with a day of workshops. Which went very well, a very special day, I have never done laughter yoga before but I will definitely do it again, I recommend it for anybody who enjoys being happy.

I have adopted a new style of life here. One in which I want to take every opportunity that comes my way and to not only take these opportunities but to take them fully and without fear. I have to say my life here is richer and more rewarding than it ever has been. It feels like there are so many opportunities here, I don´t know that there are more opportunities here or just that I am saying yes to so many that more doors are opening. Every oportunity that I agree to seems to open another door, sometimes two or three. For example I said yes to taking a workshop for this company and now there are two more lined up in different parts of Colombia all expenses paid and I am mounting a show with the director of the company here in Cali.

 And here he is in full clown glory. His name is Fabian and he is a really beautiful man. We have spent many a night after rehearsals sitting and talking about life and art and he is a very beautiful soul. Always late! But I forgive him.  I actually had a chat with him last night and said that unless he gives the project the full commitment we should call it a day, I understand why he cant because he has several projects on the go at the moment but so do I and I cannot be waiting for him in different parts of Cali all the time. He has just adopted a child with H.I.V. who lives with a different foundation called Fund Amor.

 Now Fund Amor. This is a company that works as a sort of orphanage for children whose parents have died because of H.I.V. and subsequently have passed the disease to their children. It´s a really beautiful place with an athmosphere surprisingly jovial and light. A group of my students and I were lucky enough to be invited to give a presentation to all of the children at this foundation. It was a very very special day. We gave an ace show! seven of my students from Poblado and me unicycles, stilts, balls, juggling, it was a real spectacle. And afterwards we gave a workshop to all of the kids. Some of which were extremely hyper active and some of which were extremely sombre. You got a sense for some of them the pain of what was happening in their life was very fresh and for some just a way of life with which they were accustomed.
                

 I am also doing Event after event after event. The community theatre is able to fund the work that it does in the community because it works its socks off. It gives event after event after event. We put together a group of my students and friends of the theatre. We put on the make up, costumes and we give some incredible shows. It´s brilliant for the kids as well, an opportunity to see different parts of Cali, and opportunity to perform for different groups of people. They love it. Every time there is an event I have swarms of children saying, please profy profy can I? can I? It`s good as well because now I have a very strong incentive for the kids, if you want to go and do events for the theatre you need to practice hard and help out when we are cleaning or repairing the house.

 On wednesday as I´m sure you were all aware it was international day of circus. And so Circo Para Todos hosted a day of events. There was about 100 kids in the tent sharing skills, taking workshops, playing games. It was brilliant. There was my kids from Poblado, a huge group of street kids from an orphanage and another foundation who I didnt get introduced to. It was fantastic. A real buzz in the tent.

 

These are the die hard students of mine from Poblado. We had endless problems oranising all of them to come but it was worth every moment of it. I decided to only invite those kids who really practice hard and are respectful. So all of the kids from Poblado who aren`t respectful and who don`t practice hard were furious. "Proffy why aren`t I going to Circus? Why aren]t I going to circus?" I had one kid in floods of tears one kid was in a blind rage but since that moment, surprisingly all of the kids are much more respectful and training much harder.


I am really tired. I need to rest. I think I am probably taking on too much but I love it. However today and tomorrow I am going to do absolutely nothing. Nothing. Clean my house, Eat alot, and nothing more. It´s getting increasingly close to June when I have to go back to London and I desperately want to do a bloody brilliant show for these kids. I have written a draft idea of what it will be like but I need to finalize it. I have worked out a load of exercises for Stilt Salsa, thats right stilt salsa, you heard it here first.

There are alot of problems here and actually reading over my last blog I was slightly gushing about Colombians in a slightly biased fashion. Obviously there are bad people here and egoism and bad characteristics as well. I don´t want people to read this blog and think that Colombia is a perfect place with these people who are only generous and humble because It´s not like that. I suppose I am concentrating on the positive because on a day to day I am concentrating on the positive, I am searching out foundations that require an incredibile dose of generosity and so I am encountering some very special people. But there are some terrible things that happen here and some people who live with incredible poverty and no choice but to do some terrible things in order to survive.

