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.

The Reunion

Well.

To think it´s been a week since I last wrote something is bizarre. So much has happened. I nearly had a fist fight with one of the kids, I got severely lost in Cali trying to get the bus on my own, I have started a personal battle against mosquitoes, the current score is Mosquitoes 532 Greg 5, but I can feel a miraculous comeback surfacing anytime in the next week or so, and the kids organised a big crisis meeting for the house all on their own.Oh and two more things, had my first barbecue and went on my first fiesta Colombian style.

Pero, before I commence, check out this link, its the graduates from the circus school and the show is just incredible and its going to be in london in March!! Oh my how lucky for everyone in London, it was a sell out run last year so hurry and book now to avoid disapointment.

It was an absolutely brilliant night. We started off by going to a show called Delirio. Oh my god what a show. It´s four hours of Circus, Salsa and live music.It´s partnered with Circo Para Todos, the circus school I am working with out here, so I had many friends in the show and managed to get back stage and watch them all practice. Fabian the man who I was staying with when I first arrived in Cali was one of the main acts and truly brilliant, the man is a great teacher but it was very exciting to see that he is also an incredible technician, he did one areal routine with a very beautiful woman called Melissa that was fairly spectacular. I had no idea what to expect from this show so when I heard it was four hours long needless to say I was a little bit worried. However along with 1´000 other people I was on the edge of my seat for four hours. With Salsa!! I was wowed for four hours by Salsa!!! I was also pleasantly surprised that every break the majority of the audience would get up on stage and start dancing salsa as well. Please reference picture above.  I turned to a woman I was with and said wow isnt that amazing everyone is dancing in the interval and she said "well of course, you see the salsa it gets in your blood and you need to dance as well" I said that would never happen in England "why not?" she said, I started to try and explain in my quite limited spanish the social constraints that might limit mid show boogying but fortunately the show started again and all was forgotten in the melee of legs flying and hips girating. The speed and skill with which these people dance salsa is absolutely unbelievable. . Oh my lord I have never seen so many beautiful women in one place at the same time. I am seriously considering becoming a professional salsarer.

Check out this you tube linke cause it really is an incredibile show

So when that show finished at midnight there was a few hours in the big top with a dj where everybody danced salsa. Obviously. And when that was finished we went off to a bar and danced the salsa, the chacha, meringue and I threw in a bit of techno just for good measure. There was a point where I tried to go home and Fabian took me by the arm and said "why are you going?" well I´m teaching all day tomorrow and I don´t know how long it will take me to get home etc etc etc he stopped me and said "sit down and enjoy yourself, you´re staying at my house and you can go home tomorrow when you need to start the class" I sat down. I thought here I am, in Cali, with a really lovely group of people, I can either worry that I have work tomorrow and try and reserve energy or I can just enjoy the moment. I poured another beer and had an absolutely brilliant time. You can see from the picture we all had a great time. We danced and danced and danced it was lovely. I think because I am out here for such a specific reason I often need to give myself permission to kick back and relax. Which now I write it down is a little bit crazy. I have lots of work to do but I need to keep myself sane as well. One thing is for certain Calenia´s (people from Cali) definitely know how to party, wow.

So on to the reunion. Last saturday we were having the most epic clean up of the theatre. When I arrived it was in a real mess as you can see from the pictures before and so it´s been a long road to cleanliness ever since really. As you can see I spent a long time underneath the stage sweeping. There was a point where I looked at where I was, hunched over in the dark with a really small broom and I couldn´t stop laughing, and then one of the kids who was under the stage with me starting doing frog impressions and that was me gone I was a complete mess. And yes you are right that is a toilet under the stage, don´t ask I have no idea, there was all sorts of nonsense under that stage. It was all going really well, lots of joviality, lots of children helping, we had just about finished and set up the projector for the saturday night film. Every saturday they set up a big screen and show a film for the kids. Before this alot of these kids had never seen a film before, its quite special. Nia one of the women volunteers said "where´s my phone?" and fortunately it had been stolen. I say fortunately because what followed was really really special. John Hairo the director of the theatre went balistic, apparently it was the fifth item that had been stolen alongside three other phones, a camera and a part of a computer. "No more classes no more nothing until Nia has a new phone!" Well the kids came up trumps.

