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.