Sorry about the title, I started the blog with the idea of writing about the motorcycles and buses but now I have run out of time. So feel free to find a metaphor of sorts to justify the title and I fill you in on the buses next time. With love from Colombia

La Arreglando

The people here are of a different quality. There is an understanding of what is important and not a hint of fear or apprehension in going for it. They are so humble and generous, obviously with exceptions but you can´t have a country completely perfect. For example, there is a woman of about forty or fifty. She has two sons one of which is epeleptic so is forever by her side just incase he has an attack, I have mentioned him before, she works seven days a week selling lottery tickets door to door, five hours walking round Cali in the morning and 3-4 hours in the evening. Sometimes in the backing heat sometimes in the pouring rain, It´s amazing how much can happen in two weeks. Seven days a week without fail, she also collects recyclables because she can sell them back to shops, she has a trolley that is forever full of bottles or plastic bags. She also cooks treats which she sells door to door. Her other son Johnatan needed five thousand pesos for a school project. That is roughly one pound fifty. It took him two days of asking friends and doing odd jobs to get it together.. This is a family that has nothing. Every other day she comes to where I live and work and sits me down and gives me a plate of food, or a fried plantain or a cup of rice pudding. A woman who has nothing and has to work solidly to have enough money to feed and clothe her children is not only willing but desperate to share all that she has with a relative stranger. And beyond that she is confused and almost insulted when I try and decline. I keep trying to explain that it´s a cultural difference and that it is hard for me to accept so much from her but she is simply saddened by the fact that people aren´t generous like that in London. "por que no, esso es feo, es malo, hentes no generoso? muy malo" It seems bizarre to her that you wouldn´t give up your hard earned to cook meals for your sons teacher.

On an equally difficult point the family that I was staying with in my first two weeks are just so generous. When I was first here they fed me and the five other people that were staying in their house completely free and when I tried to pay some rent I was flat out refused and told to relax. Last saturday it was the mother of the houses birthday, a grand party was planned. However on the wednesday the grandmother fell very seriously ill and was taken into intensive care. I presumed that there would be no party or atleast a smaller gathering. I rang to check on the saturday night and was told there was beers but nothing grand, I told them I would see them on monday. I had another invitation which fell through so I actually ended up spending the night at home alone drinking milk and eating cake, a nice evening if not a touch solitary. I turned up at their house today and in all honesty they were insulted that I wasn´t there on saturday. I have not felt this guilty in a long time. It was as if everything I have ever done that rewarded a little bit of guilt came flooding back to remind me of what it is to do somebody wrong. I have since been to see the grandmother in hospital, given the mother of the house her birthday present and desperately tried to explain that I thought they would want some space to be a family in this hard time. I think it will take some time to rebuild bridges completely but they definitely understand that my absence wasn´t through lack of caring. These people have shown me such warmth and honest generosity not just with things material but with their time and patience. An extremely humbling day and one in which I have learned alot about what it is to be human.

So, onto things a bit more positive: Turns out there is a company in Cali that uses clowning in hospitals to treat the ill. Who knew such a thing existed outside holywood. I am now enlisted to take photo´s and make tea for their next outing to a hospital and I am also giving a two hour workshop on clown for them on the 3rd of April.  It´s special what can come from extending a little bit of human warmth. I have seen this one man at circus so many times and thought "what are you doing here? you aren´t a circus person whats your story?" So last week I asked him. He started talking about a company he works with called Doctor Clown. I told him about my training in London and that I loved clowning we both gushed about how incredible Clowning is for some time and we are now rehearsing tuesdays and thursdays trying to mount a routine together and I get to help out what sounds like an incredible company. It also helps that when I went to meet the other members of Doctor Clown they both happened to be very beautiful women, its a hard life.

