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".