In the picture from the left is Jonathon, Alex and Nia. In Alex´s hand is a collection box for a new phone for Nia. Jonathon and Alex had decided something needed to be done and that they were going to be the ones who did it. They single handedly organised a meeting with John Hairo and as many of the kids as were available. We were all sitting up in the theatre the younger kids and John Hairo in the audience and the older kids on the stage. To my extreme annoyance I understood very little of what was being said, everybody was talking very fast. However the translation the came round to me at the end was this. Child after child gushing about how important this place was for every single child that was in that room. How it has affected their life and how they want to help keep it running. The meeting ended with round after round of applause and what was close to hysteria. The photo´s don´t really do justice to what was a very special athmosphere and one that I hope I will remember for a very long time.

Here you can see some of the younger children alongside John Hairo. It was very sweet to hear the younger children making points, I think alot of them were talking just because they wanted to be included but some of them were very passionate.

Some of the older kids. Pablo is the boy lying on his back. I will come back to him later so keep him in your mind.

Once the general meeting had finished the older ones all stayed behind with John Hairo to agree a plan of action. They all decided that they would team together and organise the repairs that needed doing and raise the money for this new phone. All fairly special from a group of kids who have next to nothing. Jonathon on the far left is a really special young man. I don´t know the story fully with his dad but when I asked if he missed him he said no, its much better now he is gone. He has a younger brother and a mother who seems to work non-stop, the younger brother had epilepsy so is permanently with his mother just incase. Jonathon is 19 and  so generous and hard working it is unbelievable. He applies himself so fully to every little job and cares so much about doing it well. He has a level of respect for everything that I am finding inspirational, he is teaching me about what it is to do something properly. I like him alot and it gets to me that there are no opportunities for such an incredible young man. I want to give him as much confidence and skills as I can because if anybody deserves a better life it is him. It´s so frustrating because I feel this so strongly but just can´t put it into words, I hope you get the gist.

So, Pablo. I´ll start at the very beginning. There is a boy. His name is Pablo. He is 16. He is an extremely physical young man, good looking, impressive physique, a brilliant acrobat, always has cool clothes, generally cool. All of the younger kids look up to him, all of the older girls fancy him and all of the older boys laugh at his jokes whether they like them or not.  The problem is this: he is very violent and lacks any idea of respect. At the beginning he was fine and I don´t know entirely what has happened but we have got to a stage where he was coming into the theatre where I am working, pushing other kids around, stealing things, messing the place up and generally trying to provoke a reaction. When he got the reaction he would then speak really quickly in spanish and say what all of the kids here call a grosseria (naughty words) which is a much bigger deal here than in England. This was going on for a while and I was trying all sorts of different tactics to deal with it, some of them working but some of them complete failures. He was rude again the other day so I said no stilts. This is where the problem began. He proceeded to get stilts and to put them on so I said to him, "you put those stilts on and I take everyone else off, no more unicycle no more stilts for anybody today" he looked at me, looked at the worried faces of his friends and made the decision. They have a phrase in spanish which translates as testing the oil. When you are around somebody new you test the oil, see what kind of a person they are. Pavlo decided to test the oil. What resulted was a scuffle which ended with me bending this kids thumb back and kneeling on him so that I could get the stilts back. I then walked round like robocop taking disgruntled child after disgruntled child off their stilts. No one was happy. I found Pavlo later and took him up to the theatre just me and him. I said "Pavlo I´m not going to go on like this, you do all of this because you want a reaction, cause you want a fight but I´m not going to fight you" (I said this but I was umming and erring as to whether the best option wasn´t to just catch him on his own and fight him once and be done with it) He pleaded his inocence saying he was never rude, I reminded him how he had told me to fuck off the night before swore at me this morning and threatened to shoot me the day before. He was silent. I said to him "either fight me or stop all of this because it´s not what I´m here for, I can´t teach anybody else when you´re like this". He started to say something quickly in spanish, I didnt understand, we spent a while trying to understand eachother, me sure he was trying to wind me up and him getting more and more insistent until eventually I understood that he was saying he was going to stop. I don´t know how long this will last but since then he has been brilliant, calm, respectful even sometimes apologetic in his manor. He has helped clean up, repaired seats and helped me teach stilts. He is still violent with other kids and rude but that is just his way, turns out he has a very abusive father which makes sence for alot of things. He is also 16, very strong and going through alot that he doesn´t really understand. Hopefully from here on in he will be fine but you never know, I´ll keep you posted.

Below are a set of fairly arty stilt photos and a home made barbecue that was absolutely delicious.