Before I start on any more updates you have to quickly take note of what the theatre looked like before we started repairs. Take note. Record it in your mind. And when you are ready feel free to move on.

We are so close to finishing all of the repairs in the theatre! So painfully close. And the way it all took off was just priceless. So if you have just joined I will fill you in on whats been taking place, a phone got stolen  from the theatre and so the kids planned a meeting to try and figure out how to make amends; they all started talking about how much they loved this little community theatre and how they wanted to help it. They then decided that they would repair the place from top to bottom. Well. The director John Hairo was going away to Barancilla for a festival for two weeks so there was a perfect opportunity for the kids to step up and show what they were worth...hmmm.


Day one. Turn out: brilliant, couldn´t have been better, kids aplenty. Cleaning: complete chaos. There was an older girl Melissa who said that she would organise it all, I thought fantastic somebody else responsible I can leave them to it. I went to the theatre to see how things were going and was greeted by insanely loud music, mop fights and a game the kids had developed whereby one child climbs to the top of the tallest ladder and the rest of the kids shake it as hard as they can. It was a very loud mess with Melissa at its center organising the chaos. I let them ride it out and then found them all one by one the next day and just quietly said that the clean up yesterday was a mess, you got nothing done you just pissed about on ladders. Surprisingly they were a touch more sheepish the day after. Especially Melissa. Next time she asked if I needed help I said a flat out no and told her in very plain terms why. Colombians as direct as they are really dislike confrontation, it´s a bizarre daicotomy that they are so open and honest in some ways but when they have a problem with somebody they will never say anything to their face, lots of talking behind peoples backs and berating through another person. So when I tell people I have a problem to their face in Cali it can be quite impacting.

Day Two. Turn out: Me and Johnatan. Cleaning: brilliant! Johnatan and I had a day of real hard slog. I never thought I´d hear myself say this about cleaning but there was something quite beautiful about it.

Day Three. I hear a knocking at my door unusually early. Its Pavlo asking to be let into the theatre. I said why? Repairs he replied. I was slightly taken aback at first but thought, here is a golden opportunity don´t let it fall away. I let him in and we worked all day. He cleaned, he fixed chairs,  and even started to design a way of hanging masks around the theatre. Ever since our chat Pavlo has been brilliant. It´s been a special change. I spoke with his parents and apparently he is doing more chores at home and is doing school work as well. And here he was at my door at about 10 in the morning asking to do a full days work labour. Don´t worry he is still aggresive, arrogant and violent with some other kids but he is doing it all with respect for me and his parents. I don´t know how long this will last but the way I see it just keep on going little by little. I can´t do any more than that, take it day by day.

Also quick moment for the classic child in doorway picture. Classic.

And from here on in is where the work really began. They next day Johnatan and Pavlo turned up early again and I was busy so I let them get on with it solo, they were fantastic. They worked all day. What started to happen next was again slightly special. The next day Pavlo and Johnatan turned up again but this time with an extra friend, again working well, they next day some one else joined, they next day two more until at its peak we had about fifteen kids working like ants. It was special, I really wish I´d taken pictures of that day.

Not to say it wasn´t without hiccups, one day I left them alone with these parting words "finish in the theatre and call it a day, no more work downstairs". I came home to find out that they had broken into downstairs, repainted the living room with oil paint and eaten my food. Not the highest point of my trip so far but as the Colombians say we are on a process.

But besides a few hiccups I think it´s a really incredible what a group of kids have achieved. Because it´s them that did all of the work and came up with most of the ideas. I was just there to say no when they started trying to mix silver paint with yellow and started trying to paint the floor with three different colours at the same time. Generally they worked with diligence, patience and generosity of spirit. And just look at what they have achieved, look at the difference. And look at the masks! Get in Pavlo, the original design had to be changed because the masks were hanging so that you couldn´t see the stage, but hey we´re on a process.

These stairs were painted about three times by Johnatan. He would spend about three hours on them, finally finish and somebody would walk on them and he would have to start all over again. This happened at least three times. 

If you ever want to try and give a heart condition to five children from El Poblado in Cali Colombia then tell them that you are going to take them to a professional circus school for a day.

What a flipping day that was. We left our area at 6 in the morning with five kids dressed up to the nines and  with excitement burning through very tired eyes. No one on that bus was prepared for the whirlwind of energy that hit it that morning. The night before I was in a living room with the parents, grandparents and cousins of one of the boys trying to persuade them to give him permission to go. He had had a bad note at school and so his Mum and Dad had no. I was desperately trying to argue the benefits of going, that when he sees how a professional practices he will understand hard work, he will want to work harder at school etc etc etc. In the end it was the english he had learned with me that swayed it and he was given permission. They were so amazed when he started spouting out phrases in English, truly shocked. That really surprised me how the family were so taken aback by really basic english, need to keep that in mind that a task like learning a language is so alien to them that I just need to be patient. Very very patient.

The black boy below is called Jesus but everyone calls him Chucho. He is a brilliant kid. Very bright, very funny and always with a business plan or other in the pipeline. He has a great nack of turning up just as a meal is being served, an awful habit I cant believe somebody would base their movements around their next meal disgraceful. Whenever we see eachother now we sing at eachother Eyyyyyy Comida! (Eyyyyy food!). He has a job in a bicycle repair yard but has given up a days work so that he can come to classes on saturdays. I asked him why he misses a days worth of money and he says because the Casa Naraña is too important to him. A kid of fourteen who had to struggle and scrape to get together the equivalent of a pound for the bus fare gives up a days work so he can come to do classes in circus and keep supporting his local community. He says he wants to be a doctor and I so so hope that its possible and not a pipe dream. I keep saying to him if he wants to be a doctor english will help him massively, he has just mastered the phrase Do you have any brothers and sisters and is going round repeating it to anybody that will listen.

But generally the kids were brilliant at Circus. They respected the space, didn´t disturb any of the other students too much and learnt shit loads. They walked on balls, on tightropes, learnt acrobatics and were suitably inspired by watching all of the other students. Their eyes also lit up when they heard the students say that they all began in community workshops with stilts just like them. Haha! All of the kids, with one exception, that came to circus have now been practicing harder and with more concentration than before, with Chucho determined to do two diabolos. A little incentive will go a long way. The one exception is a boy called Alex, who also was the one child that didnt help out with repairing the theatre, I don´t know whats going on with him at the moment he isn´t coming to classes either, must try and find out.

A little shot of the teaching in action.

Here are some photo´s of a party. A very special party. This is the family I stayed with for the first two weeks and the ones who have opened their hearts and home. This is the grandmothers birthday party. The one who is now in hospital. As you can see Colombians are extremely macho alpha and only start a bbq with a hairdrier. Its surprisingly effective and I think every macho alpha man should have one.

The woman is Amanda and the man Roderigo. Amanda is Roderigo´s girlfriend from Australia who was here for three weeks, great for company awful for my spanish.

Here is me and the grandmother, we get on very well. We rarely understand what the other is saying but we understand eachother. That is an awfully phrased sentence but I hope you get my drift.

And here is a rather belated, rather drunken picture of the coleslaw that I cooked as a gift for the party. There was flipping loads of it and Mum you would have been proud it was delicious.







I had a horrible dream that I was back in London and hadn´t remembered anything of the end of the trip, my cousin Yoshi however had come to Colombia and watched the show I had made with the kids. As he was playing back to me the film he had made of the show I couldn´t remember a single part of it and I just started to cry. I had made a bloody good show though, the costumes and choreography were incredible.

Sorry there has been such a delay I´ve just been exhausted. Going to make an attempt to try and update more regularly. One last passing thought.

If you ever make a plan with a Colombian be prepared for it to change. Several times.